The Ark Salisbury Lutheran Church joins local community fun day

What started as a simple idea of having a small stall at a community fun day in May 2022 has been a catalyst to enthuse church members from The Ark Salisbury Lutheran Church to engage in more community outreach.

A large team of church members volunteered their time to prepare a beautiful stall themed around ‘The Ark’ that was set up in the main street of Salisbury. The stall was a space for families to engage in activities with their children. The aim was to have activities in which children would be engaged for a while, to allow time to meet and talk to the parents. On the day, 250 children’s gift bags were also given away, which included activities and items for the children but also evangelistic flyers. A small grant from the Cross-Cultural Ministry Department enabled the church to produce these resources.

At the front of the stall was a table with a sign that read, ‘Free, please take’. This sign was written in Arabic, Persian and Dari. Many people who attended the community day spoke these languages. As the sign caught their eye, people looked on the table and saw small gospels of John in their language along with several New Testaments. People looked at these curiously, and two people (of Middle East background) came asking for more New Testaments. They said they were excited to see these and have been looking for them in their own language. We are praying that those people will find the hope that Jesus gives as they read.

The local government organiser of the event was really excited to see a stall that engaged children and has invited The Ark back for the Christmas community day in December. Organisers of the stall said it was wonderful to see the church working together to reach out to the diverse and wonderful community in which we live.