At the Sanctuary Valentine’s day is different for us all. Some of us are married, some of us single; some of us are broken-hearted by our current relationship status and some of us are really happy about it… But all of us are celebrating the same love today and every day – a love that’s changed our lives more than any other – God’s love made known to us all through Jesus.
This is the love we want to share with our town – and everyone who comes through it too – as they drive or walk past our shop front on the A65.
That’s why we’ve been busy preparing for tomorrow for weeks now… praying, listening for ideas, prepping art, making chocolates, designing badges, recruiting volunteers, creating gift bags…
So here are some photos of what we’ve been up to and what we’re planning tomorrow… as you look through them, we hope you too will receive God’s message to us all – and our message to you – you are #LOVED!
1. Thanks to a youth group and around 20 volunteers from six churches, we’ve got more than 400 gift bags of chocolate hearts with a badge and tag about God’s love to give out to shopkeepers and the public tomorrow – and hundreds more badges to hand out too…
(Thanks Emily for modelling tomorrow’s plan so beautifully for us!)
2. We’ve started this one already because our schools break up for half term today… we’re busy sending thank you messages on Twitter and Facebook to people who serve our community – affirming what we appreciate about them and saying ‘You are #LOVED!’
Could you do this where you live too?
3. We’ve put up one of our window displays too, with a specially created piece of locally inspired art, so we can tell everyone passing by – You are #LOVED!
And so that’s why we’re excited here, behind the scenes… just hours now before the big day starts and our team from five different churches go out to spread the message of love still further.