Being a Blessing – News from the Barn & Allotment
We have had a very positive term. Our theme has been Blessings; Being blessed and BEING a blessing. Back in September we continued to enjoy our times at the allotment and reaped a healthy harvest of produce.
We decided we would like to extend the blessing to our neighbours in the Englishcombe village so we organised a Harvest lunch. We made three delicious varieties of soups all with the vegetables that we had grown. We followed this with fruit crumbles made also with fruits from the allotment. Although the weather was a bit wet it didn’t dampen our spirits and it was lovely to share this special time and get to know our neighbours better. Makers shared a video that they had made giving thanks for the blessing of being in Englishcombe with all those that attended.
Whilst many of our Makers were blessed by a trip to Lourdes at the end of September there were a few that remained local. We were blessed by having the opportunity to do some different activities; Both the Tuesday and Thursday groups went to Bath Abbey for the morning to see Gaia’s Treasuring Creation Earth exhibition and also had time to do their own art work whilst there. This was followed by lunch at Manver’s street café and a time for table games and a quiz too.
The Wednesday group were accompanied at the allotment for the day by volunteers from Wessex Water who very generously gave of their time and money to paint the raised beds which are now looking very smart ready for next season!
Back in Spring we all planted pumpkin seeds of which some did better than others. There was a clear winner right from the outset and our congratulations go to Josephine who wins the award for Life Project’s best home grown Pumpkin 2023! We were blessed by other pumpkins which were grown by Nigel, Lucy and Daniel and made into delicious soups, curries and pies over the past few weeks. We have very much enjoyed being able to use the produce grown at the allotment over this past term for meals at the Barn which included a Ploughman’s lunch with pickled onions and beetroot which was pickled at the barn.
We shared a beautiful time of Remembrance in the village led by the Rev. Martin Blewett with poems read by Makers and poppies laid. A most impressive wreath was made by the Tuesday group of Makers and laid at the base of the cross in the village triangle at Crossways.
The Life Project Curry Social evening was a sell out and great success. It was lovely to connect with the larger Life Project community. Thank you to all who came along and to those who helped, especially Dave and Col and team who prepared the amazing curries. We are looking forward to the next LP social when we get together virtually for our annual Quiz on 20th January.
We were so delighted to see so many of you at the Life Project Carol Service where we filled the church! What a beautiful evening of putting Christ at the centre of Christmas through contributions made by members throughout the Life Project community including trustees. The tree was donated by the Day Family and was decorated with hand made decorations made by Makers.
We were excited to be involved in the St John the Baptist Church, Keynsham Charity Christmas Tree Festival this year. Thursday Makers had the joy of going over to decorate the tree and ensure that the Life Project was promoted and celebrated in the local community.
Prayer Points;
- We give thanks that we now have Sarah M-H working on Tuesdays & Thursdays as Kitchen Activity lead.
- Please do pray for our staff’s health and wellbeing throughout the winter. Being such a small team when one member is down it impacts significantly on everyone. We are so thankful that there has only been one day at the beginning of the year that we had to close due to staff having Covid.
- We are thankful for the opportunities that we have to connect with our neighbours in Englishcombe and for the encouragement that they are to us. We recently celebrated Harvest inviting them to a Harvest lunch which was made with produce that we had grown at our allotment. We pray for more opportunities to reach out into our community in the coming year.
- We have had an amazing season at the allotment this year and have dreams of developing the overgrown space that we have. In order to do this we need more hands and funding. Prayers are appreciated as we seek to be continued good stewards of all that we have available to us and see how the Lord extends the work in this area.
- We give thanks for the new Makers and families that have joined us over the past year. Sadly we haven’t had sufficient funding to continue our Parent Carer’s groups in Bath and Radstock this term. Please pray that we will be able to start this most valuable work up again very soon.
