I was running errands in the rain on Saturday when I was stopped by two elderly bouncers outside a church. "Want some free barbeque?" they asked, peering from under their kagoule hoods. "On the way back." I said, taking in that delicious aroma of food cooked over charcoal and thinking this was a new twist on the fires of damnation.
Source: Pixabay.com
On the way back, I popped in. It was free - burger or hot dog, take your pick, no limits on servings but wait your turn. The bbq was outside, an ASDA gazebo keeping the chef, in his Marks and Spencers apron, dry. More refreshments and plenty of seating in the church hall and a bouncy castle for the children.
There was also a book and dvd sale for their sponsored charity Toilet Twinning. "We've already twinned seven of our toilets," said the helpful woman, "and other people are twinning their toilets at home." Toilet twinning is a charity that provides toilets combined with health education programmes in parts of the world where public health and sewage and drainage systems are not well developed.
Sponsoring a toilet costs £60. You get a certificate and the GPS co-ordinates of your twin.
"One child dies every two minutes because of dirty water and poor sanitation. In Africa, half of young girls who drop out of school do so because they need to collect water or the school doesn't have a basic toilet."
Generally, the charity runs an education programme alongside providing the materials for a toilet, which is then built by the community. But in conflict areas, like DCR (six million people have already died in this conflict), the charity will send in toilets. You can also sponsor a block of toilets for a school as well as single toilets for families and communities.
I found a dvd I wanted and resisted the lure of secondhand books 😱
The church is active in the community and does collections for the foodbank, sponsors welcome packs for refugees and asylum seekers through Leicester's City of Sanctuary and runs a drop-in on Tuesday afternoons and Keep Up classes on Wednesday evenings where you can learn how to use computers and other technology.
Sorry about the cropping - was avoiding one of the kagoule wearing bouncers!
I'm not religious, although you are welcome to believe in your own gods, but churches have an important role to play in communities and, increasingly, are often the only physical and people resources left after public services are cut and public and common spaces and buildings are subject to land grabs.