The planning for the City Centre Hope 18 event started back in January 2018 when members of Victoria Hall Methodist and Central United Reformed Church decided to hold an event in Tudor Square. We started the initial plan for an event to engage with the people of the City, sharing their hope for themselves, their country and the wider world.
We aimed to mobilize the churches to think about mission, putting words into action, sharing and developing areas for more joint work and a chance for us to share the reasons for our hope.
We were joined by Elim Pentecostal and Church Army. The date for the event was booked for the 19thMay 2018 and as we negotiated with the City Council. However, the date had to be re- arranged due to the royal wedding and the FA Cup Final.
We went ahead with the planned training sessions on Sharing your Faith which were led by Kinder (Church Army). The overall aim was for our churches to reach out to friends and to the community with the great news of Jesus and the course offered us insight and tools which we could use in sharing the good news of our faith. We look forward to seeing more people on the course, the next time we run another session.
Best laid plans and God knows best – the 19thMay was an unforgettable day if you were a Megan and Harry fan and you wanted to watch the FA Cup Final but, 28thof July 2018 was an equally unforgettable day. After a boiling hot week, that Saturday looked overcast, it was windy and the tents were being blown around and the equipment decided it wasn’t going to work. We prayed and left the rest to God.
Not to be outdone by the wind we had to place the large letters of HOPE in a safe position and armed with marker pens we invited the people of Sheffield to come and share their hope and recording them on the large letters. There was live music, free cakes, free face painting and friendly, happy clown. We captured the event on a time lapse camera so you will have an opportunity to see what a special time this was for everyone there.
Click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW7jQaiCOxQ&feature=youtu.befor the timelapse
Or Click on https://www.flickr.com/photos/27780850@N08/sets/72157699157690084 for our photos.
The people kept on coming and they shared their amazing hopes from, peace in the world, save the NHS, happy children, and success for their football teams. We were pleased to have a number of families sharing with us and we realized that the Teletubbies were appearing at the Lyceum so we give God thanks for the Teletubbies, all the families and everyone who helped us to make this a very special day.