10th December
Charity Interrupted
It's hard to believe that it’s been over 4 years now since the beginning of the pandemic. Looking back it’s a bit of a hazy blur but I can’t forget the huge interruption and change in my own charity work. I was leading a network of foodbanks and community hubs at the time and we had to shut most of them and shift from people coming into our centres for food, to arranging hundreds of deliveries every week. It was obviously a very difficult time for many people and we did what we could to make sure that no-one went without food at least, while all the lockdowns continued.
I’ve reflected about this a lot since, but during this time it was the real work of the charity that was most interrupted. Insisting that many of our volunteers stayed at home as well as those that we delivered food to, meant the best part of our work had to stop for a while: Community. This interruption in allowing people to gather showed us more than ever just how precious community is. Especially when the heart of that community is Jesus. This is the central theme of my book Communities of Hope. We can help people with food, or clothes or help with debt or employment, but none of those things would be enough- none of these things bring lasting hope.
If we want hope then we need each other, we need uninterrupted community and we need Jesus – the hope of the world and the true hope of every neighbourhood.
