Hugh brings a spook-free Halloween to locals

25 Oct 2006

Hugh_Boorman Halloween is a time when children go door-to-door in search of lit porch lights, friendly faces and a bagful of sweets but this Halloween, Church Army evangelist Hugh Boorman and members of the Ladygrove Church, Didcot will be giving local residents a different kind of trick-or-treat.

On Oct 31, members of the Ladygrove Church will open their doors to trick-or-treaters and offer them an opportunity to discover something of the love of God as well as raise funds for the Della Rosa Baptist Church in Manila which works with disadvantaged people.

Hugh explains, "Last year when I arrived at the Ladygrove Church, I was asked whether I was doing a 'light party' for Halloween. My concern was that such parties tended to really only meet the needs of church children. In addition church members used tracts which tended to condemn trick or treating and often left children and parents seeing the church as a kill-joy. Other church members would not answer the door on All Hallows Eve because they didn't know how to respond to them.

"So like last year we have created our own tract which thanks trick-or-treaters for calling but then explains that in other parts of the world life seems to have played some rather cruel tricks on some people. Like the people living on the edge of the rubbish dumps in Manila. The tract explains that we want to give them a treat and for each trick-or-treater calling on our doors we will give an amount of money to a charity helping people less fortunate than us. We will also give a little 'Jesus Loves Me' sticker so that the trick-or-treaters don't go away totally empty handed."

To encourage trick-or-treaters to call, Ladygrove Church members will put lit pumpkins in their windows. This, they hope, will show that they're just like them. Hugh says, "Often people buy pumpkins and cut out ghastly faces in them and then put a candle in them to light up the face. They then put them in the window to show that they are celebrating Halloween. So to attract trick-or-treaters I thought that we could put lighted pumpkins in our windows but have a cross cut in them instead of the ghastly face. It hopefully will say that we are taking part but differently.

"I hope that by rubbing shoulders with people we are showing that we are normal. We're like them. But we're different in one major aspect - we have found the true source of love. It might, in time, encourage them to think that perhaps they can find this source in the same place too. Sadly over the centuries we have made much of the church totally inaccessible to those outside so many people see us as boring and God as irrelevant to their lives. Yet he's not. And they need to know that. If we are really going to help people discover the truth of God's love for themselves then we are going to have to make major changes to ourselves. 'Mission-Shaped Church' is just the tip of the iceberg."

Funds raised will go to the Della Rosa Baptist Church in Manila which is working to create community and friendship for vulnerable people living on a perimeter of a huge dump.

Hugh ensures a treat for All Hallows Eve - 4 November 2005

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