You may well remember, St Peter’s occupied an empty shop unit in the Pack Horse Centre with the aim of making some money for the church and also raising our profile within the town.  

We found that there were two other major spin offs to the week.  Firstly, the exercise involved the whole of St Peter’s family. 

People donated goods, carried boxes to and from, helped to sell in the shop, some came to have a look, and this attracted others in to see what was happening. This all meant that everyone had contributed and were interested to hear how things had gone.  

The second spin-off was the mission part of the work which was a bigger aspect than we had first anticipated.  

Many conversations took place about the church building, the Saturday coffee mornings, “Back to Church Sunday” and the shop itself.  Many passing folk just wanted to stay and chat a while.  It is not known how many people had been touched by our efforts, but it was very clear that we should not underestimate this aspect of the week’s work.

Because of the success of this venture we are planning to do the same again in September: the provisional dates are Monday 14th to Saturday 19th. Jane and I are going to coordinate the week again, but we will need items to sell and others to help work in the shop during the week. 

We want to begin to collect saleable items as soon as possible, anything will do (no electricals or worn clothes); please bring to Church labelled “popup shop”. If you want to join in the fun of selling then put these dates in your diary and you will be able to sign up to help nearer the time.

Thanks to all in anticipation.

Mike Bembridge.