At Manurewa Baptist Church we are constantly looking to see how and what God might be up to, with a careful eye for the place he has called us to live and be, Manurewa.
It was exciting to see our local shops start up again after the COVID-19 lockdown. As Kingdom people, we wanted to partner with God by supporting these folks in a real and tangible way.
So we started an online competition that encouraged people to take a picture of themselves eating in one of our local cafés or picking up takeaways, and to post it on our Facebook community page.
Each week we picked one and gave them a $20 voucher from one of our local cafés and eateries as a thank you for ‘loving local’.
The competition started in alert level three and ran for a total of eight weeks. The reaction was great, as people saw it as a positive and easy way to support and bless our local community. People were posting photos every week.
And, sure, the winners were stoked, but the absolute wonder shown on the faces of the different shop owners as we explained why we kept coming back for vouchers was priceless!
Whatever your local might mean—in this context we were thinking of small ‘mum and pop’ shops—how might God be inviting you to partner with one or two? He can bless our community through our choice to support them in this difficult season.
Aroha nui.
Contributors: The Manurewa Baptist Church family
