In the summer of 2021, we are looking forward to welcoming some families for a holiday in our community. In partnership with Welcome Churches, we are hosting people who are refugees and asylum seekers. It will be a wonderful way to bless others and extend a welcome that reflects God’s heart of welcome to every single person.

THE PLAN

This is something of a pilot, for us and for Welcome Churches as an organisation, so we are starting small. Our hope is that in future years more churches might be able to host more families, providing rest and a haven for people who have been through and continue to go through so much.

The plan this year is that over the long Bank Holiday weekend in August, 26–30 August, a few families will come and be hosted by families from our church. You can see the full programme here.

This is something we hope many people will get involved in, so have a look below to see all the different opportunities to serve, and get in touch to say how you’d like to.

Jenny Oliphant, part of the church family here, is heading this up and pulling all the plans together, and we are really grateful to her for that.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

At the moment, while plans are still coming together, we would love to hear from you if you would be interested in getting involved with displaying a wonderful welcome. That could look like all sorts of things:

• • Cooking a meal and invite a couple of our guests to eat with you and get to know them a little. There are a number of meal that we will need your help with.
  • Taking the guests out for a walk, showing them some of the area we live in or join the walks already organised.
  • Come and join our 8 guests for our Day Out to Oxford, or an afternoon in Windsor and a short walk in Langley Park. Please join in.
  • Coming along to a slightly larger social event like a BBQ or a picnic.
  • Preparing or contributing to a welcome hamper.
  • Could you use collect or drop off one of our guest to Slough station?
  • We will need Mini Bus Drivers.  To collect and return our guests from Derby, and for our activities over the weekend.
  • If you would like to give a gift towards the Holiday please send it to Gold Hill Baptist Church marked for the Holiday or get in touch with Liz Thorp. ( Costs: Train tickets, Mini Bus hire, refreshments on days out, meals together, entrance costs for Ten Pin Bowling etc)

If you’d like to express interest in getting involved somehow, please do drop us a note using the contact form below, and Jenny will be in touch to further those plans with you.