Gunton Baptist Church is set in the middle of a housing estate in north Lowestoft, an area that has been identified as having many and varied needs. The previous Minister, Rev Colin Napper was in post here at Gunton for over 30 years and he was instrumental in inspiring the church to reach out and serve the community, this was done in many diverse ways.
When Colin retired in 2010, this big hearted church decided that they wanted to continue the wonderful community work that was being done, and so working as part of the Gunton Community Partnership, an organisation that had been co-founded by Rev Napper, and also with ‘Signpost’ the outreach wing of the Church that has grown to become a charitable organisation in its own right, the Church continued to reach out and serve the community of Gunton.
In August 2011, after being without a minister for just over a year, the church called me, June Love, to be their ‘Minister in training’. This means that I spend my time split half and half between my Ministerial studies at Spurgeon’s College, and the other half here as Minister of Gunton Baptist Church. This small Church, consisting of just 25 members, has a huge heart and is determined to make a big impact in the lives of people in the local community. Some of the activities that take place at Gunton Baptist Church include:
Friday ‘Drop In’
Every Friday morning we have open house for free tea coffee and cake as people collect their fruit and vegetables from the NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney mobile food store, lovingly renamed ‘the Veg Van’. This is a great opportunity for people to come and share fellowship.
Shower and Kitchen Facilities
Alongside the Friday drop in, we offer people the ability to have a free hot shower, and we also have the facilities to wash and dry clothes for people who are in need. This is available all week, but is most often used on a Friday morning with people making use of the facilities then taking up the offer of free refreshments before continuing their day.
Parent and Toddler Group
The parent and toddler group has been successfully running for many years. Parents get together on a Wednesday morning to drink coffee, and have some adult company and conversation while their children happily play in a safe and structured environment. The church have been able to support the parents by offering one-to-one listening support, pointing people in the direction of counselling services, and offering parenting courses at various times.
Lunch Club
The lunch club runs on a monthly basis and is an opportunity to meet people and enjoy a meal together at a highly subsidised cost. The ladies in the kitchen are members of the Church who volunteered to help, they have passed various food hygiene and health and safety courses, and are able to produce wonderful nutritious food on a very tight budget.
Kitchen Facilities
The church has wonderful kitchen facilities with a kitchen extension, purpose built with 4 workstations, including one for wheelchair users. These are regularly used by the community nutrition team to teach people how to cook
healthily. Most recently there have been teams of young teenage mums learning how to cook well for them and their new baby. We have also recently had a group of bereaved husbands, learning how to cook for themselves after the loss of a loved wife. You can imagine the amazing impact this has had on the local community. Currently the kitchen is used by the local community nutrition team around once a month.
Community Larder
The larder was set up as an emergency food supply to those in need in the local community. All items in the food larder are donated by the church and immediate local community. Anyone has the opportunity to come and request items from the larder to support their needs. It is not unusual for a family to donate one month and be in need of help from the larder the next, such is the wonderful generosity, and need, of the local community.
Give and Take
These happen about three times each year. People can bring items that they have finished with and want no money for. Items range from furniture to CD’s. These same people, or others, can take home other items bought to ‘give and take’. There has been a growing demand for these events and they are now set to launch in other venues all around Lowestoft.
DreamworX
The Church works alongside it’s partner organisation, ‘Signpost’ in hosting a youth ‘drop-in’ on a Tuesday evening. This project, aimed at 8-13 year olds is part of a wider ‘Dreamworx’ project that stretches across the whole of North Lowestoft. Some of the young people we work with go on themselves to become volunteers and 19 of these have taken and passed the level 1 course ‘First Steps to Youth Work’. These young people then go on to volunteer in various community activities through this project. This summer the young volunteers were taught to ‘face paint’, this was a skill they would use again and again at various community events throughout the year.
Gunton Community Park
The Church works alongside other people from the local community who are committed to working to see the transformation of a neglected playing field into a community park that will be exciting, healthy and safe place at the heart of the community that can be enjoyed by children of all ages.
Community Services
Christmas 2011 was an exciting time at Gunton Baptist Church, we held our very first Christingle and Carols by Candlelight services. These were wonderful events bringing people from the local community into the church itself to hear the wonderful gospel message. The Church was full, carols were sung at full voice, and plenty of mince pies and chocolate logs were eaten at the end of the celebrations. A very good time was had by all, and many new relationships were begun. We as a Church are very excited about everything that God has done here in Gunton in the past, and we can’t wait to see where he will lead us, and what we will be doing this year.
Every time the church reaches into the community with the love of Jesus, we are building bridges so that people can cross and explore faith. We can only do this because of support from Home Mission. Thank you.
