Urban Nites Chessington Update

I spent the second part of the evening with the Urban Nites Chessington Team this week. As previously mentioned they are in the process of restarting this work after a break in the winter. As is the way with all the Urban Nites projects when they start, these early stages are about going out, meeting and keeping returning to the groups of young people who congregate in the area. We are going out with cakes, flyers and conversations, telling them about the new work whcih is starting outside the Methodist Church on Wednesday evenings, and how they can come down, get a drink, have a conversation and chat to us each week between 7 and 9pm. This week was a good week, we decided not to set up our table as most of the young people were in the park or outside the station, as such we thought we needed one more week of simply walking around and promoting. So it was we headed out to Churchfields Park, wandered around the streets before going via the cake section of Sainsbury’s to Chessington North Station. During these wanderings we made some great contacts, young people are now remembering us as the group of Christians who come every Wednesday offering cakes and conversation as well as telling them about things that are starting to happen. Our conversations lasted for 20 -25 minutes this week, and we were able to introduce ourselves a bit more personally, as well as find out about some of the life situations of the young people who we had met. Next week we return but this time with the intention of having one group manning a table outside the Methodist Church, whilst the other wanders around pointing the young people in our direction. This is the start of a significant period for we now want to move from seeing the young people welcome us into their space, and see themn come to us so we can welcome them where we meet. This seeminlgy minor, but genuinely significant shift will help us build on the foundations that have been laid down and held up kick start a group that we hope will grow in the weeks, months and years to come.