Gift-giving and baggage dumping

In this part of the house you are invited to think about what exploring this topic means for you personally. How does your own spiritual journey and your faith affect the way you feel about your home and how does the issue of homelessness impact on your faith? What do you think Christians should be doing about it?

So in this space, you can take time to pause and to reflect in two ways: through gift-giving and baggage-dumping. What do you want to offer from your faith and experience and what might you want to get rid of?

First of all, then, what gifts do you think you bring to this place and what you might want to share with other people who come here? What knowledge, skills or insight do you have to offer? What story might you have to tell to encourage, sustain, inspire or uplift the people who pass through here, homed and homeless alike? How does your understanding of mission and sharing your faith feed into what you have found here?

Make a list of any skills, stories, ideas, dreams, projects or experiences that could feed into the spaces in this house. This could be as simple as a resolution to buy the Big Issue and get to know your local seller or helping out with a soup run or a homeless charity event. You could perhaps get together in a group to raise awareness of a homeless issue, whether it be those sleeping rough, the plight of refugees or the need for runaway young people to have friends and advocates.

If you want some ideas you might like to look at the Big Issue website at www.bigissue.org.uk

How would you relate such activities to sharing your faith with others?

Ben