COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Nurture Each Other in Faith
At New Laigh Kirk, we aim to be a hub within the community, that everyone can come to rely on, depend on, and enjoy in every day life. In partnership with this, we also provide different elements of community outreach. With each of our community outreach projects, we aim to bring Jesus to the community and introduce as many as we can to a faithful way of living. Jesus can be found in all aspects of our community and we strive to enhance the work of God in everyone, everywhere.
EACHA
East Ayrshire Churches Homeless Association
Each Person Matters
East Ayrshire Churches Homelessness Action (EACHa) is a charity that was set up to help relieve hardship or distress experienced by people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless within East Ayrshire.
EACHa (East Ayrshire Churches Homelessness Action) is an ecumenical charity, formed in 2005, with around 20 participating congregations.
The EACHa/Community Friends Action Plan sits within the Celebrate Kilmarnock Town Centre Action Plan. Our town, and the surrounding area, is for everyone, those with disposable income, those in positions of authority, and those with no income, the very poor and vulnerable. For all who live, work, shop and simply enjoy our community. Each person matters. Those in positions of authority must confront and understand the humanity of those whose lives their decisions affect. Those living vulnerable and chaotic lives must do the same. Transformation will only come by all talking to each other, working together. After two conferences and the publication of a hard hitting Action Plan, it is now time for action. The recommendations of the Plan are achievable. There is a will to make the necessary changes to begin to transform the lives of the most vulnerable in our community. Together – professional bodies, agencies, churches, volunteers, partners, staff and citizens– we must work harder and honour the commitment to transform lives now and inspire lasting hope for the future.
SCHOOLS
As part of our family outreach work, our Family and Community support worker, Amy, and parish minister, David, currently make regular visits to primary schools within the community. These visits can entail assembly talks, lunch clubs, after school clubs, parent council work and educational support.
As of January 2023, New Laigh Kirk are involved with Loanhead Primary School, Annanhill Primary School and Onthank Primary School, working alongside all children from primary 1 through primary 7.
Bible led lunch clubs are ran within the schools, introducing the different age groups to the stories of the Bible and diving deeper into the meaning of living a life with Jesus. We encourage group participation, discussion, interactive games, crafts and even celebrations to build the faith of children within the schools.
We love visiting the schools for assembly talks, where we can build on the school's themes of the week and tie these into a Bible story that we can make come alive with whole school participation.
PASTORAL CARE GROUP
Belonging to a church means being part of a church family who care about one another’s well-being. Our Pastoral Care Group helps everyone in our church family to feel connected to our church and supports anyone who feels isolated or in need of a little extra support at a tough time in their life. We do this in several ways.
· Every month we send a friendly newsletter to people on our mailing list.
· We keep in touch by phoning people or, if they prefer, by visiting them in their homes or in residential care.
· With our minister we host occasional Silver Sunday afternoon worship in the church, with door to door transport provided if required. These services are shorter than Sunday morning services. They are followed by tea, coffee and home baking, with an opportunity to chat to friends whom they don’t meet often.
· Seasonal events such as a Daffodil Tea and a Christmas afternoon tea are held in our halls, with entertainment and home baking!
· With our church’s Revive team we help to link up our young and older generations.
These activities can keep you in touch with what’s happening in our church. If you want to be on our mailing list, our Pastoral Care Convenor, Barbara Graham, will be pleased to hear from you. Contact Barbara at barbara.graham74@btinternet.com or phone 01563-522108.
Pastoral Care volunteers benefit too from offering these activities. We’ll be glad to hear from anyone who can help by making visits or phone calls, delivering letters, driving our guests to events, baking, singing, playing the piano – and above all simply by being a friend to members of our church family. If you would like to volunteer with the Pastoral Care Group, please contact the above email or telephone number.
REVIVE
The Revive Group is stemmed from our church's Learning Communities Group. The Learning Communities training gave some of the members in our church an opportunity to think clearly about certain types of outreach our church could develop. From this, a small group of volunteers have shown rapid growth in community outreach and have established connections with our pastoral care group, schools and social work and have developed links into the heart of the community.
The Revive Group are responsible for the intergenerational link between the youth in our church and our pastoral care teams. In 2022, Revive created both summer and autumn worship events which brought together children and youth within our church and the community, and members of the pastoral care team to come together and worship Jesus through a variety of musical worship styles, food and friendship. These events also helped to connect members of our 'Pen Pal Project' together; children and elderly who were able to write to one another as pen pals over the winter season.
Revive also run a weekly baby and toddler group, 'Little Seeds' for any and all parents with children ages 0-4. Parents and or carers are welcome to come along to our Church halls on Tuesday mornings from 10am-11am to enjoy a coffee, tea and small snack and a variety of snacks and refreshments for little ones too. Here, parents can depend on the warm friendship and kind support of the Revive group members as they encourage discipleship and faith in different ways, whilst little ones have the freedom to play and engage in interactive activities and led music time.
For three years in a row, the Revive group also ran a 'Backpack Project'. This involved encouraging members of our church and community to donate money, or backpacks and school supplies that were collected and distributed between the local community social work system and to local primary and secondary schools for families who could benefit from some extra support on the run up to the new school term starting.
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