HOPE 2008

• Hope on the Flowers

HOPE 2008

This page of the Southampton Christian Network website exists to tie together what is happening in Southampton as part of the nation-wide HOPE 2008 initiative. It contains details of events happening around the city plus information on how to get involved. If you know of events and initiatives going on that are not represented here, please send us details to include on the site. For more information about HOPE, read the article in our Features section or see the national website.

What has already happened...

NEW YEAR'S WATCHNIGHT PRAYER CELEBRATION
The year kicked off with a citywide watchnight prayer celebration event held at Central Baptist Church on New Year's Eve. People of all ages from several different churches across the city worshipped together and prayed the New Year in, holding our city and nation before God, thanking Him for all that had gone before and praying in faith for all He is going to do this year.

LOST FOR WORDS EVANGELISM TRAINING
On 30th January, James Lawrence came and presented an evening called Lost For Words, offering practical, down-to-earth evangelism training for all of us who want to share our faith with our friends in a relaxed, natural and helpful way.

CITYWIDE 24-7 PRAYER WEEK
During February half term a week of 24-7 prayer took place in Orchard Lane Church. People form different churches across the city signed up for hour long slots that ran continuously to fill a week of prayer. Further weeks are planned for later in the year.

EASTER CITYWIDE BALLOON LAUNCH
On Easter Sunday, 27 different churches across Southampton took part in a balloon launch as a united way of sharing hope with the city. At 11.30am on Easter morning, over 2,500 messages and prayers of hope attached to helium balloons were released.

 

 HOPE ON THE FLOWERS
For two weeks in May City Life Church, New Community (Aster House) and St Alban's Church worked together on the Flower Estate to share HOPE with their neighbourhood. Over the two weeks they were out and about offering help with gardening, repairing fences, clearing litter and cleaning graffiti - amongst other things! They also met many new people in the area and held community barbecues at different houses each evening. Click on the icon for more information about the two weeks and how they went.

10 EVENINGS OF PRAYER & GLOBAL DAY OF PRAYER
While the above mission took place on the Flower Estate, we also facilitated 10 evenings of prayer (1st-10th May) leading up to a citywide evening service on the Global Day of Prayer, Sunday 11th May. The evenings of prayer were held at Orchard Lane Church, where different churches were involved in shaping and leading the prayer each evening; there were some wonderful times of united worship and intercession.

The citywide evening service on Sunday 11th May was a wonderful time of celebrating and praying together as many different churches across Southampton. We packed out Central Hall with over 750 people - over 70 had to be seated in an overflow room! A full report of the evening can be found under Features on this website, or click here.

 

INTERNATIONAL DAY
On Sunday 13th July, Victory Gospel Church organised an International Day in Mayflower Park as part of HOPE 08. This was an afternoon of fun for all the family with games, bouncy castles, face painting and stalls. The mainstage was also set up in the park, and performances by dancers, live bands and a gospel choir wowed all those present. It was great to see the church in Southampton celebrating the many different cultures and nationalities that we have here here.  

  

Plans for the rest of the year...

Summer Charity Ball : Saturday 19th July

A summer ball is taking place at Central Hall on Saturday 19th July in support of local charities including Southampton City Mission, Basics Bank and Street Pastors. The Hi-Life Big Band and Community Gospel Choir will be providing swing and modern music for you to dance the night away to, or just sit back and enjoy! Tickets are just £7.50 per person for the evening, and include a glass of summer punch. Non-alcoholic drinks and snacks will be available from Central Coffee during the evening. There is no alcoholic bar, but you are free to bring your own if you wish. Invite your friends and book your tickets now! To get tickets, contact Southampton City Mission (t: 023 8077 3132, w: www.scratchcharity.org.uk) Central Hall (t: 023 8023 7700 e: sabrina@newcommunity.org.uk) or Mobile: 07989 381948.

Eastleigh Week of HOPE : 28th July-1st August

During the last week in July (28th July - 1st August) New Comunity Church in Eastleigh will be holding a Hope 08 mission/outreach week on the Aviary Estate.  There will be various events going on throughout the week, these are detailed below:

Cafe 08
We will be a free cafe running during activities such as Kidz Club and Sunbeams which will serve tea/coffee, cold drinks and cakes. Allowing fellowship to the parents of the children who come along.

Kidz Club
Kidz Club is aimed at 5 to 12 year olds and will be running in the afternoons.  There will be many activities such as: bouncy castles, arts & crafts, dance & singing workshops, cake making, etc.

Red Bus
The Red Bus will be run as it is every other Wednesday evening. It will have activities such as football, rounders, inflatables and the bus itself with computer games etc.  It will be mainly aimed at teenagers and will run between 6:30pm and 8pm

Sunbeams
The Sunbeams mother & toddler group will be running in the morning during the week.  There will be various afts & crafts activities for the children to do.

Youth Alpha
Following the outreach with the Red Bus, we plan to run a youth alpha in the evening for the teenagers on the estate.

HOPE Explored - September Courses

Advent and Christmas - The Gift Of HOPE

New Year's Eve Joint Prayer Celebration and Party

This New Year, we are planning a joint prayer celebration and party for all churches across Southampton, to celebrate and thank God for all he has done, as well as looking forward to 2009 in prayer and expectancy together. Some have suggested we call this event 'The End of HOPE' but it doesn't really have the right ring. We are planning on having time to party as well as pray, and we'll make sure we cater for families and children as well. Forget standing out in the cold for 20 minutes of fireworks or sitting in front of the TV, put this party in your diaries now!