Debbie Spackman, Pastor at Te Atatū Baptist Church, shares how her church switched from floating to engaging in their local Santa Parade.
We are a small church here at Te Atatū Baptist, but we don't let that stop us. We just have to think differently about how we can use our time and resources well. After a few years of having a float in the local Santa Parade, we decided that there was a much better way to show God's love for our community. We became aware of all the people who sat for a couple of hours in the sun while waiting for the parade to start and then watching it go past. Our Santa Parade is always on the first Saturday of December, so the weather in Tamaki Makaurau is still unpredictable.
We realised that many parents would have needed to put sunscreen on their tamariki. So we bought some big pump tubs of sunscreen, grabbed some angel headbands from our Mainly Music cupboard, and headed to the parade. We walk around offering sunscreen to the parents for their tamariki. This gave us much more opportunities to talk with our community, and they love that we do it for them.
