Last year the children at St Philemon’s Church wanted to go out onto the streets and give treats to people at Halloween. So this year it was organised by the church and became one of the best intergenerational events they’ve ever had.

60 children & adults met at the church for craft making, food, and exploring creative prayer stations. Then those that wished to go out onto the streets left while the rest remained to pray. 4 local cul-de-sacs had previously received a flyer explaining that the church group would be visiting and did they have any prayer requests? A small prayer group had met to pray each day through the week, early in the morning and again at tea time. All the children were so excited about knocking on the doors and had practiced what they were going to say. Nearly everyone opened their door and received chocolate, a short Bible tract and an invitation to a Bereavement Service the following Sunday. Some folk asked for prayer and were prayed for on the doorstep, some had prepared prayer requests, some cried as they could not believe that on a ‘Trick or Treat’ night children were giving them chocolate, some wanted to know more about their church as they were experiencing such love on the doorstep This took a period of around 50 minutes.

On returning to the church all ages were buzzing with what had happened. They played games, had more refreshments and a short time of worship. During the worship time everyone received a large bright star shape to write a prayer and then place on a massive, brightly coloured prayer tree constructed by the Campaigners group.

The Sunday evening bereavement service saw a significant number of people come as a direct result of the personal visits and invitations they had received on Halloween.

Team Vicar Mark Stanford said, "I took a big gulp when Chris, David & Tom told me that they wanted to go visiting on Halloween with the children; in fact having insisted that they get the OK from the police I thought it might not happen, but as we prayed we had an increased confidence that this was the right thing to do; so when they said ‘Yes’ we knew we had to go for it, what’s been really great is to see lives touched by God’s love and faith grow. An important verse for us during our prayer times was from Philippians 2: "Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Shine like stars in the universe."