Today, on Ash Wednesday, to mark the start of Lent, Mission Priest Sarah Roberts-Malpass, took the service to the streets and visited a Kingswinford shopping parade to offer ‘Ashes to go’ to passersby.
Despite the cold weather, Sarah and her helpers from Kingswinford Churches Together made lots of good connections with those visiting the shopping parade, Townsend Place. Sarah has been in her post a year now and has become a well-known member of the community. Families, couples and individuals of all ages stopped for a chat, and many were grateful for prayers or a blessing. Ten people also received ashes.
Sarah said:
“At the start of lent, it’s really important that we bring that message of God’s love out into the community. We recognise that some people don’t belong to churches or can’t get along
to churches so we see it as really vital that we meet people where they are to remind them that God’s with them and will point the way through these Lenten days until Easter.”
Lent is a forty-day period of preparation for Easter. It mirrors the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the desert, resisting temptation from Satan. In the Old Testament, ashes were used in times of mourning and distress. Today the wearing of ashes is used to signify repentance and the desire to become better disciples, following Jesus’ example more closely.
