Today I closed a project I began three years ago.

A community project aimed at empowering locals rather than offering yet more hand outs, based in the neighbourhood God placed me when I left parish ministry, an area which is in the top 20% of deprivation in the UK.

Instead of offering free clothes we set up a Thrift Shop, where people could buy and sell pre-loved clothing retaining 80% of the ticket price. The other 20% would go towards providing a free ‘no questions asked’ breakfast. We had a toy area, and a knitting table, some colouring in for all ages, the support of our local community hall and councillors, and me.

During the course of the past three years we have collaborated with the town parish (who paid me for my time), national grocers who provided us with funding and surplus food, the local ‘No Food Left Behind’ project, CAP (Christians Against Poverty) who came and ran some courses, and of course volunteers!

In our growing season, the volunteers just came forward: from the local church, local community, mums from the estate, grannies from the estate, teenagers working towards their DofE award… And we saw these volunteers grow in confidence and empowerment as we valued them, trusted them, trained them in food hygiene. We even saw them gain volunteering awards, and of course a Level 5 Food and Hygiene certificate for our little café.

Guests told us that this was the first safe space they had entered since Lockdown, the first time they had come out and socialised. They told us that Wednesday was the day they looked forward to all week. They told us that it felt like family.

And then the season changed.

The first sign of change was that we began to lose volunteers.

Some felt that at the age of 80+ perhaps it was time to retire!

Someone else became engaged and moved away. Someone found themselves a job. Someone felt encouraged and enabled to form a new caring community space for mums.

Today as we passed on our equipment and clothing to another local community organisation, as we prepared our final breakfast, held a closing down sale, and thanked our volunteers with gifts and flowers, I was asked if I felt sad. My honest answer, ‘no’.

This project has done what it needed to do, and now it’s time for it to close.

In all my reflections on our Thrift Shop and Community Café, a place to Stop! Shop! Eat! the passage from Ecclesiastes comes to mind:

Everything Has Its Time

For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal;
a time to break down and a time to build up;
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek and a time to lose;
a time to keep and a time to throw away;
a time to tear and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

Everything has its time and its place, nothing lasts forever (even if it seems to). We have celebrated birthdays and births and supported each other through grief, and the woes of parenting. Unexpected friendships have been made. It is time to be thankful for the past, and move on to the future.