The group from Christian youth project, Identity, painted a church hall, helped with gardening for residents who are no longer able to do the work themselves and worked with 1st Belton Scout Group to clear their acre of land, carrying out the work from Monday 15 to Wednesday 17 April.
Matt Ashpole, Identity’s youth work leader explained:
“At the heart of Jesus’ teaching is the command to love our neighbours as ourselves. In response to this we developed a programme called “Love Your Neighbour” (LYN) and these jobs were undertaken as part of that programme. Our hope is that we will both inspire and give the opportunity to our young people to serve the community in which they live.”
Identity Youth Project was founded in 2012 and is a partnership between local churches seeking to serve the young people of Gorleston and surrounding villages. Matt continued, “we hope LYN will run during the holidays at the end of each school term and we would be keen to hear from other community members and groups who would like our help!”
Jan Gwyn, a resident on the Magdalen Estate in Gorleston, whose vegetable patch the young people worked on said: “because of a recent operation, I can no longer look after the garden myself and it was great to have the help of the young people from Identity. It’s made a real difference! The young people were a delight to have in my garden.”
Tony Wells whose daughter, Abi, was part of the Identity team, said:“Abi absolutely loved these days…. We are thankful that she had the opportunity to be part of it.”