The sun is here (well, as much as we get in the UK)! People you’ve not seen all winter are coming out from ‘hibernation’ in front of TVs, log fires and blankets. Fair-weather runners and cyclists have returned to the streets. And people are dining ‘al fresco’ in gardens and on streets all around the town.

This means it is much more likely that you will encounter your neighbours, get to know more folk in your street, or meet folk you don’t know – it’s a time when you may have many more opportunities than normal to shine for Jesus!

So here are some ideas of things you can do to meet people and love them as Christ loves them over the summer:

Walks

• Invite your neighbour or friend to join you in a walk in the evening
• If you have young family, invite friends to come with your children to the park
• Invite friends for a Sunday afternoon walk on Cleeve Hill or Pitville Park or wherever you go to

Trips

• If you have National Trust / English Heritage membership, gather some friends to visit a NT property on a Saturday afternoon … and if not, then pay for their entrance
• Find out about local markets or summer village fetes/fairs; go along and meet people and talk with people there
• If you have young family, arrange a day trip to a beach or Cotswold Water Park with other families you know

Activity

• If you live in a suburb or village, find out when the local fete/fundays are and volunteer to help out, or just go along and support them, using opportunities to make friends
• If you have a local primary school, see if they need volunteers to help in open days or sports days
• Into cycling? Then invite others who like to cycle for an afternoon or day cycling together. Not into cycling? – then do you sail or canoe or climb? Don’t do it solo when you can get alongside others!

Garden

• When your neighbours are in their garden, use the opportunities to chat to them.
• If you have a project in the garden that needs help, ask your neighbours to help, or if they are working in their garden then offer to help them!
• It’s Bar-B-Que season … run a bring-and-share Bar-B-Que for friends or neighbours

Going big

• Is there opportunity to organise a local ‘Fun Day’ for your street or community?
• What about a summer activity or sports day in a local park among a group of neighbours or friends, or even for your community (your Small Group might organise one!)
• Hold a Saturday morning Dad’s and Kids get-together in a local park

These are only ideas to get you started thinking! The key thing is to be open to the opportunities God provides day to day, making the most of every opportunity in the normality of life. So, it might be getting onto a local park litter collecting team, it might be helping a neighbour who is decorating their house, it might be offering to help a friend wash or fix their car, it might be getting together with neighbours to mow the shared lawn areas near your house, it might be inviting friends to watch Wimbledon with you. You are the only ‘missionary’ in your set of friends, neighbours and contacts … it’s a mission field that God has said is “ripe to harvest. So pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into His harvest field“.