One of the challenges of heading up a Christian ministry is that I spend a disproportionate of time with Christians. I do not come across many "not-yet Christians" in my work place! It is with this challenge that Lesley and I have been considering as this Easter season approaches.

The weather is getting warmer & we are more frequently engaging with our neighbours on the Close in which we live in the Vale of Glamorgan. However,  as people move from front door to car, it is often difficult even to say "hello" & yet still more difficult to know there names and share genuine concern & affection for their lives. God knows it is not good for us to live alone, yet so often we fail to make anything more than the most superficial of relationships.

We have lived in the village about a year now & we have determined to get to know people better. Our start was very encouraging. Our next door neighbours brought us in a bottle of wine and the lady over the road gave us a freshly baked loaf of bread. Somehow in our busy life we have not built on these positive beginnings. Easter is all about new starts and we are going for it!

We have bought Easter cards which we will post through each letter box. Contained within will be an invite over to our house for hot cross buns and coffee on Good Friday afternoon. We might even stretch to cadburys cream eggs for the kids :-)

We are also planning to add a bible verse into the card. My favoured one is: 1: John 3:16  "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."  Its relevance increases I think when you substitute the words brothers & sisters for neighbours!