This month, we hear from Church Related Community Worker (CRCW) Ann Honey who says that it doesn’t matter how small the gesture, a little can go a long way to make a difference, especially if it becomes a collective effort. 

Ann, who has been the CRCW at St. Columba's United Reformed Church (URC) in Billingham since the beginning of 2019 says: I’ve been thinking about the work I have been doing during this pandemic. It hasn’t been an easy time, but I have been lucky  enough to have made enough contacts in various local organisations to be able to help at any venue that could open! Like everyone else, though, I have been limited to a much smaller array of activities.

Everything has been done in a smaller way – and thought through very carefully, to make sure we complied with all the different levels of regulations. I learned how to make small Christmas cakes to put in Christmas bags for people to take away with them after the only festive service we were able to have – small bags with little tokens of love. It seems we’re not looking at the “big picture” anymore – we’re thinking about “little things that mean a lot”.

It’s the little things that help us to get close to people – and sometimes, when we’re looking at the big picture, we miss the little things that bring us close to people.

In St. David’s last sermon, he told people to: “do the little things that you have heard and seen me do” and as the Scots say, “many a mickle makes a muckle”.

I remember walking along a path with my mam – it was a shortcut through some scrubland where we lived. We called it the ash path – and indeed that’s what it was. It was a path along a route people used regularly, but it got very muddy – so the people living nearby decided to do something about it. Every morning when people cleared the ashes out of their fireplace (it was a mining area) – they carried the ashes to the path to empty them. Eventually all those little piles of ashes settled into a pathway that didn’t churn up in the rain, making a permanent way through the field. I’m guessing there’s more than one of these across the country – and they are a great example of a community coming together and acting to make a difference.

So please, don’t ever think that what you are doing is too small to make a difference – just keep doing it in love – and make your own pathway with others who are doing small things too.

If you would like to know more about Church Related Community Work and how you can make a difference to your community, why not read more about 'Becoming a CRCW' or contact the CRCW office by email or telephone: 0207 916 2020.

You can read more about the CRCW project in Billingham by going to the St.Columba's URC webpage.

Image created by Margaret To. Submitted for United Nations Global Call Out To Creatives - help stop the spread of COVID-19. Via Unsplash.