Totterdown Baptist Church
Your local park may be somewhere you walk the dog or take your child to the swings but to Totterdown Baptist Church it has become a major part of their ministry.
In 2006, during Love Bristol, a forerunner of Hope '08, groups of young Christian volunteers helped restore benches and clean up Perretts Park ( just south of Temple Meads Railway Station). This one-off act highlighted the need for long-term maintenance of the park.
Totterdown Baptist minister, Laurie Burn, canvassed local opinion leading to an action day in April 2007 when thirty volunteers from the church and community tidied up the park.
The Community of Perrett's Park (COPP) was born and has since organised bulb-planting, a picnic in the park, carols in the park and other events.
One of the helpers, Debra Atkins, was brought up an atheist but has subsequently become a Christian and was baptised last October.
Laurie is finding the park is building links between the church and the community."When I go in the park, everyone knows who I am. People are aware that the church is involved in the community which is really good."
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