Welcome to the Armitage Cafe
The Blue Shirts Are Here!
Imagining sitting at a playground and watching your kids play when all of a sudden a group of blue-shirted people descend upon the playground. They start to pick up garbage, sand and varnish damaged wood and paint over graffiti. Not only do they rejuvenate the playground but they start painting faces, making balloon animals and doing crafts with the kids who are there. Some of the men start a soccer game with the local boys who were bored and causing trouble. By the end of the week the playground is beautiful again, your kids can’t wait to go there in the morning and you sense that something is different about these people who are doing all of this for free.
This is the Kingdom God being revealed in your neighborhood. This is Milujem Moje Mesto (I Love My City), our annual summer outreach. The vision of MMM is to reveal the love of Jesus to the city of Nitra through practical love and service. Last year we helped renovate a community center and ran a kid's camp. This year we expanded our efforts through renovating a playground; running different kid's programs at the playground; playing soccer with kids; running 4 different camps at the community center (kid's, English, teenage girl's and sports); painting at the community center and doing a free BBQ and concert for the neighborhood.
It was incredible to see a whole community invaded by blue-shirted members of the MMM team. This year we numbered around 50 from our church in Nitra, around Slovakia and two teams from Canada. We also recruited some local teenagers who wanted to help paint the playground with us. We even instigated a “no graffiti” rule with them, which they promised to enforce. Parents from the community were incredibly appreciative of what we were doing for their playground and for their kids. By the end of the week we had people wanting to take pictures with us but more importantly they wanted to know where we were from and why we were doing what we were doing.
There are many more stories to tell from this time which we will be sharing with you over the next few weeks. Thank you to all who prayed for this mission. We could only do what we did through the power of Christ working in us. We look forward to seeing MMM be a regular part of our church and lives here in Nitra.
