The parish of Panania has taken to the streets to distribute 1500 copies of the Book of Luke, wrapped with an invitation to Christmas services.

The idea began with leftover copies of the Connect 09 resource “Essential Jesus”, which was an easy-to-read translation of the book of Luke.  

The Parish Council decided to wrap the spare books as a gift in Christmas paper, and use them as an advertisement for Christmas services. 

A small group of people at the church hall (pictured above), along with others at home, did the wrapping. The workers took the ‘Essential Jesus’ book, placed a label over the previous details, inserted an advert for Christmas and then wrapped the book in Christmas paper.  

At the start of December,  the books were taken by the parishioners and delivered to the streets around Panania and surrounding suburbs. Within a week all the books were gone and placed in letter boxes.

Some members of the congregation had conversations with people in their street. The church also received an email from a former member to say “You can imagine my absolute joy tonight when my mum rang to say with a degree of excitement that she'd received a copy of Essential Jesus in her letterbox, along with a flyer outlining the Christmas services! Finally, an opportunity to talk about the gospel with my mum … my heart is overflowing with gratitude for whoever took the time to do this community walk and prayerfully place this precious book in their letterbox.” 

Perhaps your church has boxes of copies of “Essential Jesus” and you could do the same at Easter?

Please pray for Panania Anglican Church and churches across the diocese as they begin Christmas outreach.