28/08/2026
Sometimes a small idea becomes something much bigger.
As our churches prepared for Bags of Hope, we wanted every child who came through the doors to leave with more than a backpack and school supplies.
We wanted them to know something important: they are wonderfully made by God.
So we created Every Child is Wonderfully Made by God — a simple, colourful booklet for children aged 4–11, celebrating the fact that we are all different. Different backgrounds, languages and abilities; different ways of communicating, learning and experiencing the world — and every one of us valued and loved by God.
A great deal of thought went into getting those few pages right: making the language accessible, representing different children and families, and ensuring the message was genuinely inclusive while remaining clearly rooted in our Christian faith.
Then came the unexpected part.
The response at Bags of Hope was wonderful. Parents wanted to take it home, volunteers asked for copies, and one mum told us she was going to put it on the fridge.
And the West Midlands Racial Justice Initiative has asked us to produce an unbranded version so that it can be made available more widely across the region.
What began as one small element of a project by the 12 Anglican churches of Redditch may now travel considerably further than we ever imagined.
Perhaps that is mission at its simplest: seeing a need, creating something with care, offering it freely — and allowing God to decide where it goes next.
