WE are well into the Advent Season now, and Christmas preparations are under way in our church, in our houses and in our community. We have ordered in our candles for our carols by candlelight on the 18th of December. We are glad we went for 6.30pm, as that doesn’t clash with the World Cup Final. May have been an awkward clash between the three Kings and the three Lions!

‘No room at the Inn’ used to be the catchphrase for this time in the Church calendar. Our Nativities, Carol Services and Christmas worship all focus on a poor family, struggling to find somewhere to be warm and safe at Christmas. Many people, worldwide, can relate to that.

In this time of economic struggle, we should not be under the impression that the recession does not apply to Ilkley. Here, Foodbank ‘clients’ continue to grow – a sign that Ilkley has a need to help those who cannot help themselves.

Fortunately, the signs are good. ‘No room at the Inn’ has changed to ‘come, you are welcome!’ We have numerous locations providing warm spaces, and my own church is hosting our ‘Churches Together in Ilkley’ free Christmas Lunch for anyone on their own on Christmas Day, or unable to afford a festive lunch. Churches and secular organisations have really made an effort to help local people in these difficult times.

Maybe, however, we also need to remember places further afield. 32 shoeboxes, filled with gifts, left our church at the end of November, destined for poor children abroad – children who never get a Christmas present. As a church, we also support 4 children overseas (2 in Kenya and 2 in Haiti) and this week we received news that children in Haiti are not attending schools because of street violence and kidnapping.

Things may not be great in Ilkley at the moment, but they are nowhere near as dire as the situation faced elsewhere in our world. As we continue our waiting for Christmas, I finish with an advent thought:

‘As we count our blessings, one by one, we should give thanks to God for the bad things that do not happen to us.’