As Faith Acts Fellows of The Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Steve Hirst and I were thrilled to be placed at The Springfield Centre in Moseley, Birmingham. A centre with an extremely inspiring story to date, the centre describes that it is “impossible to write about the development of The Springfield Project without a sense of excitement and amazement at God’s leading”.
From a small Play and Stay group formed in the late 80’s, held in the church hall of St. Christopher’s Church, the centre has grown into what we can only describe as a wonderful organisation at the heart of a dynamic, vibrant and multi – cultural community, doing great work with strong foundations rooted within the idea of “God’s Love in Our Community.
In 1988 a member of St. Christopher’s Church congregation started Seedlings (Play and Stay Group) because she felt that God was giving her the parable of the mustard seed, saying to her that God can use even humble things (such as a small play and stay group), to do great things.
At first, Seedlings ran one afternoon per week in the church hall. Other volunteers from the church helped run it, but the group did not grow. The volunteers considered shutting Seedlings down, but during the summer holidays they prayed earnestly, and felt they should give it one more go. When they opened the doors in September, they were overwhelmed by the increased number of families that came. They knew that God had great plans for this group.
