A merry Christmas dinner in Greerton

Ryan Wood, Dany Grant and Kyle Edmeades enjoying Christmas dinner.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day to hold a community event.

Journey Vineyard Church hosted their annual Community Christmas Dinner at Tauranga Racecourse on Sunday afternoon.

Around 100 people attended the meal, which was held in a room at the top of the St Leger stands, next to where the church meets on Sundays.

Mark and Tina Salisbury who lead the church, and a group of volunteers helped with inviting people to the Christmas dinner and getting the food ready.

Bethlehem Baptist Church provided desserts, and Life Church supplied bread and buns donated by Baker's Delight. New World Gate Pa cooked the ham and chickens, and gave a significant discount.

'We started this about four years ago,” says Tina. 'We saw a need in the community where Christmas is a beautiful time of the year for a lot of people but a really hard time for some.

'So, we wanted to create a community event where a lot of people in the community could celebrate Christmas together, even if they weren't able to provide one for their own families.

'And we wanted to connect those that were just lonely and isolated this Christmas so they could have a huge family Christmas together.

Tina and Mark Salisbury.

'Last night we had 86 people on the list. Then this morning someone rang up to say a family of 14 was coming, which meant we had our 100 we were planning for.

'The Racecourse is where Journey Vineyard does church on a Sunday so we just wanted to ask the community to come and have Christmas dinner with us.”

Sam Stothart and Bethany Salisbury led carol singing, followed by a brief message about Christmas given by Mark.

Journey Vineyard will be holding a Christmas service at 10.30am on December 23, starting with free tea and coffee from 9.45am.

The public is invited to join the church for this service in the St Leger Stand at Tauranga Racecourse.

Sam Stothart and Bethany Salisbury.

Jack Shepherd and Jess Paterson welcoming everyone to the Christmas dinner.

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