Sheffield – a city on the move!
Sheffield’s a great city we’re discovering.? ? It’s got everything you’d need, but in a pretty compact area.? Easy to get to the countryside which, incidently is stunning, but big enough to feel you don’t have to? go anywhere near London to get that English city feel.
A couple of things we’ve noted:
A big ethnic population.? The range of peoples and cultures here is unbelievable and offers great opportunities to share the gospel across a wide range of backgrounds.? It also offers the chance to eat at forty different types of restaurants cheaply!? ? The modernist-era flats are populated by refugees and immigrants from all around Africa and? Asia.? ? The student population is huge.? In Tescos at around five in the afternoon you risk being overpowered by? fey young things in funky clothes buying pre-packaged meals and booze.?
Everyone lives fairly closely together.? Not that this means a close interconnected community, but rather it results in new ways of maintaining privacy and keeping people at emotional distance rather than spatial distance.? Not so different then to the 600 square metre block of OZ.
The marks of a Christian population still exists, i.e., the church buildings, but many many of them are empty or have been bought by other interests.? One of the biggest buildings in our area is the new mosque – it’s massive.? The England of the postcards is unrecognisable from the England of? urban Sheffield. Still it’s exciting, interesting and a challenge to us.? ? ?
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