The Church of the Nazarene - East Lincolnshire has been meeting every Sunday in the County Hotel for the past two years. While as a fellowship we have been able to meet during the week at the home of Peter and Sandra Newsome, we have not had access to a public meeting place where we could engage with the wider community. At the end of March, with the co-operation of Ross Muirhead, the General Manager of the County Hotel, we opened a Charity Shop in the ground floor function room of the hotel. As well as offering a wide range of items such as clothing, shoes, toys, furniture, bedding, curtains, pictures, jewellery, CDs and DVDs, the shop also offers the opportunity to relax over a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit for just 50p!

This facility is providing that much needed access to the local community as well as visitors to the town and it is self financing. In addition, the Church wants to encourage and support other local charities by making regular donations to them from moneys raised by the shop. We are also keen to partner other local registered charities that don't run this sort of shop themselves and who would like to have a presence at this facility.

Ross Muirhead, is co-operating with the project and is delighted with the service it provides for hotel guests who have enthusiastically supported it since the shop opened. Ross has also arranged for the side doors to the hotel to be opened during the times which the shop is open and has arranged for the entrance porch to be redecorated.

We have received a great deal of help from our members both with helping in the shop and providing us with a good stock to sell. With the help of the local press and via this web site, we are appealing for donations of quality items which can be sold in the shop. We can provide a local collection service for such items or they can be brought to the shop when it is open. The shop is presently open two mornings a week, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Just one month after opening, we have made our the first donation to a local charity from the Charity Shop. On Tuesday April 26th, a cheque for �50 was presented to the Skegness Branch of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association by our minister, the Reverend Ian Banks. Accepting the cheque on behalf of the Association were Mrs Val Liffen, Treasurer, with her Guide Dog, Sweep and Mr Peter Newsome, Branch Organiser, who had brought along another local working Guide Dog, Remy. Also at the presentation were Mr Ross Muirhead, General Manager of the County Hotel, and the Reverend Don Mentch, Pastor of Reffley Community Church of the Nazarene, King's Lynn, who brought a car full of items from his church.

Pictured at the presentation, from left to right front row, are Reverend Ian Banks, Mrs Val Liffen with Sweep, Mr Peter Newsome with Remy, Reverend Don Mentch and Mr Ross Muirhead. Second row Mr Graham Price, Mrs Cathy Price and Mrs Mary Meed who are helping in the shop.