Preaching in Worcestershire
By Madhumangal Das and Nandini Radharani Devi Dasi
*Book Marathon 2019 -* on a weekly basis as a group of devotees we were
going out to the Worcester high street and doing books. By the mercy of
Srila Prabhupada, we managed to distribute 1012 books! (we had an ambitious
1008 book target) (some pictures attached)
*Bhakti Vriskha -* across 2020 and 2021, we managed to run 2 bhakti
vrikshas weekly, one in Bromsgrove with about 30 ppl attending weekly
(which then moved online) and one online which was western focused and that
had 15 people attending.
*Chant for change and Morning Japa* - At the start of the pandemic, we
started a daily morning Japa programme online called “Chant for change” -
we have had about 15 ppl log on daily to chant. It was really well taken
too so has continued since.
*Food For All -* during the pandemic we started dropping of weekly grocery
baskets to families in need around the Worcester area, we managed to
distribute over 5000 items of prasadam. We also took 100 extra warm socks
with us and during a recent visit to Vrndavan in December and distributed
them to Brajbasis sleeping on the parikrama marg (photos attached)
*Cooking with Bhakti *- weekly online cooking classes showing some famous
ISKCON recipes and a short talk on how to offer, kitchen cleanliness etc
*Kids Club* - Online kids club to get the kids involved, story telling,
arts and craft and some kirtan at the end.
*Online Special Guests *- we did monthly special classes we senior
devotees, we had the good fortune of having devotees such as HH Dayanada
Maharaj, HH Bhakti Vasudev Maharaj, HH Sundar Chaitanya Goswami Maharaj, HG
Kripamoya prabhu and Gurukripa padma mataji etc give classes
*Janamastami 2020 *- Since we couldn’t host devotees in person so apart
from the online festival, we actually created a pop up car temple and did a
drive through of over 30 houses across Worcestershire. We distributed maha
sweet boxes with over 15 items and also gave devotees a chance to rock Baby
Gopal. this was very successful (photos attached).
*India October - *We were invited to inaugurate India October, a month-long
festival at an eco farm in Worcester. We took the opportunity to lead a
kirtan to 500 people and also distribute mahaprasadam. (photos attached)