A SPIRIT of generosity and giving spread through Bewdley last week as churchgoers undertook random acts of kindness.

Recipients responded with smiles, laughter and even tears of joy, after volunteers from Riverside Elim church handed out gifts of flowers, paid for peoples’ shopping and renovated overgrown gardens as part of the Love Bewdley event from Wednesday to Saturday.

The sense of goodwill proved contagious too with a number of local businesses being inspired to provide extra items for distribution to members of the public.

Reverend Carl Johnston, who helped set up the scheme, said: “It has been a huge success and a brilliant four days.

“The majority of people were really pleased and appreciative, and some were incredibly overwhelmed.

“Naturally the reactions we received were mixed and some people were a bit suspicious, but all-in-all it has gone really well.

“We have had members of the public coming into the church to get involved, handing over food or drink to help our volunteers or more items to use as gifts out in the community, which has been great.”

Bewdley Farm Shop, of Dog Lane, supported the event by providing fruit for distribution while Merchants, of Load Street, fed the volunteers with free cones of chips. Several other individuals and companies also helped out.

Reverend Johnston told The Shuttle before the event that Love Bewdley had been planned as “a practical demonstration of our faith”.

“The Bible talks a lot about generosity, we believe God is a giving God and as Christians we are called to be generous.

“We wanted therefore an opportunity to be extravagantly generous to our local community and the idea of Love Bewdley was born”, he added.

For more details visit facebook.com/lovebewdley