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Newsletter
September 2001
Bringing God's grace and healing love
to people with life-disrupting problems
Over the past year, our focus has been more strongly on our
'core' ministries - the Coffee Shop, LITE and Bridgehead.
But this does not mean we are just aiming to continue, offering
people more of the same. Within these core activities, we
are delighted to be seeing various kinds of growth.
As we reported in the last newsletter, we are seeing a
significant numerical growth in the people we have a
responsibility to care for. As part of our response to this
need, we have advertised for a Pastoral Care Coordinator, and
several very strong candidates have applied. The interviews
are being arranged as we go to press. But we have not yet
managed to raise sufficient additional funds to pay whoever is
appointed. Please pray that we hear God's will clearly on
this matter: are we being told to wait, or do we go ahead in faith
that the money will become available?
We are seeing organisational growth in the partnerships
we have with other organisations across Bristol, working to help
the homeless and vulnerable in as many ways as possible.
At least two aspects of this growth should feature in the next
newsletter. Please pray for this area: it is not always
easy to work with other groups when there are significant
differences between us, but we believe that this is an essential
part of God's plan for Bristol.
We are working to see personal growth in the clients,
volunteers and staff. We were very encouraged by the
responses to the 'Share Your Faith' course, which we plan to
repeat early in the new year. And we are just starting a
new series of Bridgehead Lunch meetings to help more people grow -
more details inside. Please pray for this group, that we
will see peoples' lives change and grow through the things we do
together.
Coping with change is never easy, but with your prayers, help
and encouragement, we will continue to see change in the people we
help, the organisations we work with, and - perhaps most
importantly - in ourselves.
Thank you for making this work possible.
Paul Hazelden,
General Manager
[Back...]
INVITATION
to our
CELEBRATION
of
DEREK GROVES' CONTRIBUTION
to the development of Christian social action
Our Founder/Director, Derek Groves, has retired from practical
involvement with Crisis Centre Ministries, whilst continuing to be
available for consultation as Life President. The
Celebration Church Leaders in Bristol, wishing to pay tribute to
his contribution to Christian Social Action in Bristol and
elsewhere, have organised a celebration at Thornbury Baptist
Church on Saturday, 13 October from 7 to 9 pm.
If you wish to contribute to the gift which will be made to
Derek on this occasion, then the fund is still open; donations
should be made payable to SKI (Scriptural Knowledge Institution)
and sent to the CCM office.
Please accept this as your invitation to the celebration.
RSVP (for catering purposes) as soon as possible, to CCM office
at the address on the back of this Newsletter.
[Back...]
No, don't get too excited. This is not an open
invitation to lunch at The Crisis Centre - that may well come
early next year so please watch out the invitation!
This is a development of Bridgehead Church. At the
beginning of October we will be embarking on a new experience.
A small group of staff, volunteers and clients will be
starting a journey together to learn more about God.
This will take the form of a small discipleship group,
initially, aiming to introduce Biblical truth to those of our
clients who have become Christians. Please pray that we
will see thinking patterns and behaviour changing as the word of
God is applied to situations.
[Back...]
Part I - Coffee Shop
We are very privileged to have an amazing group of people
volunteering with us and, with their involvement, we have been
able to maintain our regular opening times and be involved in
outreach. We are now aiming to open one more day per week,
on a Friday, as well as considering re-opening on Saturdays during
the winter. Some of our present volunteers are happy to
swap their involvement to one of these days, and so we are looking
for people to volunteer with us on any of the days we are
open.
Please advertise our need for volunteers in your church, talk
to your friends, encourage people to come and talk to us about
what's involved.
Part II - Lifeskills Initial Training for Employment
(LITE)
We would be so grateful for volunteer help on our Lifeskills
Initial Training for Employment (LITE) Course.
Specifically, there is an urgent need for an Assistant (voluntary)
to Andy Luxford, the Project Manager. LITE is a modular
course, each module being 3-5 weeks long. There are, on
average, approximately eight students on each course with varying
degrees of skills and ability. Some will be illiterate
and/or innumerate; some may have mental health problems; some will
be lacking in confidence; the majority will be unfamiliar with
their skills and potential. Individual attention can make a
tremendous difference to the growth and development of these
people.
You don't need to be skilled to be able to help, but at the
same time skills in teaching and communication can be very useful.
If you are interested in helping on this course generally,
or finding out more about the role of Assistant, please contact
the office.
Part III - Administration and Fund Raising
Can you spare an hour or so per week or fortnight to help with
office tasks - from basics such as sticking labels on envelopes,
to putting together a computer database of various resources, to
keeping records, to recording financial transactions.
It may be you've always longed to use your creative abilities
to explore fund raising opportunities and promotion generally, or
you may be prepared to help in straightforward funding
applications.
If this applies to you, or someone you know, then we'd love to
hear from you.
Contact details are on the back of this Newsletter.
[Back...]
This year was the third Urban Congress. It was held in
Leeds with the theme Success and Separation. Leeds provided
a good venue for this both in terms of resources for the congress
and the clear evidence of success in business, leisure and
development, alongside the deprivation and poverty of their inner
city and neighbouring areas.
This congress happens once every three years and is a meeting
together of Christians involved in/concerned about urban issues to
share experience, understanding and vision. It was a very
valuable opportunity to meet with people from Glasgow, Dublin,
Manchester, Rotterdam, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Bristol etc.
representing various church backgrounds (Presbyterian, Roman
Catholic, Methodist, House Church, Salvation Army, Baptist . . . )
with a rich variety of experience and involvement.
As delegates from this congress, we had the privilege of
meeting with individuals, groups, businesses and churches in the
Leeds area looking at their contribution to the city, encouraging
them and learning from their experiences, as well as exploring
together the significance of Jesus in our cities and ways in which
our faith can be communicated.
To give just a glimpse of my experience on the congress,
together with a group of delegates, I visited Yorkshire Television
where we talked with the Director of Programming - about their
relationship to the community, decision-making regarding what is
televised, accountability to such groups as ITC, the potential
future of the company, also asking how they would see the role of
the church in the community and ways in which this could be
improved.
This was followed by a visit to an organisation called
Touchstone in Bradford, set up by the Methodist Church, initially
in response to a Faith in the City report. The group is
very clearly Christian, operates from a house in a predominantly
Muslim area and, among other things, has a remit to help
facilitate relationships between people of different faiths.
Staff have been able to spend time listening to people in
their community and therefore understand fairly clearly their
issues; genuine, honest relationships have been built and this
group is now in a position to have specific input into rebuilding
structures in the community, an input which carries something of
the heart of God.
In addition to these visits, there were workshops and seminars,
a civic reception, drama and creativity, conversations with people
involved in so many different ways in their own cities. I
found it a very provoking, challenging and encouraging
experience.
Further information on Jesus in the City is available on their
website -
www.jesus-in-the-city.freeserve.co.uk.
Trudie Lane
[Back...]
Annual General Meeting
Monday 22 October, 7.30 pm
City Road Baptist Church
Some AGMs can, perhaps, be lacking in scintillation - BUT THIS
is the AGM of Crisis Centre Ministries, and you will have the
unique opportunity to hear from Dave Wildes, Chief Executive of
Frontier Youth Trust, meet many of our workers, learn in some
detail about the work we are doing and plans for the future, and
to make your own contribution.
In addition to all this, we are also offering light
refreshments. Is this an opportunity you can possibly
resist?
For catering purposes, we would like to know whether you plan
to come, so please contact the CCM office as soon as possible.
[Back...]
Finance, prayers, baking, volunteering, being part of our
Management Committee - with your interest and involvement we are
able to go forward. Without you, this would not be possible
and, on behalf of the staff and clients, thank you so much.
A number of our supporters are making donations to us on a
regular basis by standing order, and this is a tremendous benefit
in terms of the ongoing ministry as well as our plans for the
future. Would you please pray with us that this form of
regular giving increases. We presently receive in the
region of £800 per month in this way - which is a very positive
place to be. However, our monthly outgoings average £3500
and it would be so helpful to us to be able to increase the
regular giving to £1000 per month, and a tremendous blessing if
this were to extend to £1500 per month.
[Back...]
Thanks to all of you who came to the three picnics during the
summer. God blessed us with good weather and we had a great
time of socialising, playing games, walking, watching deer, etc.
Watch out for news of further events.
Andy Luxford
[Back...]
When everything is plain sailing it can be fairly easy to float
on the surface of the positives, with great expectations.
It's when we're faced with difficulties that questions can arise,
and it's when our 'faith' is tested that we find out what we
actually do believe.
It is not always plain sailing at The Crisis Centre and it
seems that working alongside God in a ministry such as this brings
with it an invitation to ask questions and experience the
struggles with the possibility of seeing God in the middle of
complicated and challenging situations - and it is this process
which can help us to stay on course. The questions are
often around how best to respond to the complex life issues of our
clients, as well as practical aspects of the ministry. Some
specific examples of this are:
Our financial situation. In the last Newsletter we
mentioned some of our urgent maintenance requirements and also the
financial implications of increasing our staff team (in addition
to our general expenditure). At the end of August our
finances were very limited and we needed to postpone the payment
of staff salaries: by the second week in September we had received
some generous donations which have covered salaries and urgent
maintenance needs. It is a bit like living on a knife
edge!
LITE Course. You will see an article from Andy
Luxford, the Project Manager for LITE, elsewhere in this
Newsletter updating you on developments. In brief, for the
past few months he has been reviewing the application of the
course as well as applying for funding. The revised course
started on 17 September and the day to day operation is very
encouraging with clients keen to benefit from the training and
other organisations being very supportive and encouraging.
Funding, though, is a major difficulty at present; despite
extensive efforts and energy we have not yet been successful.
So we seem to have encouragement alongside
frustration.
Clients. An ideal situation, when a client comes
to know God, would be for all that person's issues to begin to
fall into place. But it doesn't happen like that.
Coming to know God brings people into honesty and opens up
situations. As a team here trying to support and help these
people, we are faced with very complex situations; for example
psychiatric issues, debt, abuse, depression, addiction, dependency
(just to name a few) all relating to one person! It is such
an encouragement when someone decides to follow God, but that is
often just the beginning of the story.
Trudie Lane,
Administrator
[Back...]
...we've got no funding!
There is a re-vamped LITE course starting on Monday 17
September. I have spent the last 3 months fundraising
(without success as yet) and evaluating the training needs of our
client group.
After talking to ex LITE course students, customers who use the
Missing Peace, other training providers and organisations who may
refer people to us, we have decided to reformat the course and add
some new material. The course will be split into 4 modules,
each one 3-5 weeks long. Students can do as many modules as
they like; completing one will hopefully motivate them to move on
to the next. We have included practical life skill topics
in the first module, with people coming in to take sessions on
health and hygiene, nutrition and cooking, money and budgeting,
dealing with addictions, and art workshops. I am hoping
this will broaden the appeal of the course and attract people who
are not interested in getting a job at the moment.
As far as the fundraising for the LITE course goes... very time
consuming, very frustrating, very faith stretching for our
management and... glug...glug... we need some money!
In addition, I would appreciate some help from volunteers
sitting in on the course as a general support. In
particular helping with some of the students, who struggle with
reading and writing. If this would interest you, please get in
touch.
Thank you, and please keep praying.
Andy Luxford,
Project Manager
[Back...]
Used postage stamps:
- Thank you for the used stamps you've been sending to us.
Please keep sending them. When we have a really large
supply, we convert them into cash!
Thank you so much for:
- your very generous response to our request for mugs.
We now have a very good supply, and also some in reserve!
- the plastic containers - so very useful. Again, we
now have a very good supply of these.
- the fridges which have been donated and which are essential
to the operation of the coffee shop.
- the cakes and meals which are being prepared and delivered.
This is tremendously supportive to the operation of the shop.
- the tinned food, pasta, rice, tea etc which has been
donated.
We would appreciate:
- one or two medium sized saucepans
- a few casserole dishes/baking trays which can be used in the
oven for such things as meat pies, pasta bake, casseroles, fruit
crumbles, etc.
- tinned foods, tea, sugar, coffee, pasta, rice, etc.
Also biscuits and cakes.
[Back...]
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