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Newsletter
March 2003

Contents

• People and Money
• The Wild Goose
• Partnership
• LITE Course News
• Training for others
• Meet the trustees
• There is a time...
• Congratulations
• Thank you so much
• Dates for you diary
• Newsletter mailing

 

People and Money

People and money are the two great topics we continually come back to, in every conversation and meeting. While prayer underlies everything we do, people and money are the two poles around which everything else revolves.

The whole ministry is, of course, about people. We are here to provide practical help: food to the hungry, friendship for the lonely, and whatever else is in our power to do. We are here to provide support and encouragement so the deeper needs can start to be met: people discover hope and begin to see their lives transformed by God, whether they recognise His hand in the process or not.

Just recently, we have heard some lovely testimonies from people in whom we are seeing answers to prayer: "I felt so welcomed and accepted, I just couldn't believe it!" "I've never prayed with other people before." "I had given up on God, but then you shared your experience with me…"

Please pray that these people will continue to respond to God and to the opportunities before them. And pray for the volunteers and staff who give so much of themselves to make this possible.

The other key 'resource' is money. CCM always has been a 'faith' ministry - we have no way of generating an income, and we receive no funding from government or other official bodies. We rely on God to supply what we need, and mostly He does this through the generosity of our supporters. As I write, our financial position is comparatively healthy. But it is rare for us at the start of a month to have enough to pay the bills we know will be due during that month. We believe it is right and necessary to develop the ministry, and for this we will have to raise more money.

I do not want to turn the newsletter into a constant 'please give us more money!' - apart from anything else, I don't like reading newsletters like that, and we are sure that most of our supporters are already giving to us what they can afford. But the newsletter does reach people who are not supporting us yet, so we aim to be a bit more explicit about the financial situation and needs than we have been in the past.

Since most of the people who receive this newsletter regularly will be (a) convinced of the value of the work we do, and (b) supporting us already, as much as they are able to do, the key thing we need to do is to reach new supporters. And this is where you come in.

Firstly, please pray that this fundraising goes well, and that we find people who are willing to support the work financially on a regular basis. And, secondly, please consider whether you know anyone (or a church or business or some other group) who might be interested in helping change the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society?

If you don't feel you can talk about the needs, and why this approach makes more sense than any other, we have various items of publicity we could send you, or send directly to your contact. And, if you don't feel you can talk because there are things you don't understand, please let us know! We believe that the best prayer is not only regular and passionate, but also well informed. We need to know where we can improve our communication.

Paul Hazelden,
General Manager

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The Wild Goose

We do want to take the opportunity to thank the many people who volunteer regularly in The Wild Goose. Through these people we have a rich variety of life experiences, responses, relationships with God which we can offer to our clients. There are those volunteers who take on the additional responsibility of becoming Duty Managers, which involves heading up a session, supporting the staff at that session, making decisions as appropriate, developing outreach, supervising the support which is offered. Thank you to Dave, Alan, Rami, Dean, Dave, Pam, Fiona for your invaluable contribution to the ministry.

The shop is so often full and people are enjoying the food we are offering. Jayne is a central feature of The Wild Goose - she is our catering co-ordinator. She is very well known by reputation on the streets of Bristol and is a good advertisement for the work we are doing at CCM. We thank God for her and for the way He is continuing to change her life. Her main responsibility, as her job title suggests, relates to the provision of food in the shop and she also is skilled at getting alongside our clients - perhaps more than many of our workers because she has lived on the streets herself.

Jayne says:

"I would like to thank everybody for what they are doing in The Wild Goose, including the people who bring donations of food - cakes, chilli, crumbles, fresh vegetables. The clients really appreciate this, and I find it very helpful in making sure we can give good food to the people who come into the shop. We do need more volunteers particularly on Tuesdays, in the daytime and evenings. We can always use donations of food items - though at present we have enough tins of beans and packets of pasta. What our clients really appreciate is home-make cakes, biscuits, puddings etc."

As a result of research undertaken by staff in The Wild Goose, it has been decided to adjust meal times to complement other services in the city centre, and these changes will start on 1 March - this will not affect opening times. From 11 am to 12 noon tea/coffee and toast will be served, from 12 noon to 2 pm there will be a hot meal, and from 2 to 3.45 pm we will be serve tea/coffee and cakes/biscuits (breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea!). Evening sessions will continue as at the present time with hot meals being served between 8 and 9.45 pm.

Meal Vouchers will relate to the hot meals served at lunchtime and in the evenings. This is a recent decision and it has not yet been possible to amend our meal vouchers - so for those of you who use this scheme it may be worthwhile mentioning this when you hand out vouchers. We will, of course, be letting our clients know about these changes. If you have any comments or suggestions about this, we would love to hear from you.

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Partnership

Continuing this theme from our December Newsletter, we are very privileged to be working closely with groups and churches in the wider Bristol area. We are keen to develop partnerships and the ministry is greatly enhanced by the contact we have with various groups. Our relationship with Backwell Baptist Church is one which has been developing over the past year and one of the deacons writes:

"We at Backwell Baptist Church have been pleased to be associated with the very valuable ministry of The Crisis Centre since, a few years ago, we gave the produce from our Harvest service. Arising from this, collections of food at other times were organised. Some assistance has also been given through the meal voucher scheme and other monetary donations. A pleasing feature is that people of all ages have been involved and it has given all of us, including the children, more of an insight into the needs of the homeless and hungry in the city so near, and yet in so many ways so far from where we live.

Last year our involvement gained impetus when our pastor, Jeff Cockburn, was able to spend time at The Crisis Centre, talking to people in the coffee shop and sometimes helping with Bridgehead Church. This has proved both a blessing to him and a means by which our prayers can be more focussed by inclusion of individuals and situations he has been able to report to us. His involvement continues and, indeed, seems to grow - despite the demands on his time made by us at Backwell!

We are so grateful to The Crisis Centre for enabling us to play a small part in their wonderful ministry, and to feel that we are in partnership not only with them but with God's people from other churches in and around the city. As a small village church, our resources are limited but whatever else we are able to do, we shall continue to pray for The Crisis Centre and all involved."

It is a tremendous privilege to The Crisis Centre to have the benefit of Jeff's involvement. The experience and knowledge he brings with him is very valuable to the team and our clients. It is quite a unique experience for a client to sit down and have coffee with a church leader!

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TRAINING for clients

LITE Course News

Once again we are not over run with students - we have two young women at present, who have been on the course for 10 weeks with another 6 to go. They are both making steps forward and growing in confidence.

It is disappointing that we can=t get more people to take advantage of the LITE course. Do we need to think of reformatting it? One possibility is that we offer one-off sessions, rather than a set course - we are wondering whether this may be more accessible for clients? Please let us know if you have any wisdom on the matter.

However.... good things are happening!

You may remember Jason's name from the Graduation Day report in the last newsletter. He called in today covered from head to toe in mud. He has been working with Bristol Conservation Trust Volunteers to get some practical experience before he goes to Cannington College in September, to do a foundation course in Environmental Studies. He is also lined up to do 2 weeks work experience with Business in the Community's Ready to Work scheme.

I bumped into Kodjo recently. He was on the LITE course some time ago and then moved on to The Open Learning Centre, to do an ESOL course. He was just rushing off to his new job, resplendent in his Sainsbury's uniform.

Please pray for the students. It is a big step when they leave the course and move on to something else.

Andy Luxford, Project Manager

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TRAINING for others

Working in partnership with others is something which is important to us as an organisation. This monthly training programme is another way in which we can experience and express partnership. We work jointly with Bristol Christian Action Network in offering the training, and it is a programme which is available to our own volunteers and also to anyone who would like to know more about working with people with life-disrupting problems and the issues which affect them. Feedback from participants confirms the value of the training, and it is something we are able to strongly recommend.

Sessions are on Saturdays, at Trinity Tabernacle in Easton, Bristol, and the programme for the next few months is:

8 March 9.45 am to 4.30 pm	Share your faith
12 April 9.45 am to 12.30 pm	Mental Health
10 May 9.45 am to 12.30 am	Faith and Social Action Introduction
10 May 1.15 pm to 4.00 pm

You are invited to these training sessions - please pray about whether to come. Even if you have no intention of working as a volunteer, you will have a chance to meet people who are directly involved, and you will find out about the needs and what we can do to help people change. You will be much better informed, better able to pray for us, and capable of telling others about this work. We charge £2 per session to cover materials. To book, or for further information, please contact the CCM office - details on the back sheet of this Newsletter.

The next session on 8 March is a bit different from most - please don't let the title put you off! You don't have to be an evangelist to be able to share what you believe with other people in a way that is natural and comfortable for you and enjoyable for them. We believe that every Christian is able to do this. You might be surprised by how much your faith is strengthened when you are able to tell other people what you believe in a clear, simple and attractive way, and when you are not worried by the questions they might ask you. You don't think this is possible for you? Come along and find out!

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MEET THE TRUSTEES

Andrew Robinson is one of the newer members of the Trustees. He joined at our AGM last year. We have had the privilege of his involvement as a volunteer for a couple of years, specifically with Bridgehead Church. He writes:

"It's something of a miracle that I'm one of the Trustees of Crisis Centre Ministries. In fact it's something of a miracle that I'm able to do anything useful at all. Growing up in an atmosphere of intensely destructive emotional tension hasn't made life easy; my brother has had a chronic mental illness and I feel throughout most of my adult life I have only just been hanging on by the skin of my teeth. But this has also given me a desire to see the Kingdom of God coming: release to captives and freedom to the oppressed. In the middle of all this, I have had a long-standing calling to be in full-time ministry in the Church of England and I have recently been ordained.

My path towards fulfilling this calling has included psychiatric nursing, which I chose as one way of grappling with the issues I've mentioned but, for a lot of my time as a nurse, I felt completely powerless to achieve anything. I have been working at the Crisis Centre as a volunteer for two years, since leaving a job on the hospital wing at Bristol Prison. My main other interest is in creative arts, especially music and songwriting."

Sue Hazelden has been a Trustee for a few years. The more observant among you will notice that she has the same surname as our General Manager, Paul. This is not just coincidence. They are, in fact, married to each other! She writes:

"I've been more or less involved with the Crisis Centre for about three years. Initially dear Anni Davey persuaded me to join the Trustees 'because I need another sensible woman on board'. (I hasten to add that this is before Ann and Anne-Marie joined us!)

I used to work for a Housing Association just around the corner, and would occasionally pop into the coffee shop at lunchtime. I didn't want to have my ear bent about the iniquities of said Housing Association, or expected to give advice which I wasn't qualified to do, so despite Jayne's repeated questioning I never actually said where I worked. This led her to believe I was an undercover policewoman or someone from the Council's hygiene department. She was very relieved when the truth came out, after Paul started working for the Crisis Centre.

I have been less active on the Trustees since Paul became General Manager, and I have never been a coffee shop volunteer, so my face is not nearly as familiar as Paul's. I'm not a natural 'people person', more a 'getting on with it in the background person'. (I will be deeply wounded if anyone understands this to mean 'bossy'!)

I now work part-time for One25, keeping the office running smoothly while the rest of the staff engage with the women. This suits me very well, especially as in theory I can get home from work about the same time as our youngest son. We have three boys aged 15, 13 and 10, and we all live together with another chap called Steve. In my 'spare' time I'm treasurer for a local out-of-school club. And when I get the chance, I enjoy reading (almost anything), watching Morse and Midsomer Murders, and sleeping - not enough of that lately!"

Graham Donald has been a supporter of The Crisis Centre for some time, and is one of the newer additions to our Trustees. We are honoured that he has been able to become involved in the ministry in this way. He tells us:

"I am married with two grown-up children and come from Taunton originally. I have lived in Bristol since 1993, and work in the Privy Council Office in London. Now a member of Christ Church, Clifton, I have attended a number of Anglican churches since I became a Christian at University in 1970.

My main Christian service in recent years was as secretary of SPACE 1994-99. I first became a supporter of CCM when I heard Derek Groves speak at a Christian business breakfast. It's not clear yet what my rôle will be in CCM's management, so please pray about this."

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THERE IS A TIME to every purpose under heaven

As I sat at my computer to write an article for this Newsletter, I found myself starting off with this theme and then thinking about things which have been happening within The Crisis Centre and issues we are facing at present.

For quite a long time we have been praying, thinking and talking about moving to larger premises. We are fairly convinced that this is what we need to do, and we have seen a property we think would be suitable. But, we do not presently have the personnel resources to go forward with this possibility and we definitely do not have sufficient financial resources. Add to this that we have been approached by another agency wanting to explore the possibility of working together with us from one building, and also the fact that we have very recently been informed of the possibility of other premises locally becoming available, and the situation seems to become more complicated. Or, could it be said that the possibilities are increasing and this can encourage us to explore, in various ways, what it means to move to a larger premises and what form that might take?

Alongside this are the longings to be able to respond more fully to the needs of our clients, provoked by the amazing way in which a number of people are using the resources.

Seeing all these aspects together could engender frustration, yet the consistency of the issues and our heartfelt wish to see specific developments does suggest to me that this is a time worth recognising. It could, perhaps, be called an 'in-between' time - we see what we want or need but we are not there yet and presently do not have the resources to get there. Perhaps it is a significant time to God, a time intended to draw us to him with our questions and explorations, longings and uncertainties. A time to engage with God and also explore practical possibilities and so work together with him towards the fulfilment of what He has put on our hearts.

As our supporters, I would like to invite you to share this 'in-between' time with us. What does this mean in practical terms? Perhaps you are able to join us when we meet to pray on Monday 14 April (7.30 pm at The Crisis Centre), you may wish to pray for the ministry and we can supply you with a monthly prayer update (if you are not already receiving this and would like to, please contact the office), it may be that you can give some of your time to help us explore the possibilities which are arising, it may be that your life experience has equipped you to bring expertise into this situation. If you would like to discuss with us how you can be involved at the present time, then we would love to hear from you. Contact details are on the back of this Newsletter.

Trudie Lane, Administrator

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Congratulations

Paul Griffiths (Jayne's husband) won first prize in a competition hosted by Bristol Cyrenians and Novas to put together a visual presentation on homelessness. Paul was presented with his prize at a ceremony at Bristol Cyrenians Day Centre on 20 February.

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THANK YOU SO MUCH

Your generosity is beyond our expectations. Because of the way you have been supporting The Crisis Centre, our income continues to meet our priority outgoings. We have been privileged to receive some very sizable donations and are also beginning to see results from the fundraising in which we have engaged.

You are continuing to use our meal voucher scheme (please note the article in this Newsletter about The Wild Goose) and, in fact, this is something which is growing: as well as helping towards the cost of feeding our clients, this is a really good way of encouraging people who do not yet know us to come into the Centre and benefit from all the resources we can provide. In addition to the meal vouchers you purchase, we also use meal vouchers for outreach and it may be that you would be able to help towards the cost of these. If so, please make contact with us.

Many of you are volunteering with us in the various aspects of the ministry, praying for us, cooking for us - please accept our thanks for sharing in the ministry in this way.

If you would like to know more about being involved with CCM and supporting us, we would love to hear from you. Contact details are on the back page of this Newsletter.

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Dates for your diary

Please pray for us on the second Monday evening of each month. The trustees meet every other month (March and May) to consider the big, strategic questions facing the ministry. On the alternate months (April and June) the Duty Managers come together to sort out the complex business of sharing the running of our coffee shop.

On the third Monday evening of each month, we have a larger gathering. The volunteers meet every other month (March and May) to share some of the successes and talk about what needs to change, On the alternate months (April and June) we have a prayer meeting to which everyone is invited who would like to pray for us and the other groups we are working alongside. The next prayer meeting is on 14 April, 7.30 pm. Please join us if you can.

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Newsletter Mailing

If you have friends who you think would like to receive this newsletter, we would be happy to send them a copy at your request - with the option for them to receive it regularly. Please get in touch and supply us with the relevant information.

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