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to people with life-disrupting problems |
Newsletter - September 2003
Bringing God's grace and healing love
to people with life-disrupting problems
Derek W. Groves
It was a great shock to many of us to hear that Derek Groves, the founder and Life President of Crisis Centre Ministries, died unexpectedly on Thursday 7 August 2003. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this sad time. Please see below for more details.
You Need Friends
I was talking recently to the mother of an addict. This happens quite frequently: people ring us and ask for information, advice, or just support for an addicted friend or family member.
We often have to tell them that you can't do anything to make an addict give up. Until the addict wants to be free, nothing significant is going to change. You can, sometimes, persuade an addict to go through a detox and rehab programme. You can get all the drugs out of their system but - unless they really want to live without the addiction - as soon as the programme is complete, they will walk out of the door and find the nearest dealer. It is a hard message for a concerned parent to hear.
Unfortunately, getting clean is the easy part. Staying clean is where it really gets difficult. You may hate what the addiction is doing to you and those you care for. You may sincerely want to be clean - but do you want it enough? Is your desire strong enough to overcome all the pressures and temptations - today, tomorrow, this week, this month - calling to you every hour?
It is easy to say 'trust God'. Many ex-addicts have done that, and can testify that He has helped them. He does help, but He doesn't do it for you, and most of the time, if you make bad decisions, you are going to reap the consequences.
In this particular conversation, the question was how to stay clean. The son had been free of drugs for six months - a tremendous achievement. But then he bumped into an old 'friend' and went for a drink. One drink led to further socialising, and now he is regularly going out and meeting old friends who are still part of the drug scene.
The sad truth is: it is almost impossible to stay free of drugs if the friends you go around with are using, if you are a part of that culture.
We all need friends, but what we really need are the right sort of friends. You need friends who will support and encourage you when you resolve to do something good, not friends who keep offering you cigarettes while you are trying to give them up, or who buy you a drink when you are trying to remain sober.
For many, the hardest part of staying clean is saying goodbye to your friends. Unless you are prepared to recognise that your old friends are, in reality, your worst enemies, you will constantly be dragged back into the destructive lifestyle you are attempting to escape.
Try to imagine what it would be like for you to give up all your friends. Most of us would really struggle, even with the benefits of a stable home, family and job. When you are on the streets, the home, family and job have gone, and all you have left are your friends - the people around you. And then we ask the ex-addict to give up their friends too. It's tough.
This is why friendship is at the heart of our ministry. The first thing we do, and the most important, is to make friends. Everything else flows from that.
And this is another reason why we need the support of local churches. Yes, we need the prayers and financial support of local churches (especially at the moment, with all the building work going on!) - but more than that, we really need people in the local churches who are prepared to be friendly to the folk we bring along, who are genuinely trying to stay free from drugs, and who are desperately lonely.
Paul Hazelden, General Manager
INVITATION TO OUR ANNUAL CELEBRATION
(Incorporating AGM)
on Monday, 13 October 2003, 7.30 pm
at The Crypt, Woodlands Christian Centre,
Woodlands Road, Clifton, Bristol
Everyone is welcome
This invitation is to those who have been supporting the work of Crisis Centre Ministries through prayer, finance, volunteering, cooking for us and those who may not yet have been involved. We would be grateful if you would please promote this event in your church and among your friends.
On this occasion, we will be remembering Derek Groves, and talking about the part he played in the lives of our clients, in setting up Crisis Centre Ministries and also in influencing Christian social action nationally. Our celebration will include displays of our work and the opportunity to hear about people whose lives are changing by the power of God and through the work of Crisis Centre Ministries. The business aspects of our Annual General Meeting will introduce you to our Trustees and staff, explain our financial situation and provide copies of our accounts. We will also be giving an up-date on the various aspects of the ministry and talking about our plans for the future. All of this will be accompanied by light refreshments!
We are very privileged to have, as our speaker, the Executive Director of Hope UK, George Rushton. This organisation is a Christian charity providing education and training for parents, churches and voluntary youth organisations, addressing the difficult lifestyle issues facing children and young people today. It focuses on primary prevention, seeking to encourage children and young people to consider drug-free options for their lives. It benefits from a wealth of experience, its history stretching back to 1845 when the organisation was known as the Band of Hope. The specific knowledge and experience of this organisation, and their Executive Director in particular, makes this a 'not to be missed' opportunity for all those concerned about the effects of drugs and alcohol today.
We would be grateful if you would please get in touch with CCM office (contact details on the back of this newsletter) to let us know if you plan to come.
Derek Groves
The news of Derek's unexpected death reached us as we were in the final stages of preparing this newsletter, so a 'proper' tribute to him will have to wait until the next edition.
By the time you read this, Derek's funeral will have come and gone, and we will probably know much more of the details, but our understanding is that Derek died of a heart attack. While the timing is a shock, his death in this way can be seen as an example of God's gracious love for him: Derek suffered from Parkinson's Disease, and he was not looking forward to the progressive deterioration caused by this illness. His prayers have been answered, and he has been spared its worst effects.
Derek had made a rare visit to the CCM office just a few weeks earlier, and we had all been impressed by how well he was looking and how enthusiastically he was talking about his art and the various places his work was being displayed. It was a beautiful piece of timing that various people who had not seen him since he retired were able to catch up with his news, and tell him how they were going on. We feel very grateful to have been given this last, bright memory.
The news of his death reached us early on the Friday morning, and much of the rest of the day was spent talking with people about Derek - telling them of his death, and helping them cope.
I had just prepared the front page article, talking about the importance of other people in our lives. Suddenly all these folk who had known Derek and gained so much from him were suffering because they missed him and he was no longer there for them. Even people who never knew him were grieving, because they knew that the love they had been shown and the help they had received were an expression of the vision and the ministry God gave to Derek all those years ago.
Our lives are shaped by the people we love and spend time with. But some people seem able to have a greater and deeper impact on those around them than most of us achieve. Derek was certainly one of those. And as we continue to live out that vision and develop the ministry, so more and more people will be touched by God through his life and legacy.
Paul Hazelden, General Manager
CCM email prayer list
Every now and then, we remind people that CCM maintains an email prayer list. The main purpose of this list is to distribute a monthly update containing more specific and more up to date prayer requests than we can put into this public quarterly newsletter.
We also send this newsletter by email to the members of this list, which saves us quite a bit in printing and postage. And we occasionally use the list for urgent prayer requests, or for important news that will not wait for the next newsletter.
Those of you already on the list will know that we have recently automated the list, which means that people can 'subscribe' (add themselves to the list) and 'unsubscribe' (remove themselves from the list) just by sending an email message - we don't have to do a thing. This is progress!
If you are already on the list and wish to remain, there is nothing you need to do.
If you wish to add yourself to the list, please send an email to "majordomo@hazelden.org.uk" and put "subscribe ccm" as the message body. Please note that you will subscribe yourself as the email address you are sending the message from - you cannot subscribe someone else. You should receive a confirmation email in a few minutes.
Similarly, if you wish to remove yourself from the list, then send an email to "majordomo@hazelden.org.uk" and put "unsubscribe ccm" as the message body.
In either case, the message subject will be ignored. Your email should be sent in plain text: if your email application sends messages in HTML format by default, please change the setting for this one message.
Alternatively, you can still email us as before, and we will add you to or remove you from the list as you request.
THE WILD GOOSE
Refurbishment
It was over a year ago that the coffee shop was redecorated and renamed. For a long time we have known that the kitchen has been in need of attention. Some emergency work has been carried out in terms of supporting the floor, but the need for overall refurbishment has continued until it has now become a priority.
Thanks to the time Nick has been able to give to this, and the involvement of Anne Senel, the work is now under way. It is a matter of removing all cupboards, sinks, fittings (and also the floor) and replacing it with new. This is quite a major undertaking and means that the coffee shop is not operational while the work is being carried out - about three weeks.
It seemed important to us to find a way to continue to offer a service to our clients during the refurbishment, if at all possible, and we are grateful to Anne and Jim White who have kindly allowed us the use of their premises, a shop a few doors down the road from our property. As this Newsletter is prepared (the first week in August) we are moving provisions, cooker, refrigerator, microwave, plates etc etc from one property to the other, ready to provide a temporary coffee shop there.
As you can imagine, there is much work to do at our property. Setting up and operating from another shop will also be a challenge. Your prayers would be so much appreciated - that clients will realise where we are (they can't all read the notice!) and will understand the reason; that the practical aspects of opening, providing food and also offering support and advice to clients will be manageable; and that the work in our property will be completed in the estimated 3 weeks.
The new look kitchen is something we want to celebrate and we will be having an Open Evening on Wednesday, 10 September, starting at 7.30 pm at The Wild Goose. Please drop in and see the changes.
Coffee Shop Manager
In our last Newsletter we told you about our decision to appoint a full-time Coffee Shop Manager for The Wild Goose. Nick Wood has been in post as part-time Coffee Shop Manager for a period of six months, with part of his role being to consider the staffing needs of the coffee shop and to clarify the job description for a manager. His recommendation to the Trustees confirmed our view, that a full-time manager is needed for the coffee shop, and the post was advertised. Interviews took place at the end of July and we are pleased to announce that James Preston has been offered the position and will be starting with CCM at the beginning of September. Please pray for James as he takes up this post.
The Ministry
There are some exciting developments in the work of the coffee shop and among these is something we mentioned in the previous Newsletter - developing our pastoral support. Some of our clients find themselves in hospital, at a hostel or even in prison and we have been looking for ways to maintain contact with these people. In the last Newsletter, we mentioned this need and asked for people to make contact if they were interested in volunteering with us in this way. A number of people have expressed an interest and this scheme will be starting in the near future. We believe that this is an important addition to the service we offer our clients, and a really positive step to helping them move on in life. If you would like to know more about this aspect of our work, perhaps with a view to being involved yourself, then please get in touch with the office.
LIFESKILLS INITIAL TRAINING FOR EMPLOYMENT (LITE)
Congratulations to Andy Luxford, on gaining his City & Guilds 9281 Certificate to train people in adult literacy!
LITE has been extending its operation beyond the training course running at our property in City Road, St Pauls. For some months, Andy has been providing lifeskills training at Andrew House in Clevedon and, more recently, he has received invitations to take the training programme to other places. These opportunities are encouraging, and we ask that you please pray that we will have wisdom in choosing which opportunities to explore further and in what ways the course can develop.
Andrew House provides supportive accommodation for men coming out of drug/alcohol rehabilitation and the lifeskills training Andy is responsible for is part of the programme operating there. Andy is enjoying his involvement and finding some of the residents motivated to use the opportunity and move forward in their lives.
With LITE at CCM, the challenge continues to be the motivation, or lack of it, on the part of the clients. Regular one-off training opportunities are available and Andy is supported in this by a number of volunteers. Two clients are regularly attending and benefiting considerably, with possibilities beginning to open up for them. The training Andy can offer is a tremendous resource for this client group and we would like to see people taking advantage of the opportunity. Please continue to pray.
News
Our congratulations go to Keith and Diane, who have just announced their engagement. Do pray for them.
Please also pray for one of our ex-LITE course students ('D') who has recently become a Christian and is regularly attending church.
Trustees
People can be involved in Crisis Centre Ministries in various ways and one of these is to be a Trustee. With our AGM approaching, there are vacancies for Trustees and we are particularly looking for people with an interest in and/or experience of fund raising/ public relations, training and employment, and staff mentoring. If you are interested in being involved in this way and would like to know more, please contact Paul Hazelden, General Manager in the first instance.
Gift Aid Relief for Tax Credits
We have received an interesting piece of information - if you make donations under Gift Aid, the gross value can be deducted from income for tax credit purposes. This will increase the value of your tax credits. All you have to do is phone the tax credits helpline and ask them to subtract, from your total income, the total amount you have Gift Aided in the relevant tax year. Our thanks to Stewardship Services and Independent Examiners for passing this information on to us.