Prayer Letter
September 2002

Praying for Crisis Centre Ministries,
its work, staff and clients
in the context of Bristol's inner city areas.

Staffing

Sam, our Pastoral Care Co-ordinator is off sick. Please pray for her and her full recovery. The remaining staff would also appreciate your prayers - to cope with the extra work and make good decision regarding what needs to be done and what can be left. It is often our volunteers who are having face-to-face contact with clients and, as well as seeing God's intervention in these contacts and the lives of our clients, we want our volunteers to be blessed and encouraged.
We are in need of more volunteers in the shop, particularly for the daytime sessions.
We presently have on placement two students from Trinity Theological College and our aim is that they are able to experience all aspects of the ministry in a way which enables them to gain a greater understanding of the situation 'on the streets' and provokes their thinking regarding the part church plays/can play in this.
A number of people have contacted us enquiring about volunteering in the office and with Bridgehead. We also presently have a good number of people volunteering with LITE. This is very encouraging for those aspects of the work, but can be a bit confusing when there is a pressing need for workers in the coffee shop.

LITE

Andy Luxford says:

We have just come back from a week away at the Heatree Activity Centre in Dartmoor. This was an excellent time of team and confidence building. The instructors were excellent and organised some challenging and enjoyable activities.

Please pray for the students on this course as they are coming towards the end of the 16 weeks, that they will each have something positive to move on to in the next step of rebuilding their lives.

Clients

So many times we say that the pain in the lives of our clients is staggering, and yet this is not something we become familiar with. Each new life story is heart-rending. Abuse, depression, rejection, addiction - and the list goes on. For reasons of confidentiality, I will not list names here but we will be praying for some of our clients at our prayer meeting at the Centre on Monday 16 September, 7.30 pm. Please come and join us then.

Bridgehead

Please continue to pray for this group which meets weekly on Wednesdays. It is an opportunity to provide Christian fellowship, teaching and encouragement to our clients. There is a small group of people coming fairly regularly, and also others who often come for the food at the beginning. Of the latter group, at least one now stays on for the teaching etc.

Property

We are interested in a property which is quite near to our present building. Please pray that it remains available as we work through planning permission.

Training

Our training programme starts this Saturday, and happens on the second Saturday of each month (not including August and December). As well as providing this training to our own volunteers, we are offering it to groups and churches involved in Bristol Christian Action Network and generally those interested in working with our client group.

Finance

August has been a very difficult month financially and our present situation is very limited.

AGM

Our AGM is on Monday 7 October, 7.30 pm at Etloe Evangelical Church. It would be really good to see you there. If you plan to come, please contact the office to let us know so that we can try to cater appropriately.

Thanks

We so much appreciate your support and involvement. Your prayers are very valuable in the work we are doing, both for the staff, the clients and the situations which affect them. We welcome feedback from you regarding this prayer sheet, your comments on the prayer requests, what you feel God may be saying to you - we would love to hear from you.

Trudie Lane
Administrator

Link to hit counter:

Prayer LetterSeptember 2002