Bringing God's grace and healing love
to people with life-disrupting problems

Prayer Letter
March 2004

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

Bridgehead Church

This is going really well and is also quite a challenge. At a recent meeting, a client who is fairly well known to us came in, obviously the worse for either drugs or drink. What he wanted to do was to rap - which didn't easily mix with some of the worship songs we were singing! But he tried! In the middle of his 'stupor' he joined in the bible study and talked about some of his experiences as a child, of being bullied at school, and of wanting a new start. What he will remember, we do not know, but there was the opportunity for him to be in the presence of God and hear about the difference God makes in people's lives.

It is encouraging to see some of those who come to Bridgehead really hungry to know more about God, and also keen to encourage others and pray for them.

Please continue to pray for this aspect of our work, that we will see people's lives touched by God, that we will have wisdom (and imagination) to respond well to the opportunities we have to engage with these people and introduce them to Jesus. Pray, too, for those involved in teaching at Bridgehead.

The Wild Goose

A group of people from Vineyard Church are planning to run a session at The Wild Goose on a Monday evening. Please pray for them as they train and prepare for this. This is a brilliant opportunity for us to extend the service we provide to our clients and something to celebrate. We would love other churches to be involved in a similar way and would appreciate your prayers regarding this.

From Andy Luxford

Good News from the LITE project

You may remember in last month's prayer letter, Trudie mentioned Jason, one of our ex-students. He now has a permanent job with Marks and Spencer. This started with a two-week work placement through Business in the Community's Ready to Work scheme: Jason's position was reviewed from time to time and he now has permanent work! He is continuing to do well. Please pray for him that he will press on and build on the confidence gained.

We have two other students both doing placements at the Inland Revenue with the same scheme and another doing two days a week at the Scrap Store for 12 weeks. Please pray for them that their confidence will grow and that this will be the first step to something more permanent.

Another ex-student, who you may remember gained his forklift reach licence and paid employment, is facing a difficult time. His ex-girl friend gave birth to a child, who was taken into care because she is a heroin addict. He is trying to gain custody of the child, so he has had to have DNA and blood tests and appear in court to prove he is the father. He has also been diagnosed Hep C and needs to see a liver specialist. A stressful time or what! He started drinking heavily again, gave up work and seemed to be losing the ground he had gained. However he has said he wants to start coming for training again. Please pray that God will heal the hurts, work things for the best, and give him hope again. Also that he will be able to stay off the drink and stay re-motivated for gaining the ground he has lost.

Five of our students who had completed training here last year attended a Celebration of Learning event at the new Family Learning Centre in Grosvenor Road. They received Community Education Certificates from Kwame, the actor who plays a paramedic on TV's Casualty. They were all very chuffed having their achievements publicly recognised. Please pray they will be encouraged to keep going.

In addition to that we have two new students, one of whom seems very committed. If you have any breath left, please pray for them, also.

I would also like a couple of volunteers to help me on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. Any offers? Give me a ring if you're interested.

Many thanks.

Admin

There are so many different aspects to administration, and things we would like to introduce but need more help to make this possible. Please pray about this aspect of the ministry.

We have a great deal of information on resources for our clients, and this needs to be organised in a way which is accessible to our volunteers (computer database).

We are really grateful to Steve, Rosemary and Tony who have been volunteering in admin for some time. Their involvement makes such a difference.

Finance

God is so good to us, and our supporters very generous - to the extent that our financial situation enables us to continue to operate. However, we do still need our regular income to increase to meet our present commitments. We have recently made two applications for funding for specific aspects of our work - please pray that these will be fruitful - and we are also exploring again funding opportunities for LITE. This seems to be an ongoing issue for CCM and at present one which adds to the demands on our team and Trustees. Ideally, we would like there to be someone who can take responsibility for this aspect, so that we are able to take a more structured approach to our funding. We would value your prayers regarding this: we recognise that the ministry is developing and this incurs added costs - we see this development increasing to enable us to engage with more of our clients and the very complicated nature of their lives.

Thank you so much for supporting us in prayer. The next CCM prayer meeting is on Monday, 19 April, 7.30 pm. It would be good to see you if you are able to be here.

Trudie Lane
Administrator