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

Prayer Letter
February 2009

Dear friends

Planning Permission

Thank you so much for your prayers for us over the past few weeks. I know many of you have been praying for us about the application we submitted to the council a while back for planning permission to continue to open in the evenings.

The great news is that we have just heard - permission has been granted! And, even better, we now also have permission to open on Sundays until 8 pm. Of course, we would need more volunteers for that - but it is now permitted.

Premises

Another major ongoing prayer request is our need for larger premises, especially for the Coffee Shop. There have been several developments recently, and we really need to be clear about the direction is which God is leading us, as there are several possibilities.

Please pray for the report which is being prepared for the Trustees to consider, and for the Trustees to have wisdom and sensitivity to God's Spirit - and for the staff to have the right level of input into this lengthy and complicated process.

Please pray too for the right finance to be made available - any new building would involve a considerable amount of expenditure, and we don't yet have the minimum level of reserves the Charity Commission say we should aim for.

Sleep Out

Please pray for the Sleep Out on 27 February at Pip'n'Jay. Please pray for the people who will be taking part, and pray that it will remain dry and not be too cold! Also that many people will sponsor us, and the event will generate a good level of publicity for CCM, the BCAN Homeless Forum, and the other organisations taking part.

For more information, please visit: www.bcan.org.uk/sleepout/.

If you would like to take part or help raise sponsorship for someone else, please email Paul - the more people who get involved, the better.

People

Please give thanks for the many people we have got into supported housing and the two into rehab recently. We are awaiting news on one assessment and are taking another for an assessment next week. Please pray these will be successful.

C, who has recently became Christian, has just accepted a flat and will be moving in soon - possibly next Wednesday. Please pray the move goes smoothly, that her neighbours are welcoming and that she will build healthy friendships in the area.

Please pray for N, who has been in addiction and prostitution since the age of 16. She wants change and is working at reducing her alcohol, medication. She was brought up in a strict catholic family which she feels led her to rebellion. Please pray for her in her journey to recovery and that God can reveal himself to her, so she can discover Him for herself.

Please pray for E, who is in his late 50s. The death of his wife and daughter is so painful he turned to alcohol. He suffers from poor health due to alcoholism. He is frequently beaten by people or falling down and we are concerned for his life sleeping on the streets.

Please pray for S, a young man who has recently admitted to Heroin addiction for the past four years and has now applied for rehab.

Please pray for P, who is in his 60s and has been living in a garage for three years. He has only recently been accepting support as he lost trust in the council and other services. His can be quite judgemental of others but can also show deep compassion. Please pray that he will be housed soon, and also meet people who can see beyond his hard exterior

Staffing

Please continue to pray and give thanks for our wonderful volunteers, who keep the shop and the LITE Course going, and who make the whole ministry possible. Please pray that we can support and encourage the volunteers really well, and that they will see something of the fruit being produced by their work. And please pray that those who would benefit from the volunteer training on offer would be able to take part in it.

We asked you to pray last month for the staffing at CCM. Claire has now moved on, so we will shortly be recruiting for a new Office Manager, as well as for someone else who will probably be based in the shop and working mostly with the volunteers. More details will be circulated as soon as possible, but both posts will probably be part time, three days a week but spreading the hours over more days. As usual, all the details will be published on the CCM web site and through the normal channels.

We are very grateful to Claire for all that she contributed to CCM over the past few years - not only keeping the office going, but also making it a nicer place to be, and being very creative in spotting opportunities and responding to them. Please pray she will continue to be successful and happy in her new work.

Please pray, too, for the remaining staff, as we try to keep things going while we find a new office manager.

Fundraising

Please give thanks for the wonderful generosity of our supporters and the trusts who provide the funds to keep this ministry going. Please pray for God's blessing on them all!

We have a number of applications for funding to make in the near future. Please pray for Graham as he tackles this task, and for several people who have volunteered to help him. And please pray that the applications will be successful.

Filling Gaps

Next week there is a meeting taking place to see where the gaps are in the services that support alcoholics. Please pray this will be a fruitful meeting, and that funding will be found somehow to fill the gaps.

Thank you again for your prayers and support. We could not do this without you!

Every blessing,

Paul Hazelden
General Manager
Crisis Centre Ministries