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

Prayer Letter
October 2009

Dear friends

On Friday 23 October the following prayer request was sent out...

Dear people,

You should be getting a fuller prayer update some time this weekend, or maybe on Monday. But for tonight...

We had a spot of difficulty with one chap today. If you remember, we had the shop windows smashed a while back, and we are pretty sure it was the same chap, but nothing could be proved.

Today, he went away, having threatened to shut us down. Our friendly PCSO ('Police Community Support Officer') found him a short time later, and he repeated the threat to the PCSO, so the Police know and are alert to a potential problem here.

If he does attack the building, it seems he is likely to be caught this time. But we would much prefer that no attack takes place. So, please would you pray for the safety of the building over this weekend - and all the people in it!

Alan and a volunteer are planning to sleep in the shop tonight, so especially please pray for them - for their safety and that they each get some sleep. Thank you.

Every blessing,

Paul.

On the following Monday, an update and further information was sent out...

Safety

Firstly, thank you for praying over the weekend.  No harm was done, either to the buildings or to the people.  Please continue to pray for the disturbed man who made the threats.

Radio

On Friday 23rd October BBC Radio Bristol came to interview our clients, Arnett, one of our trustees, volunteers and Alan Goddard.  This was connected with FareShare, who asked us to be involved.  The broadcasting will take place on Tuesday 27th October on the breakfast show, between 6am and 9am.  Parts of the recording will be repeated on the hourly news.  Please pray how they cut this recording as it could be excellent publicity for CCM and the new premises.

TV

Channel 4 will be filming in the shop on a couple of days this week.  They want to focus mainly on the work we do with the women, as most reporting about homelessness features mainly men, and the women face specific issues which are often missed.  Please pray especially for Lisa and the clients she is working with.

And also pray for the film crew, that they would not only get good material for the program, giving both an accurate picture of what is going on and a powerful story to touch the viewers, but also pray that they would experience something of God's love while they are with us.  They will be filming at One25 also, so please pray for those folk too, that it will be appropriate, non-intrusive and productive.

Saturday and Sunday opening

We are now open on Saturdays from 9am until 11am.  The first week we served about 70 people and this week was about 80.  We would like this to continue throughout the year but could do with some more volunteers.  We would also like to open on the last couple of Sundays each month, when the Salvation Army are not open.  Could you please pray for this and for volunteers to come forward.

Clients

Please pray for a good outcome for one of our female clients, a 68 year old.  We have applied to North Somerset for residential funding, and a decision may be made on Wednesday. 

We have two men due to go into rehab in the next week.  Please pray for them.

Please pray for a young man aged 21, who has multiple addiction problems and issues.  Both parents are dead and his brother is a drug dealer.  We have known him a long time and he has turned to us for help.  We are going to be taking a special interest in him, which may be quite challenging but also could alter the direction of his life.

Please pray in general for the LITE Course students, and for all our clients and their needs

New Building

Rejoice with us that we have found a possible new location for the Coffee Shop: the Queen Vic pub in Stapleton Road.

Please pray that all the necessary work takes place without delay, and especially that there will be no delay caused by planning issues.

We have some promises of short term loans, but need to find the money to purchase the property, to undertake the necessary renovation, and to refit it for our use.  The current estimate of the total sum required for all this is just over £440,000 - although we do not anticipate needing to spend quite that much, as some of the work should be capable of being done by volunteers.  Please pray that we are able to raise all the finance needed,  for the work to be done without delay, and for a Project Manager who can take responsibility for the practical management of the work and all the volunteers and subcontractors.

Sleep Out

The Sleep Out is partly to raise money, and partly to publicise the issue of homelessness and our partnership with the many other groups working to tackle it.

Please contact Sian (at the CCM Office) if you are able to take part in the Sleep Out at Pip 'n' Jay on Friday 26 February 2010, or if you can organise a group to take part.  For more details of the event, please visit http://www.bcan.org.uk/sleepout/.

We can supply sponsorship forms, but if possible, please get people to sponsor you through Just Giving - this makes the paperwork very much easier for us.  If you cannot take part yourself, please sponsor someone who is taking part, such as our General Manager - visit http://justgiving.co.uk/Paul-Hazelden/.

AGM

Thank you to those of you who came to the Annual Celebration and AGM.  It was a wonderful evening. If you missed it, the Annual Report will shortly be available on the web site.  You may not be interested in the accounts, but the details of the work are worth reading - for example, 70,000 meals served, and over 300 people helped off the streets.  This is all thanks to our wonderful volunteers, and your support and prayers.  Again, thank you.

Other Finance

Alan Goddard has a meeting at 9 am on Friday 30 October with Gregg Thompson and someone else who is interested in our work.  Could you please pray that this meeting is productive.

And while we need to raise a significant amount for the building project, we also need to continue to raise the necessary funds to keep the ministry going in the mean time, so please pray that giving to the core ministry does not suffer because of the building project, and that more people will commit themselves to donating on a regular basis.

Could we also please pray for more regular giving by our supporters so that we may be able to plan for the future of our ministry.

Please remember that if you purchase goods from Amazon, if you go via the link from our web site, we get (generally) 5% commission, with no extra cost to you.  This is raising a small but worthwhile amount on a regular basis.  The link can be found at http://www.crisis-centre.org.uk/ccm_amazon.htm.

We can also generate income from the Internet if you use one of the search engine links on our site at http://www.crisis-centre.org.uk/ccm_web_search.htm.

If you have any ideas for fund raising, please get in touch with us!  As they say, every little helps.

I hope that you find this update interesting and please feel free to contact me in the office if you need any further information.

God bless!

Sian
Office Manager
Crisis Centre Ministries