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to people with life-disrupting problems |
Volunteer News
Issue 6
November 2010
Dear CCM Volunteers,
"I'm all for change as long as it makes no difference". Therein lies the problem. Change can mean uncertainty and take us outside our comfort zone. Often it is not so much the fact of change, but the uncertainty that attends it, and our propensity for "the old" being better than "the new". We are good at imagining things that will be difficult or inconvenient or whatever.
As Christians, we should be committed to continual change in our lives, if God is truly at work in them. If we cling to our own comforts, or set our own limits, we forfeit the grace that could be ours (see Jonah 2 v 8). Interestingly, Richard Foster says prayer is God's main agent of change, and if we stop wanting to change, we will also stop praying.
The move to Stapleton Road is an enormous change, and having many uncertainties about it. Only when we have settled in will we really know what it means in real terms. We are planning to make the change as smooth as possible, and to anticipate what might happen there. However a big part of this must be prayer and confidence in our Heavenly Father who has led us thus far and will not abandon us now. That said please contact me or another member of staff with any concerns you have, however small they may seem to you.
If you have anything that you would like to share to encourage fellow volunteers, please let me know, and I could publish it in the next Volunteer News.
If there is anything further I can help you with, or you need to talk to someone about your work here (or indeed anything else) please get in touch as follows
- Office 0117 942 3088 (I'm here 22½ hrs each week)
- Mobile 07544 550 248
Thanks again
Steve Smith
Training...
From September 2010 to July 2011 (not December) on:
2nd Saturday each month, 9:45 am at Trinity Tabernacle
OR
2nd Wednesday each month, 7:30 pm at CCM Office,
12 City Road
Visit: www.bcan.org.uk/bhf/training/
or contact Steve or Paul in the Office for more information
(0117 942 3088)
We invite all volunteers to take part in this training,
which can be joined at any time during the year
as it works cyclically.
Are you aware of LITE?
LITE is a training course in confidence building and basic life/work skills which is free to attend. The next module, LITE 2 Developing Your Potential, starts on Mon 22 November 2010 at the Easton Christian Family Centre. Details on the poster in the coffee shop and on small flyers. Please encourage any customers you think could benefit to talk to Stuart Leitch, the Lite Project Manager. Thank you.
A BIG Thank You
...to Potters House Church who have run the Friday Evening Session for a number of years. Their church is moving premises and so they are needing to step back at least for the time being. We want to say how grateful we are for all they have done, and wish them every blessing for the future. It leaves us with a gap on alternate Friday Evenings; we have some people who might be interested, but would appreciate prayer that the gap is soon filled. Thanks.
Duty Managers
I will be (even have been) in touch to see how your team numbers are for the move to Carpenters House, as we expect to need more people available in the larger premises. If you have particular needs let me know, and I will do my best to reinforce your team with any new volunteers that join us.
A Reminder: if you attract new volunteers from your church, please would you make sure that they are given a Volunteer Application Pack, and return the filled in forms to me as soon as possible. I'd be grateful too if you could email/phone/leave me a note so I know who has packs. We need to know who is around for insurance purposes, to keep on top of CRB Checks, and to be able to keep in touch with them. Thanks.
Another Request: it would be good if when a volunteer leaves your team you let me know as I would like to be able to write and thank them for their contribution. Thanks
Prayer Opportunity
At 10:00am every day the staff meet to pray for fifteen minutes in the coffee room upstairs or the café and would warmly welcome any volunteers who might be around at the time to join us. (We pray for all volunteers by name on a 10 day cycle. If you would like us to pray for something specific, please call.) Just occasionally we have to miss out because no one is around or something unavoidable crops up, so if you plan to come in specially, it would be worth ringing in to check. it is happening.
And for no particular reason - a joke
A man with a nagging secret couldn't keep it any longer. In the confessional he admitted that for years he had been stealing building supplies from the builders merchant where he worked. "What did you take?" his priest asked. "Enough to build my own house and enough for my son's house. And houses for our two daughters and our cottage at the lake."
"This is very serious," the priest said. "I shall have to think of a far-reaching penance. Have you ever done a retreat?" "No, Father, I haven't," the man replied. "But if you can get the plans, I can get the materials."
Post email or Hand?
In an effort to make sure this reaches all volunteers we have arranged to post it with a copy of Streetwise. If you would prefer it to be emailed or some other preference please let me know. (For email use subject "Volunteer News") You might like to pass the Streetwise on to alert others to the work which you share in. Thanks.