I love the snow, I love wearing my red wellies and a big warm jacket, I love LOVE christmas,

but I don’t love how lonely it can be for some , cold + isolating and I don’t love knowing that there are hundreds of rough sleepers on our streets

sleeping out with the homeless xmas 09

We have become dangerously close to accepting the homeless situation as a problem we just cant solve (Linda Lingle)

So this year WE decided to do more and took part in a winter shelter project here in Bradford
so for every night of February we did do a little more and be a part of the solution
It was incredible, we used our building + turned it into temporary accomodation for one night (a week) added in 10 who are homeless+ got a bed+ nice food+a good breakfast =SUCCESS

snug and ready

Then the baton was passed to another church in the city

It didn’t cost us much and is a continued part of our commitment to LOVE our city

along with…

Streetwise our team who go out onto the streets, twice a week faithfully bringing a good meal and a warm smile to the homeless in our city, along with other quality partnerships

Walking Free, Hope housing, Caleb , Fare Share, Green Pastures also making a difference in the lives of the individuals on the street.

LOVE WINS

Who can you love on in your community

C

You can hold a tight budget, make sure rooms are booked, food is bought but organising the variety that comes thru peoples needs can feel  impossible

I know from the people we meet they dont need us to tidy them they need us to love them, thats not always so easy for the team though eh!

teams need other teams to stay energise and help breed creativity

Every year we have the priviledge of hosting a conference called STRONGER its for everyone and anyone and a practical approach to building church in Europe in our day,

I LOVE IT , its one of my favourites of all we do, connecting, meeting, learning and applying!

I cant promise we can answer all your questions, but I can promise the main teaching will be impacting and relevant, the worship with be challenging and passionate and our love bradford team will be there every afternoon to share their ideas and how cans if you want to come and join us maybe you have a few how cans for us too,

Get everyone on board, invest in your teams and the people around you book into stronger, bring your whole team and meet 100s of others who feel the same about reaching and loving people as you.

thanks so much for reading

take risks

Clare

there’s always screams and squeals of delight, smiles and tears and a lot of wrapping paper and confetti its a priceless weekend and worth all the effort

take a look and see, children+gifts+shiny wrapping paper= smiles…

…and what is even more wonderful is that its followed a whole lot of other love we have been sharing about, a street sleep with the homeless, followed by a banquet,  christmas party and beautiful gifts for the older generation, many family food hampers for families in need, a christmas party for 150 international folks, gifts to all the inmates at Wetherby young offenders unit and Newhall women’s prison, a bus filled with families from an asian community centre, a party for over 100 families seeking asylum,  we have had 200 volunteers wrapping and eating mince pies, 100s of school children come thru our doors to see our campus transformed into the magic of  Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast”, the chance to pamper on the wards at LGI hospital, christmas kisses all round and a tree of kindness what a priveledge to be involved with  someone’s life this christmas.

phew last post of the yr

Have a wonderful wonderful christmas

C x

This week has been truely amazing, this week we are enjoying the meal that has been cooked up over about 20yrs!! we have been as a church working in the prisons around yorkshire for years, faithfully the teams have hosted meetings, visited prisoners, written, met men and women on release and helped them settle back into normal life, baptised, prayed and even hand pampered,

But the last few months something has really shifted, like there has been a real favour in what we are doing, the kind that ony comes after a long time of hard work and building relationships.

This week we had a chance to film inside the prison it was not quite Ross Kemp on gangs but it was exciting all the same, we hosted a meeting for 100 guys and saw 1o make their own decision to follow Jesus,

We filmed (yes you hear it right, filming inside one of her majesty’s prisons) testimonies of how crime and circumstance had destroyed their life, but how finding God has transformed it, one guy really made me laugh he was actually grateful to HMP for the care and comfort they had offered him and that he was amazed he had gained 5lbs, talk about how perspective can change when you have a real encounter with a living God

so heres to many more meals of this kind and thanks to those who have given time all over to prepare the ingredients

Clare x

 I felt that at the start of this yr,

We were  introduced to some  families in 2008 , 

We were faced with the reality that these families had nothing and I mean NOTHING

The crazy thing is, is that they came expecting a better life and now trapped in a cycle 

You may know them  as…

Economic Migrants (noun)

Economic Migrants (noun)

a person who travels from one country or area to another in order to improve their standard of living.

mainly from and

We know them as…

  Vulnerable families with small children facing eviction, no food ,no income, little prospects, really I kid you not, absolutely desperate, its easy to say send them home, get a job etc.. but there are some things in life that just cannot be passed over, there are always the few that play the system but there are always the genuine too.

Its not even that their big brown eyes made us break, or that the kids smiles made our hearts melt (although it did help)

Its the injustice in knowing that any individual in our community could be forced out onto the streets with not a thing that could be done about it!!!

We decided that there must be something WE could do, January came round and the plan began to unfold

Something was coming…

We needed a plan, a smart, long lasting easy to manage get things moving kind of plan…

1 Teach English

2 Secure employment

3 Find accommodation

4 Be a friend

5 Help these families settle and add value to their local community

Its been a great process learning how to respond and not just react, 

so we got a hold of all the facts and hey presto

guess what a plan is what we have, its been a huge learning curve,

I will give you more details in my next blog

take care, hope you are loving the summer

C