The Parish Church of St Andrew

This web page gives you information about the outreach work at St Andrew’s Church, and the organisations we support. To find out more, or to talk to someone about our work, please e-mail fionamcleod31@gmail.com, or contact us via the church office.

Click here for our Annual Report

Our Outreach Partners

Every year we support a number of charities with our donations and our prayers. Here you can find details of the organisations we are currently supporting, along with links to their websites and articles about their work. We ensure that our funding is split between national, local and international charities. We welcome more suggestions for organisations to support from members of the Church Family – please contact Fiona McLeod on fionamcleod31@gmail.com

Swaziland Schools Project exists to advance the education of the children and adults of Swaziland. The charity pays school fees for children where the families cannot afford the fees, undertakes building projects for schools, provides equipment and encourages volunteers to visit Swaziland and work in one of the schools associated with the charity.

Acorn House in Cambridge is part of the Sick Children's Trusts, which provides and runs homes for families to stay in while their children are in hospital. The house staff are there for families to turn to when they need someone to talk to or a shoulder to cry on. There are also facilities for brothers and sister such as play areas, and direct phone lines to the wards at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

See www.sickchildrenstrust.org/acorn_house.php

The Rainbow Trust supports children with life-threatening illnesses, and their families, by giving practical and emotional support throughout treatment and following bereavement.

See www.rainbowtrust.org.uk

or read more here

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) operates over 130 light aircraft in more than 35 countries, to assist aid and development agencies, missions, churches and other national groups as they each seek to share the love of God by word and practical means.

See www.maf-uk.org

The Umeed partnership is a charity registered in both Pakistan and the United Kingdom to support a project which offers opportunities for empowerment of women in the male-dominated tribal communities of western Baluchistan, one of the remotest and poorest areas of Pakistan adjacent to the border with Afghanistan.

www.umeedpartnership.org.uk

Bedford Guild House improves the lives of older people in Bedfordshire, by providing a wide range of activities which are both enjoyable and beneficial to health and well being. It provides a welcoming place to meet other people each day, lessening the likelihood of older people becoming depressed and isolated at home. See

www.bedfordguildhouse.org.uk

The Parish Church of St Cuthbert, Birkby, Huddersfield is a church and community under one roof. In addition to worship and all the usual activities you would expect at a parish church, the church hosts various community groups. Our support will help to restore the building and enable all this activity to continue. See more information at:

www.stcuthbertsbirkby.org.uk or

read about it here

ASCEND is a community-based charity based in South Oxhey, an area nationally recognised as a regeneration district with social deprivation issues. Ascend's work is all about moving people forward, challenging their perceived barriers to education and training; providing people with more choice and control over their lives.

See www.ascend.org.uk

Disasters Emergency Committee. We have all been moved by the news reports concerning the recent Earthquake (and aftermath) in Haiti. We are therefore supporting the Disasters Emergency Committee in their work to help the Haitian people rebuild their lives.

See www.dec.org.uk and read our report

A Prayer for Haiti

O God our refuge and strength, we hold before you the nation and people of Haiti, and pray for healing in the midst of tragedy and devastation. Give comfort to the homeless, the bereaved and the suffering, courage to survivors, wisdom to those who seek to help, and light to all who live in the shadow of death. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our rock and our salvation.

Amen.

Bedford Street Angels provides a team of Christians to be available to everyone using the night clubs and other entertainments in Bedford Town Centre on Saturday nights. They aim to support, care and treat persons in need, by giving advice, support and signposting. See www.bedfordstreetangels.org.uk		ActDev (The Association for Co-operation in Tunisia) is a Christian development organisation which supports the most vulnerable in Tunisian society: single women and their babies. It engages volunteers to work with these women and to engage in reconciliation with the whole family. It offers single mothers the choice of keeping their babies, and funds professional training of single mothers. See the website at: www.actdev.org
The Church Army operates across the UK and Ireland, sharing faith through words and action to transform lives by making Jesus famous. Their focus is on the 7 out of 10 people who have little or no meaningful contact with church. An international arm of the organisation works across 15 countries worldwide. See the website at: www.churcharmy.org.uk		Bedford Open Door is a charity providing free and confidential counselling to young people between the ages of 13 and 25, and referral to other agencies where appropriate. It offers young people acceptance and respect for their rights and feelings, support for making choices and decisions for themselves, and information on a wide range of issues. See www.bedfordopendoor.org.uk
Impact aims to advance the Christian faith among young people in the Bedford area, particularly in schools and in conjunction with the local church. Core activities include taking assemblies, assisting with school clubs, and input into RE/PHSE lessons. See: www.impactbedford.org.uk/

Rev Canon Dr Sam Ndimbo’s work at St Anne’s Hospital, Liuli, Tanzania: Dr Sam, despite being retired, runs the Livingstone Clinic at the hospital. Although he mainly works to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria through education, drugs and the provision of mosquito nets, he is increasingly asked to take on other work, as the hospital is both short-staffed and under-funded. St. Andrew’s has a long-standing connection with him and has supported him over many years. Money is desperately needed at present for essential medication.

USPG - The extended name of this charity is “Anglicans in World Mission”. It allows Anglicans in the UK and Ireland to be in relationship with other churches of the Anglican Communion. It has partners in over 40 countries. The projects we are supporting are in Bangladesh.

The Winchester Project - A youth project in the Swiss Cottage area of London. It reaches out to young people, offering them cultural activities and social enterprise projects, as well as providing support and a sense of community, like an extended family.

www.thewinch.org

Monthly Prayers Each month we focus our attention on one particular Outreach Partner, to be featured in intercessions during our services, and by a specific report in the Fisherman magazine and displays in the foyer of the Church Centre. For details of these charities, see above.
September 2011	---	Bishops' Harvest Appeal 2011
October 2011	---	The Winchester Project
November 2011	---	UMEED
December 2011	---	BeCHaR
January 2012	---	Practical Action
February 2012	---	Community Money Advice

Please pray for our Outreach Partners:

O God, whose nature it is to be generous:

We confess to you our share of the guilt

for a world of hungry families and homeless peoples;

Forgive us for our self-centred living and spending.

Grant that we may all have listening hearts and generous spirits

that both our Church and our nation may give due place

to the cries of those who have nothing to eat

and nowhere to live;

For the sake of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Homelessness Sunday Breakfast

Homelessness Sunday 2011 was on Sunday 13 February.

Our speaker at the 10.00am service was Paul Tomlinson of the Church Army, who deals with homeless people and their problems in many locations in the UK.

Breakfast was served from 8.30 to 9.30am and there was a musical accompaniment to help the occasion to go with a swing! Thank you to everyone who supported this event.

Christian Aid Week 2011

Many thanks to all who supported Christian Aid week faithfully again this year: collectors, counters and those who prayed for its success and for courage for the collectors.

We can be proud of our excellent total of £3,050, which will do a lot to help, for example, the coffee producers in Guatemala.

Well done, everyone!

Proceeds go to Christian Aid (UK charity number 1105751, company number 5171525). Read more at: www.christianaid.org.uk

RED BUCKET COLLECTIONS

In February we had a special collection to support the work of ActDev, dealing with the huge refugee crisis at the Tunisian border with Libya, raising £282.

In July there was another extraordinary collection to support the emergency aid work in the Horn of Africa - £1,000 was raised.

Outreach Sunday 4 July 2010

Our worship on Outreach Sunday highlighted the work of the Bedford Area Schools Christian Support Trust. We welcomed Jo-Anne Gaunt as our guest speaker, who told us of the work of this organisation. For more information, see “Outreach Partners” above, and www.impactbedford.org.uk

Christmas 2010

For Christmas 2010 we SUPPORTED the following 2 charities.

Our pleasing collections totalled £2,656. This will be divided between the 2 charities.

Many thanks to all who struggled through the snow and ice to church at Christmas

and who gave generous support to these charities

Keech Hospice Care is a children's hospice near Luton, helping children up to 18 years old. Last year 170 children were cared for from the Herts, Beds & Milton Keynes areas. Children suffer from a wide range of life limiting conditions. Staff offer medical and social care, emotional support and friendship to the whole family, throughout the child's illness and after their death, for as long as it is needed. The aim is to help families make the most of the precious time they have left with their child. While many of the children will have only a short life, they all still have plenty of living to do! See their website at: http://www.keech.org.uk/hospices/childrens_hospice

Leprosy Mission aims to eradicate the causes and consequences of leprosy, working to address the underlying causes as well as preventing disability and stigma. Amazingly, there are still thousands of new cases every year (258,000 in 2007). Please support our Christmas collections, and also pray for this charity:

God our loving heavenly Father,

because of Your compassion and faithfulness,

Your will for all people is health and salvation.

We thank You and worship You, O Lord.

Grant Your healing grace to all those affected by leprosy, that they may be

made whole.

Bless the leprosy work in Nepal we pray.

We ask for good access to services, especially for those living in very rural areas.

We pray for Your blessing on the staff and programmes of The Leprosy Mission. Please give them success in combating the causes and consequences of leprosy and may they glorify Your name through the work.

In Jesus’ name, Amen

‘Praise the LORD, O my soul ... who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.’ Psalm 103:2-4

See http://www.leprosymission.org.uk/default.aspx

WE NEED YOU!

Would you like to spend £13,000? Are you interested in other people who live in very different circumstances to your own? Do you see coming to Church as more than attending the Sunday services?

Perhaps you are just the person we are looking for to join the Outreach Committee. We hold evening meetings three to four times a year. One of our main tasks is to agree how to spend the Outreach Grant which is a proportion of the Church’s income. Using the organisations we have nominated, we also agree on the monthly topic for the Intercessions, articles for the Fisherman and the notice board display.

We also organise activities such as Christian Aid Week, Outreach and Homelessness Sunday services and the Andrewtide service for Mission, the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal as well as other collections as needs arise.

If you would like to know more about what is involved please contact Fiona McLeod (Chairman) or Sheila Bissell (Secretary) via the Church office, or e-mail f.mcleod@o2.co.uk. We would particularly welcome more men on the committee!

A tribute to Jo Good

We will all miss Jo Good, who sadly died on 6 September 2010, and who made an enormous contribution to the Outreach Committee. She was an innovative thinker, always prepared to take on tasks, and she co-ordinated our publicity for many years, and was a prayerful supporter of the many outreach causes we have been linked with. She also had a delightful sense of humour. We were pleased that she could join us for the “Outreach Outing” in July 2010 to Emmaus Village, and include our “team photograph” in this report, in memory of Jo.

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