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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
carolwood51@hotmail.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. 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 Carol Wood on
carolwood51@hotmail.com |
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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. |
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FORWARD
is a charity which campaigns to stop the
practice of female genital mutilation and early marriage among African
communities in this country and in some countries in Africa.
Read more here
and see
www.forwarduk.org.uk
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BRASS
(Bedfordshire Refugee and
Asylum Seeker Support) works
to empower, inform and support
refugees and asylum seekers and to protect rights with an
aim to develop independence and involvement in UK society.
www.brassbedford.org.uk |
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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 |
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Smile Train
helps children born with
cleft lip and palate by providing free treatment worldwide,
training and education for doctors and supporting research.
Surgery is provided by local medical staff, funded and
educated by Smile Train.
See
www.smiletrain.org.uk
or
read more here |
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 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: |
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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 |
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USPG (The United Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel)
works in direct partnership
with Anglican churches in over 50 countries, helping to
support healthcare, education, leadership training and
action for social justice. Currently it is supporting the
Diocese of Chile with emergency funding to enable it to
support relief work and meet other needs – see
www.uspg.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
http://www.dec.org.uk/item/200
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. |
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
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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
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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 |
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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 |
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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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May 2010
June 2010
July/August 2010
September 2010
October 2010 |
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Christian Aid
USPG
Bedford
Area Schools Christian Support Trust
Rainbow Trust
Act Dev
St Cuthbert's
Ascend |
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Please pray for our Outreach
Partners: |
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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.
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OUTREACH EVENT REPORTS
Bishop’s Harvest Appeal 4
October 2009
The Bishop’s Harvest Appeal was held on Sunday, 4 October 2009
to coincide with the Harvest Festival. This year the appeal was
to raise money for a water scheme in South West Ethiopia which
would pump water from a spring to a reservoir which would then
serve 55,000 people. Drawing on her experience of having worked
for two years in Ethiopia, Fiona McLeod was able to show the
children, and the adults, in the congregation just what was
involved in collecting water for many rural Ethiopians. The
children carried a jerry can and a bucket of water the length of
the church, only to have the water stolen by some ‘bandits’
before they could reached home.
In the afternoon the events committee arranged a Harvest high
tea of cold salmon and salads and this was followed by an
evening service. Altogether the services and the high tea, with
Gift Aid, raised £1,280 for the Bishop’s Harvest Appeal. |
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Christmas Collections 2009
Two charities were supported
with Christmas Collections – Bedford Day Hospice and the Church
Urban Fund each received over £1,500. Read more about these
causes above. |
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Outreach Sunday – Yarls Wood
Thank you to Revd Adèle Rowlands
and Ben Clackson for giving us an insight into life at Yarls
Wood at our Outreach Service on 7 June 2009, and thank you to
everyone who contributed the gifts of Bibles and books for
adults and children there, and also for the suitcases. A high
percentage of the women and children are committed Christians,
and it means a great deal to them to own their own Bibles. |
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Bishop Michael Baroi of
Bangladesh
Bishop Michael visited the
Parish on 12 July 2009 and opened our eyes to life
in Bangladesh and the dire effects of climate change there. See
the article in the August Fisherman. Please pray for solutions
to the consequences of environmental change in God’s fragile
world. |
Homelessness Sunday Breakfast
On 7 February 2010, around 60 people
came for a bacon roll breakfast between the 8.00am and 10.00am services.
This year, our chosen charity for Homelessness Sunday was The Foyer
– a project offering affordable accommodation and training for 16 to
24-year olds, to help them get back on their feet.
Members of the Outreach Committee
prepared breakfast……..
......whilst
a musical band entertained the diners!
We were able to welcome Helen and Dalia
from The Foyer organisation, to the
breakfast and as guest speakers at our
10.00am service. The breakfast and collection raised £250 for the
charity. You can find further information about The Foyer at:
http://www.bpha.org.uk/services/younger-people/foyer.asp
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Christian Aid Week 2010
Another door-to-door collection
was made this year (w/c 9 May), raising £3,296 (excluding gift
aid) for Christian Aid. Thanks go to all the volunteers who gave
their time and effort to achieve this result.
Proceeds go to Christian Aid (UK
charity number 1105751, company number 5171525). Read more at:
www.christianaid.org.uk
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The Church Year in Colour
Open Days 26 - 27 June 2009 |
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At the
Church's Open Day, The Church Year in Colour, Outreach
Committee members helped children visiting the Church to make toys
from scraps and rubbish, such as children in the two-thirds world
might play with. We made cars from foil containers and tin
lids, telephones from yoghurt pots and string and dolls from the
inside of toilet rolls, plastic bags and scraps of material. We
showed the children footballs made from plastic bags, cars made from
bent wire, hoops from old bicycle tyres and dolls from wooden sticks
and material scraps. 80 children came on the Friday from two schools
and all went away with a toy they had made. |
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