Partnership Development Officer

A few of us attended the SHINE2 event in Reading – it was a truly encouraging day. With Street Pastors & Angels from as far as Boscombe, Bournemouth, Basingstoke, Reading, Aldershot, Windsor, Maidenhead, Fleet and more.

Paul Blakey MBE – founder of Street Angels in Halifax and CNI network facilitated the day and the Keynote speakers were : Les Isaacs (CEO of Street Pastors) & Steve Clifford (General Director of the Evangelical Alliance) we were so blessed to have these 3 in one room on one day.

Les spoke about how Jesus only did what the father showed him (John 5: 19-20) and so it is for us, we need to pray to know what God is asking us to do as we will be ineffective unless we do what our Father shows us. Steve Clifford spoke about being sent (John 20: 19-23) and how we may feel we have been disqualified for some reason – yet God calls us the ordinary to do the extraordinary and how we need the Holy Spirit with us. He celebrated how the church makes up the majority of volunteering with Food banks, Youth Work, Debt Counselling, Addiction Recovery and Homelessness.

We had  Insights from many other Street Angel and Street Pastor groups. One or two in particular struck me – Rail Pastors (working with British Transport Police) Incidents have reduced by 30 % since their project started,  also Windsor and Maidenhead shared stories of being on the streets the night of the Royal wedding and helping a Blind & mute person who had come and was in a wheel chair!!!!  Paul Blakey told a story of the Norwich Street Angels being called over by staff at the Railway station, they had a young Mexican lady who had come to the UK as a result of a man who she met on the internet and who paid her fare to get here. When she arrived she discovered he was trapping her into being his sexual slave. She had managed to escape and got as far as the Station – the street angels got her to Norwich Airport and miraculously got an airline to fly her back to Mexico free of Charge. WOW!

In the Afternoon we had very interesting & informative talk by Suzette Jones (Health & Wellbeing adviser for the Diocese of Guildford) about Modern Day Slavery & Human Trafficking. Here is a number to put in your phones 0800 012 1700 & www.modernslaveryhelpline.org should you suspect anyone of being trapped in this situation (Car Wash & Nail bars especially) there is a Safe car wash APP you can use to help track down the Car Washes that use Trapped workers https://www.theclewerinitiative.org/safecarwash & here is a thought provoking video https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=66&v=I6OddIYjQ-E

After some networking and Sharing we closed in prayer. If you want to know more Click here

The Hope Hub! Good News

I am delighted to share with you that we have just registered a new Charity whose main focus is the prevention of homelessness. This has come about as a result of SHBC response to the Government’s Homelessness Reduction Act (implemented on the 3^rd April this year).

SHBC appointed Mags Mercer an independent Consultant to look into the possible options and the Churches in Camberley accepted the Challenge,  in addition we have recruited a church leader from Frimley onto the Board of Trustees which is great, (we may hopefully expand still further into the villages of Surrey Heath).

We do have a great start in already having a wealth of community projects that will plug into this new organisation (Frontline, Besom, Connect etc. etc.) – please see Overview-The Hope Hub-Jan18 a brief presentation that Mags created and that I shared at the last Churches Together Prayer and Praise evening at St Michael’s.
We have a lot still to do to get operational and high on our list is seeking a building to operate from. We hope you like our logo which is in final stages of development. Watch this space for updates! Please pray and also let me know if you are interested in being involved.

Want to get involved?

Other ways we can we bring the reality of Christ into peoples lives?
Become a Camberley Street Angel:
We are always recruiting further volunteers to join our existing team of Street Angels, adult volunteers who care and provide practical support for  people using the night clubs and other venues in Camberley on Friday / Saturday nights. The closing date for the current round of interviews and training is past but if you are interested in joining the Street Angels team please still contact:  Richard Salt  0808 108 1128 or email: Camberleystreetangels1@gmail.com, alternatively contact Karen.pdo.ctc@gmail.com for more info, an application pack to be considered for the next round of training which will be in the Autumn.

If you are interested in any of the Projects we run in Camberley  click here for our Associates or are interested in any of our churches, click  Who we are. Alternatively if you want to get in touch with me, please use the Contact us page or email karen.pdo.ctc@gmail.com

In addition to our Associate projects we have identified these as our Key 6 priorities:

1. Response to Poverty (David Reed is leading this element of our work and can be contacted by email: centremanager@stmaryscamberley.org.uk
2. Prayer – Sarah Shearer has recently been coordinating our prayer activity – which has included 40 days of prayer for Lent and Advent.
   See also our Monthly Prayer Cycle if you would like to join with us in prayer for our town and those who live and work in it.
3. Children & Families (here is our Toddlers Flyer)
4. Youth – the majority of our Youth Outreach is carried out via Camberley YFC
5. Street Angels – our Coordinator is Richard Salt – to volunteer or find out more see our Webpages
6. Older people! (please see this Older Peoples Flyer)

Karen Kendall  (karen.pdo.ctc@gmail.com)

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