Winter Night Shelter ready for launch

 

Project Leader, Louise Brown, writes:-

 

“In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) Jesus urges his listeners to live adventurously. I have to admit, that for me this has not normally been a problem. But over this past year God has been teaching me many more lessons about what the adventure of Christian living is all about.

 

The Ipswich Winter Night Shelter will seek to offer hospitality and hope for up to 12 guests. As the snow and ice fast approaches (so they tell us) we are particularly mindful of those who are trying to survive each day on the streets.

 

I have been amazed so many times over these months of planning, and not least when I heard that our volunteer database now has 260 names on it! It seems that the people of Ipswich are perfectly ready and willing to get out there and use their gifts and talents. What began with a nudge from God, has gone on to nudge hundreds of other people in our town and surrounding areas.

 

God has worked wonders. He has proven that if we take a step in His name, then he will deal with the next step, and the next, until we look back and realise we have travelled far further than we ever imagined. We have stories of people who have not set foot in a Church for years, freely offering to come and help. We have professionals who claim no faith, talking about what God seems to be doing. We have people of other faiths working with us, all for one aim: to serve our neighbour.. I could go on and on.

 

My prayer this week is that in these final moments of preparation for the shelter, God would be at the very centre of all we do, protecting, guiding and strengthening. I pray for every volunteer whose life is going to be transformed by this journey, and most importantly, I pray for every guest who will come through our doors; that each one would go out of the shelter with a few more pieces of their life puzzle in the right place, and a sense that for one night, or for several nights, they were treated as a fellow human being, and were able to share their journey with others.

 

Please pray as we go on this adventure. I pray that God will be given all the glory and that His will would be done.”

 

 

More details of the Ipswich Winter Night Shelter project can be found in the Project Directory section of Network Ipswich. Please click here.