Lockdown Latest – help in crisis

By bob Kimmerling

Date 12-01-2021

Lockdown Latest – help in crisis

The Vineyard yesterday morning; there may be fewer guests than before lockdown, but it’s still business as usual for those in need.

SERVING THOSE IN NEED

The Vineyard Community Centre continues to be staffed Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm to provide emergency assistance for those in crisis. Please ask anyone you know who is in need to ring the gate bell, or telephone 020 8439 9735 for assistance.

While our morning drop-in is closed, we  continue to host outreach advice work with our partners including Glass Door, SPEAR and St Mungo’s, as well as offering our own one to one support though our Caseworker David. Showers, clothing, emergency food parcels etc are available to individual callers.

If you know anyone who requires a food parcel please telephone 020 8940 0274 and we can arrange a delivery.

Food Bank donations for the food bank can be delivered to All Saints Church Hall in Hampton. Please phone 07516935655 to arrange this.

The Glass Door continues to provide an evening meal at the Vineyard every evening for the vulnerable.

In line with current regulations to prevent the spread of the virus we have suspended our Community Café, closed our Charity Shops and our Works of Love project.

Please ask anyone you know who is in need to ring the gate bell, or telephone 020 8439 9735 for assistance Monday to Friday,  9.00am to 4.00pm. 

There is always a welcoming smile behind the face mask!

Hope for life

One of our guests, whom we love dearly, is extremely vulnerable, has serious mental health issues, particularly about being in accommodation and has lived on the street for years. But yesterday, thank God, he accepted SWEP (Severe Weather) Accommodation locally for the next few days.

In the past he has turned down similar offers time and time again. But now the combination of having getting a room out of the freezing night time cold, not having to share with some else, and not having to commit to anything long-term has won the day! It’s a bonus too that his room is close to us and other Richmond services that he trusts. It’s a great partnership effort between the Vineyard and SPEAR.

He will continue to come to the Glassdoor evening meals and to our limited daytime services at the Vineyard; he now has extra food, clothing, and a bus pass to help him.

While we are under such difficult restrictions right now, it is a joy to be able to make a small difference in his life.

Every cup of tea, every food parcel, every shower taken, every piece of clothing given out, every minute spent chatting with a guest – these give hope. 

‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me’.

Jesus said ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

This is a sign of hope seen yesterday in our garden:new life bursting forth during this bleak January.

‘Today is Friday….but Sunday’s a coming’  – Tony Campolo.

A foretaste of Easter.