It is probably safe to say that if you’ve been reading the news, or visited a fuel pump, or got your gas bill this week, or tuned in to QPBC’s church meeting last Wednesday, it’s been a rough week for you. I know it has been for me. Human suffering has been thought about, theologised and philosophised by better minds than mine for millennia, but there are seasons when suffering draws close to us in a very un-theoretical way.
And yet, as Brodie reminded us during Global Focus week so recently, we hold weeping and rejoicing together. So weep with those who weep.
And I would love for you to rejoice with me. I’m delighted to say that our Renew Wellbeing Café, which began in the Lane outside Queens Park Baptist Church in August 2021, was recently awarded a £10,000 grant from the Scottish Government’s Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, to sustain its staffing needs and expand it to three days a week for eighteen months. This is in addition to a £2,000 Cinnamon Network micro-grant for décor, signage and activities.
This feels to be a big affirmation of the witness and ministry of the project. I’m so proud of our six volunteers, who put over 30 hours a week into running the café on Mondays and Fridays. The number of guests coming through has been steadily increasing, and we’ve been praying three times a day each Monday and Friday since we began.
The Point’s gardening project continues to grow too. Our links with the local community have grown through the litter-picking hours we hosted through 2020 and 2021, to the point that the Govanhill Area Coordinator asked us especially to help with the Govanhill Week of Action and a few troublesome areas. We are tackling these this Sunday 20th March, with litter-picking and gardening.
I’m grateful for God’s gift of funding to help build our projects, but I am most excited about the difference QPBC members are making in Govanhill through getting involved at The Point. I think that might be the real gift God has for our city; us, as the body of Christ, calling our city to life, in all its weeping and rejoicing.
If you can give the gift of volunteering, we’d love to hear from you. Please email us at office@qpbc.org, or phone in on 0141 423 3962.
Grace and peace.
Jamie