Change that can touch a whole city

At the heart of what we are about as an organisation is a strap line that we really believe in. The whole Gospel for the Whole person for the Whole City. DCM believes in Holistic mission namely we care about every aspect of peoples lives whether it is housing, drugs, or other forms of poverty as well as the spiritual needs of people.

So these last two weeks have been key times that have led our trustees to make some key dicisions that will shape our future. To facilitate this we need to change our charitable status and also to create a company which will allow us to deliver social care to people who need it most.

We're are changing our constitution as well as our charitable status and at the same time creating a social enteprise........ what a mouthful. We will be contacting oall our supporters in June with the details of this for ratification at the AGM in September.

So Robin and I and some of the committee have been up to our eyes in company and charity law these last few days. We believe that at the end of this DCM could really empower the church in Derby to make a differrence and also be in a place to deliver key social care to people and even to sections of the community caught in powverty, crime and addiction. We are exploring some very exciting ideas like a winter Hostel for street sleepers during the winter months. More debt clinics especially in the Osmaston Allenton area. Alasdair is waiting to find out if he will join Osmaston and Sinfin neighbourhood board to have a say in the running of those communities. Next wednesday he is looking with other people from the community and voluntary sector at what will happen to the old Rolls Royce site in Osmaston.

Is this stuff important ? Well it's right in City Missions DNA, when you read the history of City Missions since 1826 we have been at the forefront of innovative social care. So to do this we need a governance and structure to facilitate the coming years.

We at last have a date for Healing on the Streets 22-24th of October at St Alkmunds church Kedlestone Road. Key speker Mark Marx from Causeway Coast Vineyard please put this date in your diary if you are interested in being a part of bringing Gods healing to the Streets of Derby.

Lastly could you pray for all the Street Pastors out in Austin Estate and the City Centre this weekend may gods love and peace be with all of them.

Alasdair

Where do you go to put your pain?

We were just coming to the end of our Street Pastor shift on one of Derby's estates on Saturday night when we came upon Mike (name changed) He was slumped against the rubbish bin gazing down the road while drinking his beer. "Who the F...are you lot" and suddenly he recognised one of the Street Pastors as a former boss who his brother had worked for.

We began to talk more and it transpired that he had been invalided out of the Army following injury in a bomb blast in Afhganistan. he then began to tell his story of life since his return it was like listening to the film "Born on the fourth of July" Struggling to reintigrate into family life, relational breakdown from his partner, loss of access of the kids because of anger issues. Times of heavy drinking all the signs and symptoms of unresolved guilt and post traumatic stress disorder.

It felt like re running the film of my life after Northern Ireland the uncontrollable rage, the drinking, relational break down instability on every front. Then the survivour guilt at people who have died and you suvived. Suddenly we had a 20 stone man weeping on the street as he shared his life. He turned to us and said it's like you are the first people who have ever lsitened to me. I then shared my story of PTSD and Northern Ireland and the journey into healing I had been on since comingto faith in Christ. We offerred to help him and he said at last someone understands me and what I'm going through.

So I would appreciate your prayers this week as we go to meet and listen some more and hopefully sensitively share with Mick some help.

We had another case of a guy who was lying bloodied in the gutter in the Market Place in Derby on Saturday night again his inner agony at losing a friend to Cancer erupted in rage and we were called to calm him down at 1.00 am as we bathed his wounds and cleaned him up and listened to him the truth came out and finally he cried............ so as we hugged this hulk of a man and let him get the pain out I believe Jesus was touching his life....

Jesus said come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.. We live in a world of pain and Christ comes in our sufferring to meet us and show us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

If you are in pain today never forget that Isaiah 53 says surely he carried our pain.. he still carries it today.

The BBC One show Report on Street Pastors

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ry9v4/The_One_Show_05_04_2010/

Hi if you go to this URL and scrool forward 37 minutes ew hope ot have the clip on the Blog as soon as we've converted the file.

Alasdair

Hi everyone,

We've just heard that we are on the BBC1 One Show on Monday 5^th April, 7pm.
We will do a full weekly blog once the show has gone out to talk about the whole exeperience and what it was like to have the Cameras on us for 14 Hours and for me ot spend hours being interviewed whilst doing a Street Pastor shift. An experience to say the least.

Could we all please pray for Sharon Cullen as she starts at DCM as our Missionary with responsability for Debt, Welfare, Housing and Benefits advice. A really specialised job. Also please pray for Robin as he begins to take on the day to day running of Basics Banks from the acocunts and management of the project.

Recruitment of a volunteer responsable for the Food Project of Basics Bank. We are still looking for someone with a heart for the poor who is prepared to give one day a week of their time to the running of this project. In addition it will need a very intense period around Harvest Festival as we have approximately £25,000 of food donated to us at that time.

It was a huge priveledge today to be present at Derby Cathedral at the Maundy Service in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen. What an amazing priveledge also to see people from Churches over Derby receieving a token from Her Majesty for all their service to the Church over the years. I was particulary moved to see a lady from Osmaston a deeply deprived area of the City recieve recognition for all she does. It put me in mind that one day we will all be in the presence of the King of Kings where I hope we will hear the words well done good and faithful servant.

This week Alasdair has been on writing leave where he has been working on his book "Tear down the walls, (bringing Good News to our communities)" it is due for publication in the summer and there will be more news on this nearer the time.

This Easter on Behalf of everyone in the DCM Family we want to shout a large... Christ has Died.... Christ Has Risen ... Christ will come again.... may you know His resurrection power living in you as we celebrate the greatest event in History.. Happy Easter

Alasdair

Life on £25 a week, a prayer and a bag of Chips..

I met Kev (name changed) this Friday lunch time as we were out on the streets of Derby. Kev had recently come out of prison and began to share his story with me. Born into a single parent family in Glossop he was raised in a home where he made it to school 3 out of 5 days a week and his special needs were never really picked up on. He said as I gave him a New Testament that he had read a book once, but hadn't bothered since. He told me that the place he had been living in was rat infested so he had to leave and was now living in Allenton. He had been sent to prison because one day the voices in his head and the anger got too much and he hit 3 people in a fit of rage.

At present he was living in a NACRO shared house and getting by each week on £25 a week. He told me where you can buy packets of Noodles for 8p a packet so you can eat each day.
I asked him what he dreamed of being one day. "A forklift driver" he replied, "I just want to make enough to live" he went on to say.
I realised he had barely eaten in the last two days so I went and bought him lunch. Do you ever pray I asked him. "Why?" he replied " is anyone listening". So I went on to tell Him how God feels about the poor and the lonely and said I would pray with him that God would intervene in his life.
At 21 Kev with a prison sentence behind him he is pretty well destined to a life of poverty, petty crime and if things go badly for him in Allenton the Heroin dealers will get to him one day. From there he will join the 2000 Heroin addicts or 10,000 alcoholics that have lost hope and numb the pain of the inner voice of dispair in Derby.

So I held his arm and prayed, I prayed about the inner fear he felt, the hopelesness, the job situation, relationships in his family.......... However the moment I gave him a bag of Chips it seemed as though the prayer connected. "Why would you do that for me?" he asked. My answer seemed so cheesy but I meant it. "Because I really do believe that If Jesus was here now this is what he would do" I replied.
Across our city and our nation are thousands of Kevs that need someone to step into their life and connect heaven to the Hell that is their life.

I spoke this week with a director of a BBC1 programme and she shared with me some of her opinions on Christianity. It was facinating to hear how she felt about so many things it was a truly pleasent hour in St Arbucks. She too had met a few Kevs, they're everywhere. She was asking the God question as well, I encouraged her to go on an Alpha course and get some answers to her questions.
In both these cases the same prayer filled my mind "God would you meet them where they are and reveal to them who you are?"

Rich or poor we all need to know that there is a God who meets us at our point of need.

Stories of Hope from Derby's Streets

This past weekend we had a visit from the High Sherriff of Derbyshire Sir Henry Evry. He has been so supportve of the work of Derby Street Pastors, so keep looking in Derbyshire life magazine for an article that could be coming soon. We also had a phone call from BBC1's One Show they are proposing doing a short piece on Derby Street Pastors, we'll let you know when they visit.

This last Saturday night was a tough night for Robin and his team as a girl that we have worked with for a long time attempted suicide. The team did a great job and manged to stop the bleeding and get her to Hospital. I met up with her later in the week to check her dressings and to get her to sign up and think about going to Rehab. She really does need help and needs to come out of a very abusive relationship with her partner.

Today we had hardly been out on the Streets 5 minutes when a conversation turned to salvation as a lady who confessed to being a church attender asked Christ personally into her heart. Many great conversations ensued this lunch time around the Hope bookelts we give out to people on the Streets.

Most of this week has been taken up around Gang problems in a local secondary school we have been scoping an after school project and have been pleased to engage with some of the young A1 gang members we meet on the streets of Allenton.

Please pray for our Street pastor teams in Austin, Allenton and the City Centre this weekend.

Alasdair goes to Grantham tommorrow to commission their new Street Pastors, please pray he will be an encouragement to them.

Great time on outreach in the city centre today sharing the Gospel with folk and praying with people to be healed I love it ! Prayed with this lady sufferring with real arthritic pain and she was so grateful and said she would see us next week for more.

However my my best moment was in the multi agency meeting this morning when a probation officer testified that we had been looking for this homeless Girl and I came to the drop in to try and find her she then said "Alasdair prayed and she came into the drop in" Wow said all the agencies including Police and Council Officers maybe miracles do happen Alasdair.. yes they do!

Tonight we have the Lord High Sherriff of Derby out with the Street Pastors. He has said that he would like us to meet all the Lord Mayors of Derbyshire to talk to them about seeing Street Pastors right qccross the county.

Many thanks to all of you who prayed for Alasdair after the recent vandalism on his Car. The Police have been wonderful in terms of securing out home by sending in the crime prevention team and also putting in CCTV. We are determined to keep up our work in the south Derby estates and we have sensed supernatural peace as a family.