Community Ministry

Community
Ministry

Leader: Jacqui Crole

Team Members: Alison Westwood, Ann Day, Glenys Jenkins, Rob Jones, Hazel Calder, Steve Rogers, Diane Johnson, Margaret Hornsby, Rachel Lewis

Foodbank Co-ordinator: Margaret Hornsby & Alison Westwood

Lunch Club Organiser: Margaret Hornsby

Traidcraft Representative: Hazel Calder

There is a deeply felt need to reach out to our local community in order to meet with people at the point of their humanitarian needs. We support:-

LUNCH CLUB
FOODBANK
CARERS & TODDLERS GROUP
STREET PASTOR SCHEME

LUNCH CLUB
A host of volunteers provide a lunch club service every Wednesday at 12.15pm in the hall at Park Avenue. It has been running for many years and is well attended by around 55 people each week.

For a nominal cost, a three course meal is served by a team who work with passion and commitment, not only in their preparation and serving of the food (all fresh) but in terms of creating a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere.

Everyone has a different story and what makes the Lunch Club so valuable in the community is that it provides a lifeline to those that need it most. Here, you will find respite, company and friendship.

Some people find the opportunity to chat to team members and share and pray through their worries and concerns. Prayer really does work!

There is also the opportuniuty to attend our Wednesday morning service ahead of lunch. If you know of someone who would benefit from attening or if you have any questions, please click the contact us button at the top of this page.

FOODBANK

Gilgal ends support to the local branch of the Bridgend foodbank, with members of the community team being actively involved in the operations; linking with other local churches and the local Samaritans group.

The Foodbank in Porthcawl moved to the “Y” centre on John Street in 2017 and opened an additional session (Thursday); both proving popular. The Foodbank continues to meet the increasing demands, not only for food parcels but also in other areas such as loneliness, depression and issues of debt and substance abuse, in a welcoming café style environment. The team have provided refreshments as well as the opportunity to chat and pray with clients, signposting them when necessary to other support organisations in the area. Having built a strong link with the Bridgend branch of the Samaritans, they now attend both the Porthcawl and the Cornelly Foodbank sessions on a regular basis and have taken a number of valuable opportunities to chat to clients attending.

The team offer a befriending initiative which is also proving popular. This is an important aspect, not only between volunteers and clients but also amongst the volunteers themselves. There have been several opportunities to witness to non-Christian clients and team members. We have been able to escalate a desperate accommodation issue for one of our homeless clients and are currently working with them, as well as Social Services, to progress this, hopefully to a successful conclusion.

The Food Bank has recently built a valuable link with Mental Health Matters Wales and this organisation, which offers befriending groups mainly for the over 50 age group, has expressed an interest in working alongside us at the Porthcawl centre on several Thursdays during the month.

Following the sad death of one of the Porthcawl Food Bank volunteers, Dave Walsh, donations in his memory raised over £2000 specifically for the Porthcawl Foodbank. We used some of the money to purchase a dedicated Laptop Computer. This will be used to access accommodation and job search information for clients and help them prepare CVs as well as improving the general administration tasks for the centre itself.

CARER & TODDLER GROUP : Every Wednesday and Friday between 10am-11:30am, a team from Gilal provide a safe environment for carers and toddlers to attend at our Woodland Avenue site.

This is well attended by upto 50 people and offers mums, dads, carers and their Toddler Group an opportunity to meet other people, relax (a little) and have a cuppa whilst allowing their little one(s) to play with a whole variety of toys and activities.

The events continue to be well attended and everyone is welcome.

STREET PASTORS : Support is provided from the church for a ‘Street Pastors’ scheme operating in nearby Bridgend town centre where members of the fellowship are trained and participate regularly. The local police identified a need for additional Street Pastor cover in Porthcawl for certain weekends in the year – especially the Elvis, Fireworks and Carnival Weekends. A small team of volunteers staff the teams on these specific events and provided a valuable service, benefitting both the public and the local businesses. However, the need for the Street Pastors in the Bridgend area has declined over the past few months and since Christmas, our Porthcawl team have not been actively involved.

GILGAL gets involved in other ways with our community as follows:

CHRISTIANS AGAINST POVERTY: A Christians Against Poverty (CAP) Money Course, designed specifically to help people with budgeting and other aspects of personal financial management, has been held.

On a more global scale, in recent years Gilgal has taken an active interest in issues of world poverty and societal needs. For example, we have taken on the Micah Challenge as our own and Gilgal is also a Fairtrade Church with members active in the promotion and sale of Fairtrade goods in the town.

We continue to support Fair Trade within both the Church and Town and have encouraged people to continue buying the fairly traded products on a regular basis, either from the supply held in Church or increasingly from the local supermarkets. We take part in a number of Fair Trade Partnership events including Fair-trade Fortnight and the Porthcawl Carnival. The special Christmas catalogue and Easter eggs continued to be popular.

Gilgal has also had close contact with the area’s local MP; supporting her work on world poverty issues (G8 Meetings, etc), human rights and environmental issues consistent with Gilgal’s commitment to our Micah Challenge.

We understand that a defibrillator is possibly being obtained for use at the Park Avenue site and we plan to organise Emergency Life Support Training Sessions (for both Adults and Children), as well as First Aid Training courses in the near future.

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