New Year - New Blog!
Welcome
Welcome to our new Revive Blog! If you have previously been the recipient of our Revive Newsletter then going forwards you will receive our Blog instead as this has replaced the newsletter format. If you never previously received our newsletter than you may want to hit the ‘Subscribe’ button to stay up to date with all things Revive. We hope to update the blog once a month or so with updates, good news stories and monthly foodbank figures. We hope you enjoy reading it and if you have any questions or are interested in getting involved in one of our Revive Ministries then please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
REVIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY 2021
On 5th December 2021 we held our annual Revive Christmas Party in Bracknell for those individuals and families we have been supporting over the last year. Due to a number of different challenges that Covid presented, whilst we were delighted to be able to host the Christmas party in person, we were forced to be a bit more creative in what we could do as were unable to host the large scale sit down meal type of party in the Kerith Centre auditorium that we had been accustomed to.
We organized a Christmas Café drop in experience and guests enjoyed tucking into bacon rolls and sausage baps along with a variety of Christmas themed sweet treats. We turned the K2 hall into a Christmas wonderland and had a special area for Father Christmas and Mrs Christmas for children to visit him and receive their unique gift. The children also enjoyed the Christmas Story being read to them along with a craft area and other activities.
The adults enjoyed chatting with our team of volunteers about some of the things that they were looking forward to over Christmas and also shared some of the things that would be a challenge for them. Many of the guests commented on how much fun they had and some who had been to one of our parties previously shared that in many ways they preferred the more intimate feel to the larger scale parties which has given us food for thought as we begin to think about our future Revive Christmas parties and how we roll them out across more of our sites!
Here is a quote from one of our guests:
“You’re a blessing to me and my son. Thank you for inviting us to have breakfast and meeting Father Christmas and Mrs Clause. It’s the first time my child had ever met Father Christmas and Mrs Clause. We felt the loving and welcoming vibes and the love of each volunteer given to us. The food and chocolates and goodie bag were absolute scrumptious. Thank you for having us”
We wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone that donated money to Revive in the lead up to Christmas. We received over £1000 which was used to bless children with gifts and families with supermarket vouchers. We are always blown away with the generosity of our church community and your donations really did help to make many individuals and families Christmas that extra bit special this year & relieve some of the stress – thank you so much!
GOOD NEWS STORY
We ran a Life Skills course before Christmas & one of the participants decided that she wanted her life to be different & alongside a volunteer she prayed the prayer of salvation. She was baptised on 16th January!
It has been such a privilege to watch our guests take steps of faith and begin to trust more in Jesus' love for them. Our member shared her testimony confidently and said they felt like a new person as they came out of the water…the past is gone! She has already signed up for the Alpha course and is hoping that some of the other members will join her! An evangelist in the making!
Thank you to everyone who prays for our ministries, we have felt God's support and strength throughout and we praise Him for the outcomes. Whether that be small steps being made towards making life changes or large steps towards God and a hope filled future in relationship with him.
FOODBANK STATS FOR 2021
Vouchers fulfilled
1753
Clients provided with food
4864 (2686 adults & 2178 children)
Food donations
70.8 tonnes (plus 31.6 tonnes of fresh food donated by the council & Fareshare)
Weight of food given to clients
38.1 tonnes in food parcels and in addition approx 46.2 tonnes given out as extras to clients
Amount of food donated to other charities (Windsor Foodshare, Camberley All Night Café, Life House & Light House)
11.2 tonnes
Donations
£81,248