March 2007 Newsletter

You may very well already have heard but if not we take this opportunity to advise you that Don Giles who has been our Director of Operations has tendered notice of his resignation to us. Don has contributed so much to the Trust. It was not simply that he was master of managerial and administrative skill, nor that he was full of both imagination and common sense ideas, although he exemplified all of these, but the over-arching benefit and blessing which he brought to the Trust was his Christlike self-effacement, humility, capacity for relating well to all around him and drawing often very different and potentially conflicting types of personalities together. He truly oversaw in his own distinctive way that attitude which is commended to us all in Philippians where were are urged to work out our lives esteeming others' needs more highly than our own.

It is from a very deep reservoir of gratefulness that we convey our warmest appreciation to our brother and prayerfully wish him well in any new work or ministry to which he turns his hand.

You can imagine that with the range of responsibility that was his, we do require as a matter of first priority to seek to ensure that the ministry of the Trust is maintained and enhanced. To that extent we are active in giving consideration to future needs and hope to be able to let you know further details very soon.

'I know the plans I have for you........' Jeremiah 29:11

On Saturday 31 March the Directors, staff, 6 volunteers and the trustees spent a fruitful day in Bridge of Allan reviewing the past year and looking ahead to the coming year. There's so much we would love to be able to do but, like every organisation we have to be realistic about what we can achieve with our resources while of course also trusting God to continue to provide. We thought you'd be interested to know about the key goals that we've set and we want to encourage you to pray specifically that we will be able to implement these and that the Lord will be glorified in the process.

Street

• to make sure that the Word is delivered in a way that is really easy to understand
• to further develop our health and safety policies and ensure that these are fully implemented
• to identify ways of improving the distribution of food, including investigating sharing resources with other organisations

Lunch Club

• to pilot an Alpha course and consider how it could become a more frequent part of the lunch club
• to find ways of having more 1:1 time to build relationships with those who come to the lunch club

Recovery group

• to expand the range of activities available including finding out about a work experience programme
• to find ways of having more 1:1 time to support members of the group

Children

• to explore the possibility of starting a woman's recovery group
• to develop a programme of life-skills activities

Good performance is a journey, not a destination

Everyone is thrilled that Terry achieved an A pass in his HNC. His studies are being put to good use in a special project he is leading to develop much more robust systems for working with the recovery group in particular and the other areas of the Trust's work in general. We don't want to be restricted by rules and procedures but we need to safeguard staff, volunteers and clients and to make delivery of our services as efficient as possible. Who better than Terry to work on how to do all of that sensibly and sensitively!

Meantime Euan is working on an initiative to improve our collaboration with other Christian agencies in the city. We want to have better lines of communication and better ways of referring clients to other agencies that can help them. He's also looking at the possibility of sharing resources for maximum efficiency-for a 'burger bar' van. This could make serving food on the streets much easier for our clients and volunteers and it would help us to meet all the legislation we are now bound by.

New Scottish Choir & Orchestra

The New Scottish Orchestra summer concert at the City Halls on 2 June is supporting Open Door Trust Glasgow again. Buy your tickets now to avoid disappointment.

Psalm 115:1 'Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness,'

Karen was born in December 1961 and raised in Darvel in Ayrshire. We met Karen in Glasgow in 1990, Karen was alcoholic and homeless, for many years we invited Karen to Alcoholics Anonymous and in the last ten years to our recovery groups, she always gave the same answer, I can't come this week but will come next week. ODT continued to pray and encourage Karen wherever possible, but like us all she could be hard work at times, but would always apologise whether it be the next day or the next month. At the end of last year Karen was diagnosed with lung cancer, she was afraid to die and especially afraid to die alone. Staff and volunteers continued to witness about the love and hope in Jesus Christ and one night alone in her bed Karen invited Jesus into her heart.

Psalm 34:1-2 'I sought the Lord and he answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.'

There was an instant transformation in Karen's life, she was able to sleep peacefully and had no fear of dying, and she started praying for people immediately. Karen arranged her own funeral and decided on The Old Rugged Cross and Amazing Grace as her hymns, the latter summing up God's amazing love.

Matthew 20:9 The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and received a darinus.'

Karen went to be with the Lord on the 30 April 2007 with friends from ODT at her bedside, it has been a privilege for us all to be part of God's plan for Karen's eternal security. Please pray for her family that God will use her life to bring them to Jesus.

Summer Club

We are looking for God's people to help during the summer for the kids summer club. We plan to have the club on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10.30am - 3.00pm. It will consist of days out in the park (weather permitting), art galleries, transport museum etc-lots of fun and good memories. If you feel God is calling you to help please contact Moira on 0141243 2336. We also require volunteers to come into St Vincent Street Free Church on a Tuesday morning 10.00am-l.00pm to sort out clothes, oversee the distribution and tidy up (lunch provided)

Literacy Class

A literacy class has now started on a Monday morning from 10.30am-12.30pm. This class has been going on for the past seven weeks thanks to a Tutor from Glasgow's Nautical College called Doreen. Doreen comes in and works individually with the group at their point of need. We have a core group of four who come along and have found it very helpful no least a mother from Sudan called Jalella. We are able to pick Jalella up from her home with her 3 children all under the age of three and take her to St Vincent Street and have the kids looked after in our creche. Recently the students went to the college to have a tour and collect their student

Art Project

For the last 2 years our kids have been involved in an Art project along with other organisations about the affect of drugs on their lives either through family members or in their neighbourhood. The art work will be exhibited at the Glasgow School of Art from Thursday 26 July-Thursday 16 August. The exhibition will be open from 9.00am-5.00pm-free entry, please go along. Please pray for the children as they attend their own opening night on Wednesday 25 July that there will be God's healing in the hurt and pain hi the children's lives and good memories for many years to come.

Kids Camp

Over the last 30 years a Christian Summer Camp has been held in Kilmacolm and this is the second year we will be sending children we have been working with. Last year we sent 2 boys and 2 girls, one of the girls was very homesick and had to come home halfway through the week, but the other 3 had a great time.

This year we are sending 13 children over 3 different weeks from Sunday 8 to Saturday 28 July. Bellshill Baptist Church held a coffee morning with the proceeds paying for 5 children, a special thanks to all for this generous donation. Please pray that the children will have great fun and lots of good memories, but more important that their hearts will be open to Jesus through the witness and ministry of God's people at the camp.

A big thanks to Alex Osbourne the coordinator for the past two years, Alex has very kindly let us have 4 free places proving yet again how true scripture is 1 Corinthians 12:20 'As it is, there are many parts but one body.'

Tina is one of the mums we have been involved with over many years, she has just given birth to a baby boy called Jamie. Jamie wasn't due to be born until the end of July and only weighed 31b 4oz, both mum and baby are doing well, however Jamie will probably be hi hospital for another 9 weeks. Please pray for this family and that Jamie will grow up to be strong and healthy.

Please Pray

Just as we were about to send this letter we found out that Murdina, one of our volunteers has had to have an operation after tripping on a pavement two weeks ago, please pray for Donald and Murdina as a couple and especially for Murdina that she won't be in too much pain and that her hip will heal well.

Thank you for your continued support to the work we are involved in with the disadvantaged people of Glasgow. From Hugh and all at Open Door Trust Glasgow