On Sunday 5th December we are delighted to have Clare Hague from Christians Against Poverty (CAP) with us at our 9:15am, 11am and 6pm services.
Clare has detailed below the work that she does with CAP.
CAP partners with over 300 churches across the UK to bring freedom from unmanageable debt to the poorest in our communities and to bring hope for the future. It’s a fantastic charity, CAP has now been running over 25 years and during that time we have seen tens of thousands of people go debt free and lives transformed. Our services are free and available to all. As an organisation, we are unashamedly Christian (the clue is in our name and we only work through the church) and we are upfront about that in everything we do and from the moment someone makes an appointment with us. As part of our service, we offer to pray with people, look to share the love of Jesus with them and invite them to church - we find many people are open and respond positively - and many have found Christ through working with CAP, as well as becoming free from debt. With CAP there’s ‘Always Hope’ and it’s ‘Always through the Church’.
Here in Sheffield, the CAP debt centre is run out of St Thomas Philadelphia church, but we are a team of 5 debt coaches from different churches across the city (e.g. from Crookes, Hillsborough) supported by further volunteers from the churches who we call ‘befrienders’. We currently have over 50 clients and bookings up to a couple of months ahead.
As you can imagine, the need for our services is great and has increased massively since the pandemic and we are always looking to grow our team of supporters. I’d like to ask if you would be willing to get involved as a befriender? A befriender is someone who ‘becomes a friend’ of one or more of our clients and supports them on their CAP journey. For example, by coming on appointment visits with a debt coach (when we see people in their homes, we always go in pairs), regularly phoning a client to make sure they are ok or meeting them for a coffee, lending a listening ear, encouraging them and offering prayer as they go through their challenging journey to becoming debt free, perhaps inviting them to church or a church event, doing an emergency food shop for someone. It could be for a couple of hours a month or half an hour/an hour a week, whatever you feel would be right for you.
You won’t be thrown in at the deep end, there is a bit of training. The most important thing is to have a caring heart, a willingness to help and to share the love of Christ here in our community with those who really need it.
To find out more information about the work that CAP does please watch the below video.
CAP Changing the nation together with the Church
If you would like more information then Clare Hague would love to speak to you after our 9:15am, 11am or 6pm services on Sunday 5th December. If you would like to get in touch with Clare directly please get in touch with the church office and we can put you in touch. For more information about CAP and it’s work you can see here