IT'S MONDAY - SO IT MUST BE...

...Community Fridge Day and what a busy day it was.  BBC Points West were due to come and film what happens at the Community Fridge so we were all there early and beavering away to try and get things in place before they arrived.  If you live in the BBC Points West area, it should be on after the main News at 6.30 and maybe even at 10.30 this evening.

We always pray before the doors are opened so with just two minutes to go, we all assembled in the kitchen for prayer.  Having prepared the Prayer Table in the main hall, I peered through the hatch and asked Debs and Heather to smile for the camera, just to get them acclimatised and ready before the television cameras rolled.  Debs asked if I had got her best side and I love the expression on Heather’s face!  I’m not quite sure what she was thinking, but her face is a picture! I think most of us had put on our lippie “just in case” - don't want to be seen without it on TV - and there was a lovely atmosphere in both the room where the food is laid out and also in the Community Café this morning.  

We often have various agencies visiting the Community Café and this morning we had two very friendly ladies from Healthwatch Swindon, who were there to listen to what people in the café are happy with concerning health and social care services in our town and also to make sure that those running services put people at the heart of care.  

This fits in very well with what we are trying to do in the Community Café and at the Community Fridge, which is making relationships, listening, helping and befriending people during difficult, trying or sad times in their lives.  Sometimes those who come into the café are happy to chat to the volunteers, but at other times, it is good that we have other agencies in to help them in more specific ways.  These agencies usually have pens and pencils and other goodies - and who doesn’t like a freebie?

There were also two ladies there from the CAB, Citizens’ Advice Bureau.  It’s always good to see their smiling faces and they often come to offer advice to people with any problems they may have.  These could be relating to financial issues, help with welfare benefits, immigration, or perhaps to advise about help they can get with disabilities or long term health conditions and there are usually some freebies on their table too but sadly, I forgot to take a photograph of the ladies - I will remember next time. 

It’s good for us, as volunteers, to know what services both these agencies offer, so that if, when we speak to people who come into the Community Café, they need help, we know where to direct them.

I thought the fruit and vegetables looked very colourful this morning which was why I took the other photographs in my collage - and the last shots are some members of the Borough Council and the Television team chatting together.

Now I need to put the finishing touches to my Presentation for tomorrow and hope that my laptop behaves - and perhaps at the end of that, we may have a few new members for Blip!

Just after 1.30 p.m. several people arrived for the new Computer Course which is being run by Swindon Borough Council - and also others were arriving for the Friends and Fun afternoon - I said it was busy - special thanks to D. who carried the tables upstairs - we couldn't have managed without him!

As volunteers, and many of us are Christians from Gorse Hill Baptist Church, we are providing a service for the community, so we support one another but we are also aware that those of other faiths or none, are part of our volunteering team, so we also seek to support them and I must say, we have a great Team.  

“A Christian reveals true humility 
     by showing 
          the gentleness of Christ, 
by being always ready to help others, 
     by speaking kind words 
          and performing unselfish acts, 
which elevate and ennoble 
     the most sacred message 
          that has come to our world.” 
Ellen G. White