Encouragement for recipients and time givers in equal measure!
When Woking Besom started in 2006, it was just a band of 4 or 5 timegivers, a dining room and single garage for storage, using personal cars to transport things on the two afternoons a week that we worked, combined with lots of love and prayer.
Fast Forward to 2021:
A welcoming “shed”: our spiritual “home” where we meet at 0930 hours on Wednesdays and Fridays to worship, pray and enjoy fellowship with our wonderful Woking Besom family before heading out to assess, collect and deliver furniture, and assess new recipients’ needs.
We now have about 20 regular timegivers from churches all over Woking and have two regular delivery days and lots of administration time serving our community.
We have a white van (donated by a local church member) which was brand new in 2019. The previous red van, which saw sterling service for 13 years, was also donated! God is so good.
We serve 100 – 150 families/ individuals each year; some may just receive some kitchen items, e.g. a toaster, while others may receive an entire houseful of furniture. What a joy it is to be the BRIDGE between those that GIVE and those that are in NEED! How blessed we are.
Church groups regularly undertake projects either decorating or garden clearance/ tip runs. These are great for team building and for building relationships with recipients that go on and on!
We receive donations of cash to pay the rent, insurance, maintenance and fuel for the van, from individuals and churches in the town – we do not ask for anything but pray, pray, pray .
BESOM is such an easy way to meet and help the disadvantaged in our community. It is a wonderful “vehicle” to be God’s hands and feet, to share God’s love in action, to pray with people.
A comment from a recipient when asked if she would like us to pray for her, having delivered a cooker and washing machine to her new home, said:
“No-one has ever offered to pray for me before. Thank You”
She heard our prayers with tears streaming down her face and asked how she could find God!!!