John - Homeless 1

Over the last 6/7 weeks we have had a challenging time dealing with a homeless person who decided to erect a campsite in the ground of our church.
To bring you up to date.....
His name is John. John pitched his tent at the back of church because he had connections in our parish. His sister lived across the road. John has been homeless for approximately 15 years and has drug and alcohol misuse issues. He isn't very healthy. It has been challenging because as a Christian you have an urge to help this person, to provide food and a warm drink. Reverend Helen and myself provided for him, we also kept him up to date with his probation officer and appts at the doctors. John's story was very said, he had a family and was part of the community teaching youngsters Kick Boxing then it all went pear shaped and he chose the wrong path. He has told us he is ready to change and sort his life out. I, we believed him and wanted to help him succeed. What John was good at is telling us what we needed to hear, playing each of us off one another, the drugs agency, probation, Reverend Helen, his sister.
Then a ray of hope, The Edge (Drugs) found John a place at Betel of Britain a Christian form of rehab in Birmingham. John's sister took him and got him settled in. 24hrs later and he was back in Manchester. In the mean time I had took his tent down.
John wasn't ready for cold turkey, he just isn't desperate enough to go through that sort of treatment. John set up camp again behaind church, we had told the congregation he had gone to rehab much to their relief and now he was back.
A couple of weeks has past now and I'm not sure what can be done, John doesn't seem to want to help himself, he doesn't attend his appointments with the people who can provide for him. I pray for God to intervene and sort out this problem. I actually wondered why John was sent to our Church and now I think I know why. It's not neccessarily to help John but to highlight what seems to be a growing problem in our area, homelessness, drugs and alcohol.

Things I Pray For...

1. The safety of my family
2. Patience - I need a lot of it
3. Forgiveness - because I don't have a lot of patience
4. That certain people will feel the love of God, be strengthened, and overcome whatever it is they're burdened by, illness, a situation whatever it may be.
5. Dedication, motivation, and self-discipline
6. That I can accomplish everything I need to
7. Thanks for my family and all the things we've been blessed with

Family Fun Day - Kayaking

We wanted to do this in the summer hols but for one reason or another we ended up doing this at the end of October. It wasn't that cold with your wet suit on. Beth was the only one to complete all the tasks without falling in. :o)

Looks like we'll be doing this for Becca's birthday in July. Next the climbing wall................