Homelessness - the next stage

Well, it’s been over a year since be church really felt compelled by God to engage with the issue of homelessness.  As summer ends and the temperatures drop, the nights draw closer and we’re all a little more aware of our thankfulness of having a warm place to come home to at the end of the day.  But not everyone.  For many people there is dread, fear and an increased vulnerability as winter for them means, cold shop door steps, busy London streets, an increasing need for food and shelter and not much to look forward to. 

Thanks  to many charities such as Housing Justice there will be winter shelters to bed down for the night. Day shelters to eat, shower and rest in a safe place with people supporting them and helping them get back on their feet and back to a place of sustainability and security.  Thank God, literally, for these charities, or more specifically the people who volunteer their time to make sure provision like this is possible – it literally saves lives!

Yesterday Housing Justice held Mentor Training for more volunteers who want to help and support these people as they make the transition back to a ‘normal’ way of life.  The M&M project run by pairs volunteers of all ages and backgrounds up with people who have found themselves homeless in the hope that through friendship, encouragement and practical help homeless people can be integrated back into main stream society and into a healthier way of living.

Being made aware of the red tape that faces people when they find themselves homeless was just incredible – no address = no benefits, no benefits = no income, no income = no home, no home = no address and so the cycle continues. Asylum seekers in detention centres and refugees being given little help in finding a new home and access to funds. The picture is pretty bleak. But thanks to the pilot mentoring scheme that ran last year, many are now living happy, fulfilled lives thanks to volunteers giving up just a couple of hour per week. 

One story that filled the hearts of everyone there was this: A man in his 60’s sadly lost his wife, and while grieving his loss, found himself without a home too due to his name being emitted from the tenancy agreement.  A small detail over looked and the outcomes, devastating. But thanks to Housing Justice and the M&M programme he was housed in sheltered accommodation.  His mentor met up with him weekly and helped support him through the move and the grief.  As time went on, the man in his 60’s met a women at the shelter who had been his child hood sweet heart and later on married her!  The mentor had played such an integral part in this man’s healing and development that he was asked to be best man at the wedding. A happy ending.

At be we want to give our time to befriend and mentor more people like this.  We know we are privileged to have homes, job and be part of a community that love and care for each other and we don’t want to keep that to ourselves.  Thanks to Housing Justice we can now be part of the M&M programme and mentor others.  We want to see His Kingdom come!

Interested in being involved in the M&M project?  Visit the Housing Justice Website @ http://www.housingjustice.org.uk/pages/mentoring-befriending-the-mm-project.html

More Than A Song

Last year as I drove down the Broadway into my new home; Wimbledon, I past the YMCA and I remember my friend jokingly saying “well, if things don’t work out you could go and stay there! We chuckled as the image of indians and builders flashed through our heads and I’m pretty sure that  there was some a small rendition of the song in there too. 

Little did I know that nine months on, the YMCA would have impacted my life so much and that I’d be singing it’s praises and be a huge supporter of their work.

So you think the YMCA is just a song?  Think again…

Walking into the Wimbledon YMCA you can just sense an ethos.  Before people speak or before you even get past the main reception you can just sense an atmosphere that allows you to relax and be at peace. It’s a place to work out, a place to socialise, a place to eat, a place to bring your children, I place to leave your children! It’s a real home to many and safe haven to many more.  A place to pray and a place to work.  It is a place were music is made and youngers experiment with sounds and explore their talent.  A place that reaches out to teenagers by providing on the street interaction as they step off their buses and trains after a day at school. It’s a place of sport and competition, a place of prayer, a place of counselling, a place were church meets.   A place of safety and a place of friendship.  Ironically though it’s not the place at all, I mean, all this isn’t held in the brick is it?  It’s in the people, the ethos,  the character,  the care, the spirit of the place. 

The YMCA’s symbol is a triangle, the 3 points being mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing and spiritual wellbeing.  I love what it stands for! SO many of us are burnt out mentally, spiritually thirst and physically weak and drained. Couldn’t we all do with a bit more balance in our life?

Yesterday I got the privilege of spending the day with the YMCA staff at the Kingston Dragon Boat Race to raise money for this amazing organisation.  I can confirm that all the qualities I list above, are in the people! I want to be part of the YMCA family, do you?

Help support the YMCA in all it’s work by sponsoring me for the Dragon Boat racing. 

Please send donations to:

SJi, The Church, Tolverene Rd,  Raynes Park, SW20 8RA.

Thank you.

Cath Lyden is fundraising for Faith in Action Homelessness Project

Cath Lyden is fundraising for Faith in Action Homelessness Project


Faith in Action provides a twice weekly drop in for people who are homeless or rough sleepers. They can have a shower, wash their clothes,have two good meals and establish friendships with our team of volunteers.

I'm helpng raise money so that this amazing work can be continued by doing a skydive on my 30th birthday!

Please please sponsor me, all donations go straight to the work of FIA.

Go on - what's a £10??

Cath's Blog: What's your status?

Cath's Blog: What's your status?: "Remember when facebook would always start [name] is… [name] is so broke that she had to eat her cereal with a fork to save on milk.[name] is..."

What's your status?

Remember when facebook would always start [name] is…

[name] is so broke that she had to eat her cereal with a fork to save on milk.

[name] is the guy who put the FUN in dysfunctional

[name] is joining the army. He hears it's a great way to meet people. Then kill them.

[name] is getting behind early so he can have plenty of time to catch up

Since the launch of facebook I’ve found myself becoming the Will Ferrel character in Stranger than Fiction.  I narrate every aspect of my life,  Cath is struggling to get up this morning.  Cath enjoys her Soya latte in the morning,  Cath is glad trains run every 3 minutes in London, Cath is enjoying the gym…   even when I don’t update my status online, I do it mentally every 2/3 minutes!  And yes, I continue to speak to myself in the 3^rd person.

This morning someone asked me to write a short biography on myself for some publicity.  I wrote the words Cath is… and stopped. What?! Hang on, let’s try again, Cath is… stop.  What? How was this happening?  I finish this sentence at least 10 times a day, why now am I struggling?

.. because the biog was not asking me what I was doing, how I was feeling, what I thought or what I had to eat that day, but asking me who I was.  Last year this sentence would have read ‘Cath is a PE teacher’, but since my change in job I wondered, who am I?  Am I a youth worker?   An intern?  A supply teacher?  Nope, none of these.  This thought for many people would freak them out, I know it did to me when I first gave up my job.  Who am I? What am I? What defines me now?

I’m glad that today, I can sit with a blank space after Cath is… and not worry, because the one thing I know is that Cath is a child of God.  God is my dad, he’s looking out for me, he is my security.  This leaves me free to be a teacher, cleaner, actor, caretaker, mother, friend, sister, slave! And it not change ME one little bit.

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12

Cath's Blog: A Date Worth the Wait

Cath's Blog: A Date Worth the Wait: "If you know me at all you will be all too aware that I have a slight, and not at all unhealthy and stalker like obsession with Declan Donnel..."

A Date Worth the Wait

If you know me at all you will be all too aware that I have a slight, and not at all unhealthy and stalker like obsession with Declan Donnelly! (half of the well known Ant and Dec duo.  What? Which one is he?  He is the one who stands on the right and has the slightly smaller forehead!) 

I don’t quite know when this love, I mean, obsession, began, but I recall from a very early age turning down any engagement that involved a Saturday morning. This time of the week was sacred.  It was blocked out the diary as ‘me and Dec time’ (ok there was few others watching him too on SMTV live, but still!)

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be in the audience of these shows. I entered numerous competitions to make that dream a reality.  “Ask the bill payers permission before you ring” was never a rule I really listened to and the competition line became number one speed dial on our home phone.  As I grew up, or perhaps ‘got older’ is a better term in this instance, the want to meet him grew stronger.  As I hit my twenties I decided that phoning into these TV shows was slightly more wrong and I would have to find an alternative route to my destiny. J I applied for tickets online to see them as they moved into shows like Saturday night Take Away and Push the Button. The application process was monotonous as every year I filled out the form and waiting for the response only to receive an email with the subject ‘tickets denied’.  In hindsight declaring love for Dec on these forms was perhaps inappropriate.

Two weeks ago however, after a recent application I received an email offering me six tickets to ‘Push the Button’ filming this weekend!!!  (Again, for those of you who know me you will understand and sympathise with those that had to live with me at this time).

So, Saturday night was the big night.  The girls dolled ourselves up and left for the studios mid afternoon.  Getting to the front of the queue was of upmost importance to get the best seats. It was cold and in those killer heels we all wore, pretty painful too. The hours of waiting were spend laughing and giggling imagining the night ahead.  The girls jokingly mocked me and became increasingly concerned for my sanity as I grew in excitement at the event about to take place – finally, I would get to see him.  

Finally, the gates opened and our audience bands were placed around our wrists. When we saw the numbers on them began at 134, we knew it was a job well done! We were ushered into the studio and the heat.  The stewards shepherded us up the stairs of the stands, and further up the stairs we went, and further and further with our faces dropping at each increase in altitude. There we sat at the back of the studio, not enamoured to say the least.  The injustice of it was written all over our faces – “this far back, are you kidding me?” Each one of use used our charm, wit and in the end feisty female nature to plead for better seats.  Is it wrong that I could have cried? Justice prevailed and we were moved to the middle section a lot nearer the front! Not long now….

The lights went down and the anticipation fell on the audience.  The warm up guy stopped and said the time had come, the boys would be here any second.  He drew breath and introduced then “Ant and Dec…” rapturous applause and screaming (no, not just me!)   standing ovations, and there he was, standing just meters away, more handsome,  cheeky and funny than I could have possibly imagined and right in that moment, those years of waiting fell away, this was a date well worth the wait!

As a Christian I can’t help but draw parallels.  We are waiting for that glorious moment when we meet Christ. How long have you been waiting? How much money have you spent on books, DVDs, Christian conferences, preparing yourself for that moment?  How many prayers have you petitioned to Him, all answered but some with the subject ‘denied’? How many friends have mocked you and told you that you’re crazy? How much injustice have you suffered?  How much perseverance have you had to exercise?  And yet, when that day comes, we will stand there and there He will be; more beautiful, more radiant, above our imagination and expectation in every single way.  The years we have endured will pass away and it will all be worth it. 

If I can get so excited and gain so much fulfilment from meeting Declan Donnelly, how much more can I expect when Christ comes home?

Sleep Easy

Having taught PE in yorkshire for 6 years, you know how to keep yourself warm when you're outside in the freezing temperatures all day. You become a bit of a pro!  So at no point in my preparation for the Sleep Easy project on Saturday night, did I think I had taken on this challenge ill equipped! Layered up with 2 thermal tops, 1 fleece, 1 cashmere jumper, 1 Rugby training jacket, 1 pair of thermal trousers, leggings, jeans, 2 pairs of socks, fluffy ugg - type boots, legwarmers, gloves, scarf and hat, plus 4 season sleeping bag, I thought I'd be sweating! How wrong you can be.

Walking around earlier in the night was fairly easy, but the challenge is in the title - SLEEP easy. 
As soon as you lay down on the ground, with only your cardboard box for insultation, the deep cold sensation shoots straight to your bones. Within half an hour you are shivering to try and keep warm and the only thing you can concentrate on is how cold you are.  Sleep is virtually impossible.  I can understand the need to drink alcohol! I could have happily had a bottle of Whisky to keep myself warm, stop me from thinking and to send me into a deeper level of sleep. As an alternative I wanted to keep eating to keep myself warm too, I had the priviledge of buying food, how many sleep out every night in minus temperatures on an empty stomach?

Besides the cold I was surprised at other things that I hadn't considered:

What do you do with your valuables?  I had a mobile phone, camera and wallet, and I know not every homeless person would have these, but surely what little money or precious things they have would have been even more valuable than my belongings.  I tucked mine into my jacket pockets, but was constantly aware of my need to protect them, I was scared they may be taken, and this awareness stopped me from having peace of mind. It sounds silly but the bulk prevented me sleeping on my front too!

At 2:30am the club next to us emptied and a large group of people spilled onto the streets, loud and lary, drunk and disorderly.  Your vulnerability is at an all time high.  Lying there, a 'young' female, being a target for verbal and physical abuse is very scary.  I was glad that I had 170 other people around me, and security gaurds patrolling the area, I can't imagine the fear of being in that situation alone.
At one point I had a sore tummy, I thought I had caught a bug that had been going round my flatmates.  I lay on a park bench in my sleeping bag and tried to sleep it off.  As I lay there, I couldn't help but think that this situation was aweful enough for a healthy person, never mind being sick too.

The experience was far more emotional and physically difficult that I had expected.  The only thing that got me through the night was knowing that come 6am, I could pack up my stuff and go home to my lovely bed.  I almost felt guilty when that time arrived - how many don't have that priveledge? How many sleep rough, in basic clothing, with an empty stomach and no company night after night after night after night...

The stigma surrounding homelessness is one that I want to challenge to finish on:  Before the night begun, we watched a DvD on homelessness.  One man in his 40's spoke and told his story.  He had been off fighting in the war, as he returned from service he found that his wife had run away with his best mate and had cleared out the bank account. He was left with nothing. With no family left and no friends to turn to, he found himself homeless.  For 18 months he slept on the street until he found safety and security at the YMCA.  They have him back on his feet, are helping him in a new career and he has somewhere he can now call home. 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE donate to this amazing organisation that helps hundreds of people find a home, a community and a place that they can rebuild their life. Even if it's a £5 I can't express enough how importnat this is.

http://my.artezglobal.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=312546&Lang=en-CA


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Welcome!

Hello everyone! 

Well, since I'm had the fortune of meeting SOOOoo many lovely people in my life, I'm finding it hard to keep up with you all.  Sending updates every few months is all well and good but sometimes it's the day to day stuff that we miss!  So this my blog, for all those one off moments, funny stories,  thoughts about life and anything else that I want really. Let the blogging commence...