Changing Seasons

With Caring For Life being based at Crag House Farm, we are always very aware of the changing seasons, whether we notice it in the altered hours of daylight, the fluctuating temperature, or the beautiful signs of the different seasons all around in the natural world. It is a blessing to be able to point out the beauty of creation to those who attend therapeutic projects here at the farm. Some people may be too lost in their own situations to be able to look up at the changing colours of the trees, or to look down at brightly coloured fungi, or the fascinating shells of nuts that have fallen from trees in our fruit and nut woodland zone. 

But as people begin to relax, to enjoy company on the projects and to feel safe here, their eyes are often opened to the beauty of the changing seasons.

We have to be careful to point out that fungi should be admired but not touched!  With the recent first frost of the season, some of the trees on the Farm are displaying beautiful colours, and this can also be a talking point with people attending projects here. Of course, we can always talk about the weather, especially as things seem to alter so quickly from windy and extremely wet weather, to bright, autumnal sunshine! 

Our Being There team making plans for the upcoming season.

The changing seasons also act as a reminder that Christmas is on the way. This may sound premature, but plans have to be drawn up well in advance of Christmas, in order to ensure that everyone supported by Caring For Life is provided for, at what can be a very isolated time for some. Plans are well underway for Christmas celebrations, making up special food hampers, ensuring there is a gift for everyone, and a host of detailed practical arrangements. Our Being There, housing support, team are kept busy with planning, and we are always deeply grateful for gifts and practical help from prayer supporters, our Caring For Life support groups and corporate volunteers. 

Although the seasons change, we are above all truly thankful to God for His unfailing, unchanging faithfulness.

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Food and Much More

As recent web articles show, this time of the year, traditionally “harvest time”, is wonderfully busy for us. Churches, support groups, organisations and schools send harvest gifts to us, with a stream of cars sometimes arriving all at once, to deliver the harvest to us. After sorting the food by category and date, a task undertaken by our Time For Jesus volunteers, staff and volunteers, including corporate volunteer groups, our food stores are replenished, ready for food parcels to be given out to those in need at any time during the year ahead. Members of our Being There (housing support) team make up food parcels for individuals  or families who are experiencing difficult times, due to a whole myriad of factors. Food parcels are made up and then delivered.

But this aspect of Caring For Life’s work is about so much more than giving a food parcel. This is a tremendously practical way of meeting an immediate need. If someone has no income, or drastically reduced income for whatever reason, there is an immediate need for food to sustain life. At Caring For Life we come across situations where people are choosing between heating their home or eating food, and this becomes a dangerous choice when winter sets in. Or we see families in which the parent may be ensuring the child eats, but not eating properly themselves. Not infrequently, we find people with empty cupboards in their kitchen. Some people may have a chronic health problem or be reliant on important medication, and poor nutrition has a very negative impact on their overall physical and mental health. 

At Caring For Life we come across situations where people are choosing between heating their home or eating food.

Thus, meeting the need for food is a wonderful way to provide quick, straightforward help. But delivering a food parcel also provides an opportunity for a gentle chat, some human contact, and the chance to see what other help is needed; what can be done to unravel the causes of “food poverty”.  Regular food parcels may be needed for some time, whilst a person’s financial situation stabilises and issues are sorted out.  Caring For Life is so thankful to be able to provide that regular help when it is needed, and so grateful for the harvest gifts which make this possible, enabling us to provide food.. and so much more .. for those in need. We thank God for the harvest and for the opportunity to share His love in this way.  

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Donating a Day

This week, a team from Lloyds Bank downed tools and donated a day to Caring For Life! We are immensely grateful to all our volunteers, including groups of corporate volunteers, who take time away from their usual duties to help us out.

The Lloyds volunteers knew what they were in for, some having volunteered in the past, so they knew they would be faced with a mountain of tinned food to sort!

A wonderful and very welcome flood of harvest gifts arrives at Caring For Life at this time of the year, donated by churches and groups up and down the country. But it all has to be sorted. The Lloyds team worked throughout the day, sorting tins into not only food types, but also date categories, so that they can be used effectively for food parcels.

Their help was crucial and made all the difference in enabling us to store the food which has been donated. Every food parcel that will be given out in the year ahead, every Christmas hamper, and every free meal served, depends on careful sorting of food at this stage.

We are truly grateful that the Lloyds volunteers donated a day, and their time was certainly well used. 

People who donate food and volunteers who help to sort it are all a part of a wonderful ministry of providing very practically and compassionately for people who are finding life itself a  real  struggle. Much of our work at Caring For Life involves giving people time; time to listen and really hear what a person is trying to say, time to sit with someone who simply needs company, or time to advocate for them when the world of housing applications, benefits or bills is just overwhelming. 

We in turn do thank all our volunteers who give Caring For Life the valuable donation of time.

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