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Christians Against Poverty Update

The Lurgan Centre of C.A.P. has been running for 3 years now. As many of you know, this centre is run primarily between the Parishes of Magheralin/St Saviours and Shankill Parish in Lurgan, although we have volunteers from many areas surrounding the Craigavon area.

For those of you unfamiliar with the work of C.A P. this involves a unique and non- judgemental approach to debt counselling, whereby families are supported along their journey towards freedom from debt.
Since our centre has been running, we have had 122 local families contact C.A.P. & who have been assigned appointments with our local Centre.
15 families have become debt free whilst working closely with C.A.P.

We have seen 14 people come to faith whilst working alongside C.A.P .- what an awesome privilege it has been to witness this!
We are currently working closely alongside 51 families, aiming to support them by our presence and prayers in their journeys towards freedom from debt.

An integral part of the success of C.A.P. is the role of their Befrienders. Befrienders are probably one of the most important cogs within the C.A.P. family – put simply, a befriender is simply a friend to the family in debt, providing a listening ear & demonstrating God’s love for the family in very simple & practical ways such as making a telephone call/text to the family, arranging to meet with the family for a coffee & chat or family outing, or by drawing alongside the family in prayer. At the present time we have around 24 active Befrienders to support the families in our care.
Befrienders do not have any set criteria except that they themselves know and have a relationship with our Lord, and that they aim to demonstrate God’s love for all by means of drawing alongside a family and offering practical support to that family.

24 Befrienders cannot adequately meet the needs of the families currently in our care, & unless we can enlist the help of others we will struggle to support any new families assigned to our centre.

Would you be able to be a friend to a family in need? – If you would like to learn more about the role of a Befriender we would love to see you at our next Befrienders meeting which is arranged for:-
Monday 15th April 2013 @ 8pm
St Saviour’s Church Lounge, Dollingstown

For any further information please contact:

Basil O’Malley         07910 287 505
Sharon Warnock        07427 543 311

We are also thrilled to be able to announce that Susan Sadler, from C.A.P will be speaking at Shankill Parish on their C.A.P. Sunday on 19/05/13. Please remember Susan in your prayers that she will touch the hearts of the people of Lurgan to help with C.A.P.’s ministry in any small way that they can.