In addition to the Days Out – we have also recently started: Computer Classes, ESOL Classes & Cookery Lessons (in partnership with Mustard Tree)

Tags: Meaningful Lives by admin
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Since our last newsletter (despite the weather!) we have had a number of BOAZ Days Out, including: a visit to an African Circus, Alderley Edge, visits to Manchester Museum & the Manchester Art Gallery

This past autumn we were generously invited to stay as guests of the Iona community, this was a wonderful opportunity for relaxation & building relationships - see separate listing for details & photographs

If you would like to help with a Day Out or would like to offer to arrange an event i.e. organized walk, museum visit etc contact the BOAZoffice

Tags: Asylum, Meaningful Lives by admin
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We have now completed a number of BOAZRoadshow Presentations – although at times numbers have been small there has always been a positive feedback & response

We have now revised & updated the BOAZRoadshow (this includes a Quiz, Video, drama, a personal story by an asylum seeker & presentations on various aspects of the BOAZ work) & lasts for approximately 1 hr 15 minutes (including time for worship songs, prayers & Scripture readings) – if you would like the team come & give a presentation to your church or housegroup contact Dave or Nigel, in the office, & they will make arrangements

Tags: Asylum, Immigration, Meaningful Lives, Prayer by admin
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We have a lot of other GOOD NEWS recently:

BOAZ has been involved in two marriages recently & in both cases we have previously worked with the grooms

two couples that boaz has worked with have had babies (with a third on the way!)

BOAZ has recently ‘partnered’ with Green Pastures Housing (www.greenpastureshousing.co.uk) – this a really exciting development – a relationship has built over a period of time with Pastor Pete Cunningham

This Partnership with GPH allows for real ethical investment with funds nominated for boaz the monies can be used to help finance the purchase of new properties for BOAZ: GPH pays a yearly dividend & the funds remain the property of the investor

Contact the BOAZoffice for details of this exciting investment opportunity

Tags: Asylum, News, Uncategorized by admin
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Early one Monday morning in August my mobile phone rang. Monday morning calls are rarely good news – usually they are referrals for accommodation that we do not have, or requests of some other kind. But this one was different. It was very good news. One of the ladies who came to the very first Destitution Project back in 2003 was ringing to tell me that she had just given birth to a baby girl & that, after nearly 5 years of destitution, finally she had been given leave to remain.

Now, we can’t claim that it was all our doing, far from it. But her story of injustice was featured in our very first newsletter in 2004. We asked people to pray for her. Subsequently I went with her to her MP. Later my wife Shona & I visited her in Styal prison, where she had been taken for working in a pizza parlour without documents. She had just come out of the prison hospital after trying to kill herself by drinking disinfectant. None of our efforts, on their own, got her refugee status, but I am sure that it helped her keep going when everything seemed futile, & I am equally sure that the prayers of the saints did reach heaven, & move the hand of God to intervene.

Just one week later another friend, who can still be seen in our literature collecting his weekly food parcel, was also given a UK visa. Again, we can’t claim any major part in that, but, like the previous lady, Maron was one of the first to come to the Destitution Project. I remember it so well, because he had not eaten for 3 days. It was there that he met his future wife, who was working for the Red Cross. We have kept in touch, prayed for him & his family, & offered what moral support we could. More importantly, many others have prayed for him too. And God has answered those prayers.

I write this as an encouragement to us all never to give up, until we attain our goal, which is the total eradication of destitution amongst asylum seekers in the UK. It is a big task, but we have a big God, who has invested everything in His church, & expects us to work with Him to bring about His will on earth. That’s why Paul the apostle writes to the church in Galatia

“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing IF WE DON’T GIVE UP.”

Whatever we feel like, however long it takes, whatever it costs – for the sake of people like these – GIVING UP IS NOT AN OPTION!

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