It’s that time again for our Christmas Hampers project. You can give through the Besom to families and individuals in the Elmbridge area who have received Besom’s support over the past year. You can make a difference and help to bring God’s love into their homes by creating (as a group) a hamper choc full of edible Christmas goodies, treats, some decorations and a few thoughtful gifts.
To pledge the offer of a hamper and be allocated a recipient to tailor it to, please get in touch with us as soon as possible at hampers@besominesher.com. We will send you everything you need to know, including drop-off dates and opportunities to deliver it yourselves to your allocated recipients.
Be the hands and feet of Jesus and join us to deliver hampers in the first part of December as part of a small experienced team. It’s a great way to connect first-hand to those in need, and offer warmth, kindness and the love of Jesus on their doorsteps!
Here are a couple of recent texts we received from recipients. Thank you to everyone who gives through the Besom, your generosity has a real impact on people’s lives.
“I just want to thank u 4 everything u have done 4 me! It means so much to me xx”
Local Mum
“Just to say a massive thank you for the beautiful wardrobe that was kindly donated to me. I love it loads, it looks Fab!”
Does the word, ‘Coffee’ have a special meaning for you?
How asking and listening for God to speak presented an opportunity to pray for a recipient moving into a new flat in Molesey.
Our time-giver prayed as they drove to meet a recipient for a furniture needs assessment. ‘Is there anything you would like to say to this guy, Lord?’ ‘Coffee’ He replied. “Er? Does he need us to bring a coffee maker? Should I go and buy one? Or perhaps I should offer to take him to a coffee shop?”………
During the assessment, the team looked for an opening to mention coffee. When they told him they had prayed to God about him and was the word, Coffee, anything special to him, he replied,’Yes’! He had a strong childhood memory of rich coffee brewed in the kitchen with his mum. She had recently passed away (overseas) and he had no means of being with her, or at her funeral. Coffee also made him ill due to the medication he was on, so he had to avoid it.
So a simple word from God opened up the conversation to share His compassion, listen and offer prayer for his loss and also his health. Conversations followed on subsequent visits to support him with furnishing his home, that led to questions of faith and God. Please pray for Riccardo* as he recovers from domestic abuse, marriage breakdown, financial hardship and not being able to live with his daughter.
*name changed
Enabling customised giving
Besom loves to help you give as God inspires you to – in March we were approached by Adrian de la Touche’s homegroup (from HTC) who wanted to give Easter eggs to children who had received our Christmas Hampers.
They bought a batch of Real Easter Eggs which included the Easter message, packed them in beautiful gift bags, phoned to organise deliveries and prayed over everything. The two teams had wonderfully long chats on doorsteps about everything, tears, smiles from children and more. A really positive experience and the desire to go bigger and further next year!
Sad to say “Goodbye” to our temporary space to work together and store donated gifts was handed back after 9 wonderful months. THANK YOU HTC!
-Maria moving on to new things-
Her amazing admin skills and deep compassion, coupled with oodles of joy, enabled so many people to give their household goods or their time through the Besom. We are so thankful for the time you gave us Maria!
-Pausing for prayer-
With Maria’s departure as Scheduler and no premises our activities are on hold. We are in uncharted territory and have “Re-set to Zero”. Rather than fill the vacant space ourselves, we believe we should use this time to pray for fresh resources. Waiting to see what God will do next and whom He brings to replace Maria. We are trusting for new givers and premises so we can continue to be a bridge to those who are in need.
We will not be accepting new referrals or any further donations until God provides us with new time-givers for our team.
Do you hear Him calling?
We know God will be speaking to someone about getting involved with The Besom and we will be praying for them to respond. If you feel God is nudging you to share your admin or operational skills and be part of the team, do contact Annie – we’re praying for you!
Some of our great time givers and trustees with the core team! Whilst clearing out Willow Room in August, it was a great opportunity to stop and have lunch together. We’re praying for more times like this in our future home…
In June, two groups from HTC asked to undertake outdoor projects. We sent one team to hack back and clear a large, overgrown lawn full of 2m high brambles on one of the hottest days of the year – there was so much waste that they held a bonfire to clear it all. The other team went to clear and dispose of broken furniture and household rubbish from a front garden as the recipient’s car had broken down and they had no financial resources to repair it or remove the stuff. The team were unexpectedly assisted by the father and son who had moved all the rubbish onto the path verge before they’d arrived. The half tonne of rubbish was loaded onto the Besom van so quickly and the Dump visit happened in the blink of an eye, that there was time for coffee and good chats by the Thames in Walton afterwards!
“Thank you so much for everything you have done, amazing work.” Delighted recipient!
Children Support Services requestedurgent support for a large family with a massive house/garden clearance of accumulated black bin bags, broken furniture, wood, bikes and appliances in order to move away from undesirable influences on their teenage children to a safer environment.
Prayers for suitable ‘household bubble’ teams & Covid-safe logistics were answered in the course of a week! With the dump waste permit secured, the first team skilfully packed the van with all outside rubbish in less than two hours and headed off to the dump. On moving day, a few weeks later, (and with different time-givers) the broken furniture was removed from inside the old house, and new furniture (beds/sofas etc) was delivered to the waiting father in the new property.
Relief! for a formidable task that the family couldn’t undertake alone due to expense, stress and the mental health suffered by the mother after a Covid-bereavement in the family and a sick daughter due for a serious operation. Summing up her relief, it was brilliantly expressed by what she said to one of our team as they shut the doors on a van load of rubbish and furniture.
Pause for Thanksgiving This clearance project has given them a fresh start, with lovely beds for the teenagers (rather than mattresses on the floor), a new double bed and bedding instead of a broken one for the parents, two lovely new sofas and the ease of beginning to settle into a new home and community without all the mess and clutter that had built up around them and kept the teenagers from fleeing the home. We are so pleased to enable our time-givers to practically love and serve this lovely family. Thank you Lord!
Practical projects like these make a huge difference to recipients, and, as one of our time-givers, Judy, who helped clear Gary’s brambles explained, is really satisfiying to be part of: “I enjoy doing something practical that makes a difference. Another task I’ve found fulfilling is making alterations to donated curtains so recipients can enjoy warmth and privacy. I’ve got a machine and sewing skills, so it’s something else I can offer. Of course, then sometimes Besom has to pray for other people to give time to put up the tracks! It’s amazing how skills we take for granted can be put to use. We recently helped a disabled man with two children and it struck me when I saw how empty their neat, tidy home was that so nearby there are people really struggling to do their best for their families. There’s a lot of need out there, we’re just not always aware of it, nor how easy it is for us to make a significant difference.”
After assisting with an outside clearance for a hoarder recently, Oladotun Solaja feels similarly, “You go into people’s homes and see what a difference basically offering just two hours of your time and the use of your muscles makes to them! Although I work full time, there’s some flexibility with remote working which means I can sometimes give time to do a van run moving furniture, so being available is something I try to prioritise. I never finish a session without God having shown me something or giving me something to reflect on. Some days I even get to see a miracle happen!
Dot’s found doing recent van runs has blessed him in other ways too. “I’ve missed church with its opportunities to connect and serve during this Spring’s lockdown. Online church and what we’re permitted to do currently just isn’t the same. But God giving me practical ways to help others through van runs, and taking part in projects has re-grounded my faith. He has such a heart for the poor and helping them is at the core of our faith.”
In the last few weeks you may have reached the end of your annual round of home and garden spring cleaning. But when your garden is submerged under a thicket of brambles and you lack the tools to hack your way through, or means of rubbish disposal, it can be overwhelming and the space can become permanently unusable.
To enable Gary* to return home after his long stay in hospital recovering from a breakdown when his carer Dad moved into a nursing home, Besom had already started supplying some essential furniture. But Gary’s Social Worker knew that as a Vulnerable Adult, his mental health would be impacted by returning home to a huge task which he had no way of achieving, and being unable to sit outside would exacerbate the challenge he faced of now living alone. The Social Worker consulted Besom about garden clearance during the lockdown period, and we decided we could safely go ahead. We prayed for God to supply pairs of time-givers, to take it in turns to clear the brambles and it was completed in March. Since then, a financial gift designated to support Vulnerable Adults has been offered, and this gives us an opportunity for a further ‘make-over’ project for some new time-givers to come forward to beautify and create a low-maintenance garden.
‘How could inviting the Foreign Secretary, First Secretary of State and local Constituency MP for Esher and Walton, Rt Hon Dominic Raab be such a relaxed, fun and joyful way to go out on a van run earlier this morning?’
Due to social distancing protocols we went
out with Mr Raab in a mini vehicular convoy instead of sitting together in the front cab of the Besom van. It is usually this time spent in the cab chatting and reflecting on their experiences that our time-givers value the most.
In the preceding ten days, the logistical exercise in planning the van run was no mean feat. Besom doesn’t publicise precisely what their recipients need as we rely on God prompting people to give at the right time to meet those needs. Neither do we actively fundraise for money with which we buy items. Nor can we control the timing of new incoming referrals or their geographical location. Would there be donations offered and needs matched in time for us to build a van run schedule on the date offered and committed to by Dominic Raab’s Parliamentary Office?
Unbridled Joy
So the build up to Friday morning included lots of prayer because of uncertainties, , hard work and the pressure of responsibility in getting the safety and logistics right for a high profile guest. As a team we decided to focus on the giver (the key principle of The Besom vision): we put Mr Raab (the politician) out of our minds and focussed on him as an individual who wanted to give us his precious time, and also provide a worthwhile opportunity for him to spend time learning about our ministry. Without answered prayers, the activities of Besom simply would not happen. Because the Besom vision and our faith call us to rely on God’s provision, we choose to trust that all will come together at the right time.. And this morning it did:our team’s prayers were answered! A formerly homeless gentleman suffering with cancer and relationship breakdown had been rehoused by Elmbridge Council and needed furniture. Of particular urgency was a bed and kitchen starter pack because all he had was an airbed and a TV in the flat. We don’t have storage facilities, so the precise matching of his needs with the timing and nature of the donations is where the donors, and the Besom team members , see God evidencing His loving kindness for the vulnerable and needy. It is truly a joy to see this happen!
This Friday morning, we discovered afresh that there is a lightness and a liberation in leaving God to attend to the details of the plan and to release His resources through any means He chooses! As a team we were free to love, care and bring hope to this vulnerable gentleman setting up his new home in West Molesey.
Despite the torrential rain, Mr Raab really got stuck in! Joy is infectious and laughter and smiles were shared between everyone. Even though we got soaked shifting the heavy mattress, chest
of drawers, starter pack and more up two flights of stairs to the waiting recipient, he was blessed with furniture and his gratitude in receiving sorely-needed items also blessed us as we saw that our service made a tangible difference to him. Not only that, but the whole morning left a mark on us too for the Besom team had been used by God to bless others, “….for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9: v7)!
