The Besom in Esher – Charitable Incorporated Organisation – 1182123

We’ve had some great matches of items recently. One example was for the Syrian refugee family we’ve been helping. We have a wonderful Giver who has in past given many amazing items of new baby equipment, but as we have not had a request for baby items recently we had not been in touch with them for sometime. We were so delighted when just after the refugee family told us of their need for a pushchair that our wonderful Giver, who we had not spoken to for a year, called us out of the blue to offer us a new child’s pushchair! It was such a joy to deliver it to the family and it will be such a blessing to them.

Imagine a Christmas without presents, decorations, or lovely food, this is a reality for many local people today. You can make a difference and bring a bit of sparkle into homes that have so little. Again this Christmas The Besom in Esher will deliver Hampers to families and individuals in the Elmbridge and Chessington area that we have helped over the past year.

To find out how your church group can make a Christmas hamper to give through The Besom please get in touch with us by email at hampers@besominesher.com. Please respond by Friday 11 November if possible. Once we hear from you we will forward all the instructions on how to make and fill your hamper.  We will also invite you to join in and deliver the hampers in the early part of December as part of a small team.

We met and assessed another Syrian refugee family in Walton on Monday for furniture / household goods and were shown wonderful hospitality in a bare flat, drinking Arabic coffee cross-legged on the floor and chatting to them through an interpreter. Their young boy took great delight in taking the hand of our volunteer, Chris and giving him a guided tour of the rooms chattering away excitedly in Arabic!

We put on an extra van run this morning to deliver an amazing comfy sofa and their boy became an enthusiastic helper bringing in all the seat cushions from the van! Reflecting on the family’s assessment and circumstances, we were conscious of the need for some toys to keep this lively lad occupied in a bare flat in an isolated pocket of Walton, and although not asking anyone (as is our policy) we were amazed to be given a large box of Brio track/trains and a large floor puzzle along with the sofa! He was so excited by his gift!

Tomorrow we return again with bedding, wardrobes, toaster, kettle and kitchenwares, and we will continue to pray that we can show them God’s loving provision and kindness by their other furniture needs being donated to us in the coming week.

A colourful pair of kids beds and matching desk were donated this week and delivered to a young family today. One young boy will be home from school later to see his room makeover!

We received some lovely feedback from one of our referring agencies who said “Besom Team, you are fantastic, without you I don’t know what we and our patients would do!”

With the generosity of our Givers we had been able to provide replacement washing machine and microwave for one of their clients, a gentleman requiring support for mental health issues. Our amazing Time Givers on the van had also moved the old items outdoors for waste collection because the client was unable to, as well as connecting the new Washing Machine. Thank you to everyone who gives Time, Money or Things through The Besom and thanks for the encouragement from the referrer!

Impromptu pop up van run today. We put up some curtain rails and hung a set of curtains. The client was chuffed to bits with them!

Our Time Givers on the van run today delivered and plumbed in a washing machine this morning. They needed to empty the van to get to the machine which was at the back of the van! Good work guys. 

We’ve been given some fantastic curtains and have matched them this week with a recipient who badly needed them for their flat to provide much needed privacy. We also have a new Time Giver who is going to use their skills to adjust the curtains so that they fit the Windows perfectly!!

We collected a lovely children’s bed this evening which just fitted in the van, which is now full of amazing things we have been given. Join us in thanking God for people’s generosity and in praying for Time Givers to help deliver it all to recipients over the next couple of weeks. If you fancy coming out on a van run drop us an email at info@besominesher.com for more information.

We are very excited to have our own PAT Tester at last. It may not seem very exciting but will be a huge help to us. We are often given electrical appliances to pass onto recepients from small items like kettles and toasters to large appliances like Fridges and Washing Machines, all of which have to pass a basic PAT safety test before we can pass them on. Until now we’ve relied mainly on help from our lovely neighbour Besom in Ashstead to test the appliances.  We are very grateful for their help but going to Ashtead has added an extra dimension to our often already complicated logistics!! So hence we are excited to now have our own PAT Equipment so that our Time Givers who are on a Van run can test appliances themselves as part of the collection/delivery process. Praise God for our PAT Tester and for the money donated so that we could buy it!