The Besom in Esher – Charitable Incorporated Organisation – 1182123

Fantastic painting project completed this week by a team of Time Givers. They painted the living room for a disabled gentleman who’s family live overseas and needed help to decorate.

Oswald Chambers, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater works. It is the greater work”.

Monday morning prayer two weeks ago, we decided to pray earnestly once more for many of our clients who have need of beds (all sizes!). Many have been waiting since before Christmas and we felt the need for God to shift things in the heavenlies so that some would be donated to us. A day later I responded to a vague email offering us furniture with a tight time frame for collection. Three bedrooms worth of furniture from a single to a super-king.  We are so thrilled by the expat family’s generosity. Every item matched perfectly with our client’s requirements (even the super-king).  We also had donated bunk beds for our Syrian refugee family that we have been supporting. Our van team have had a lot of lifting to do. Another double bed donated this week and our bed list has been completely cleared.  At Besom, we have been beautifully reminded how important our core value of prayer – the greater work – has brought all things together in perfect time to bless all concerned, i.e. those who gave, those who prayed, those who delivered and the recipients who are sleeping comfortably.

We are excited to have received our first referral of the year to provide goods for a Syrian Refugee family. Please pray for us as we seek to assess their needs and meet with them today. We have had so much news about the plight of our refugees this past year; it is good to be able to welcome and show kindness to our new neighbours.

A great two days of delivering hampers to our many clients. Lots of happy, excited and thankful responses and good conversations between them and our teams of “elves”. Praise God for all the love and generosity shown.  One more morning to go!

The first few hampers are arriving for our clients. Thanks to our givers for responding with generosity and allowing us the opportunity to make return visits with an expression of God’s love and care this festive season. Many of our clients this year are affected by mental illness and live alone, or are single mums who have escaped from domestic abuse. For them it is possibly not the most wonderful time of the year, but we pray that they will know hope and encouragement as our time-givers visit them with these beautiful gifts. We are so excited by the potential of this project.

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. We will give you all the instructions on how to make them, what to include and how you can come out on The Besom Van and help deliver the hampers during December. (All Hampers to be completed by 23rd Nov.)

We are so excited to have collected our new (second-hand) van! Please join us in thanking  God for those who have given us the money to buy this van, replacing our last one which was written off after being vandalised. It’s great to be back on the road and our new van is ideal. It starts first time, has no dents (yet), drives really well and even has a CD player – there’s never been a better time to come out on a van run with us! We have a backlog of things to collect and deliver. Please also pray for protection for the new van and that God will bless every journey it makes and release more Time Givers to come out on van runs.

Before we accept donations on our van from our fabulous givers they are quality-control tested. It’s not just being fire-tagged that is important but also whether they are stain-free, tear-free, not well-worn or grubby at the corners etc. In this photo we were checking if the seat springs had gone! At Besom we love to give goods that will bless our clients, rather than things that would be happier at the tip, or ready for the tip six months on….

Plenty of action for the van team this morning – a sofa, wardrobe and Hoover have been matched, so please pray that the Lord’s love is shown to all that they visit today.

Someone had the bright idea of redeeming stockpiled supermarket loyalty points to obtain new kitchen appliances for a client moving into a new flat. Who else has loads of unwanted points that could bless one of our clients?