Full Steam Ahead!
Ever since Alina moved her mums and their children from a small flat (the old crisis centre) to a new location, there has been a large shell of a building stood empty in the grounds - a building with enormous potential to help many more vulnerable women and children. Without the funds and manpower, Alina was at a bit of stand still. Completing this build, making it habitable for more mums and their children, was always a long-term goal from the moment they moved in and Alina believed that, one day, God willing, they would find a way.
In 2016, when a small team of volunteers stayed at the centre to build the children’s safe play area, some members of the team (who build for a living) had a look around and were not at all daunted at the sight before them, stating they would happily return and do all they could to get this building doing the job it was intended for – offering rehabilitation to vulnerable mums and refuge to their children!
With potential manpower in the bag, we needed to find a suitable time to go and most importantly, the funding to make it happen.
At Christmas, your gifts for this project came flooding in with around half of it raised by the end of January. Since January, this project has clearly been stirring in people’s hearts and donations for the project just kept coming. Two further generous gifts exceeded our target and confirmed that God has big plans for this place!
When we told Alina the wonderful news she said; “I’m so happy! God is faithful. It’s a miracle, my life’s dream! – a home for women unwanted by society. Lots of them have lived on the streets with their children for many years, or with men who beat and abuse them. I’m thankful to God for everyone who donated”.
With support now secured, it’s full steam ahead! Local helpers have already been able to make a great start on this building and this means that when the UK team of volunteers join them, they are likely to see more progress on this build than we had dared to dream!