About a third of the church’s annual budget leaves the building. This is where it goes and who carries it.

Local

The Wednesday meal. Forty covers a week since 2011, cooked and served by a rota of about sixty volunteers. It has not missed a week, including through two building closures.

The winter shelter. From November to March we host on Tuesday nights as part of a rota of seven local churches. That means bedding, a hot meal, breakfast, and two people awake all night.

The repair fund. A small discretionary budget for a boiler, a car repair, a rent deposit. Paid directly to the supplier, decided by two people, usually within a day.

Further afield

Three partnerships, all older than a decade, all with organizations run by people who live where the work is:

1. A school in eastern Uganda — teachers’ salaries and the well
2. A clinic in northern Guatemala — a nurse and the medicine budget
3. A literacy program in Kolkata — twenty-two classes and their materials

We do not run these. We fund them, we visit annually, and we ask what is needed rather than deciding it from here.

How to join

Teams meet on the second Sunday of the month at one o’clock. The Wednesday rota always needs cooks. The shelter always needs people who can stay awake.