east to west Food for Thought & Prayer - AUTUMN/WINTER[“east to west” is one of the charities Runnymede Deanery has worked with for many years, providing support workers with a Christian background for some local schools and hospitals.] east to west Update September has found us hitting the ground running here at east to west, moving from 14 schools to 19 and adding five new members to our team – still seeking more! If you’re interested in joining east to west, please do get in touch – see details below! We’re updating our branding (you’ll notice this on emails, newsletters etc…) and developing our comms strategy as well as investing in our team and improving their support infrastructure. With all this change, you’ll (hopefully) be pleased to know that the monthly wePRAY will remain a constant, appearing in your inbox/post box in the early part of each month. [If you are not signed up, you can read the monthly wePRAY blogs here .– Ed]
Our theme for this year is going to be movies! They’ll be largely family friendly and all are worth watching. We’ll be picking out key aspects of each film linked to who we are as an organisation and what we can ‘borrow’ to help us grow and develop. I hope you will enjoy this series and as usual, feel free to get in contact with your thoughts and feedback. Dan Beedell on “Memorable Moments” “Pirates of the Caribbean” - picture the scene. Our eponymous hero stands atop the rigging of his boat whilst dramatic music plays and the sea breeze blows through his long, plaited hair. Looking down, he pulls a face, before jumping and landing in the pooling water in the bottom of his craft. The camera pans back and the ship turns out to be a small dingy, with a single sail, not the massive pirate ship his appearance would suggest. He pauses as he sails past the swinging skeletons of fellow pirates, hung from their neck, a legacy of their lifestyle and the consequences of being caught. He slowly lowers his hat, honouring his brethren. As he continues towards land, the camera travels past sailors unloading a ship. They look up in surprise at the sinking vessel. We are unsure as to whether it is awe of the man, who is now once again gloriously astride the top of the mast, or amazement that a boat sunk to just below the main sail is still moving. With perfect timing, the boat finally passes below the waves as it reaches the dock, allowing him to step onto the jetty without missing a stride. Captain Jack Sparrow has arrived at Port Royal.
Whatever your view on pirates, their Hollywood caricature or history’s reality, they have always conjured (in the eyes of a primary school aged child at least) visions of adventures and treasure, sailing the high seas and good versus evil. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies feature an anti-hero who despite his flaws and failings ends up helping the stereotypical heroes…whilst always benefitting himself! So why “Memorable Moments”? This month we’ve been intentional about creating memorable moments within our team. We now have 19 different school projects as well the Emerge Project at St Peter’s Hospital. Within our team we’ve welcomed five new members (with more joining soon!) and hopefully over the coming weeks and months, we’ll introduce them to you, our supporters. The whole point of creating memorable moments is to help people engage on an emotional level. With this in mind, earlier this month we took all our team to the seaside for the day! It was also an excellent excuse to have some fish and chips! We’d decided that this would be a great way of re-connecting with existing team members, introducing new people and building community. We were being intentional about creating a touch point for our team to anchor to (pirate pun intended!), especially because the work we do is challenging and emotionally draining. In creating this touch point, we know that others will be facing the same things and we can both support and be supported by each other. As we spend the year looking at movies, we’ll discover hope found and shared and how our ethos words are played out in practical terms. It’s my hope that as you watch and/or consider these movies, you’ll also find hope… and compassion, devotion, integrity, community, selflessness…and fun… You may find yourselves looking for these things in other places and situations, using them as a basis to create memorable moments yourself. And the good news is… it’s highly unlikely you’ll need to dress as a pirate to do it! -- Dan east to west Prayer Requests • New team members: Please can we ask you to be prayerful in our recruitment, and if you are interested, or know of anyone who might be, in joining our team, please do get in contact with Ian at
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. east to west are also committed to praying for us! If there are things you’d like prayer for, you can email them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and they promise to pray for you during their daily prayer time. |