20th September 2020

[Music] do [Music] good morning and welcome this morning to victoria baptist church at home thank you for joining us this morning at this special service celebrating the launch of our debt counselling service in partnership with christians against poverty in in a little while later in the service i will be interviewing helen diplock our debt center manager and we'll be hearing from peter snell who is one of cap's preaching team i'll just give you advance notice it will be helpful to you it's not essential but it will be helpful to you during his talk if you have a device that you can connect to the internet through while he's giving his talk because there's a quiz involved that would be helpful but not essential i'm giving you advanced notice of it in a few moments we'll start with a reading from psalm 146 but first a couple of notices i'd like to draw your attention to the news sheet you can find it on the website in the usual place there's a lot of news in it but in particular i'd like to draw your attention to two vacancies that we are looking to fill the first is the role of a pa for me the senior minister and combined with some administrative support for colin mcmahon and the second is just for a few hours a week connected to the church finances they're both paid positions and if either of them are in of interest to you please follow that up by looking at the new sheet or contacting the office now let's begin our worship by hearing these words blessed are those whose help is the god of jacob whose hope is in the lord their god he is the maker of heaven and earth the sea and everything in them he remains faithful forever he upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry the lord sets prisoners free the lord gives sight to the blind the lord lifts up those who are bowed down and the lord loves the righteous the lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow but he frustrates the ways of the wicked let's pray together heavenly father we come to you this morning thanking you for your great love to us we thank you for the lord jesus your son who gave food to the hungry set the prisoners free lifted up those who were bowed down gave sight to the blind and remains faithful forever heavenly father we ask for your help today as we open this debt center we pray that it may be the means of bringing glory honor and praise to the lord jesus christ and that he is as he is lifted up many people may be drawn to him we pray that people would be released from debt and darkness from sin and guilt and shame and come into the fullest experience of life and love joy peace and grace that is in jesus christ in his name we pray amen aleister is going to lead us now in a time of worship thank you chris and good morning church it's good to be here again this morning you know just before we started filming we were reading the passage where paul writes to his friends in colossae and he's asking them to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in their hearts to god and he goes on to say that in all things do all things in the name of the lord jesus christ giving thanks to god the father through him and that's what we want to do in our worship this morning so why don't you join me as the team come together to lead us in a couple of songs and some prayer wherever you are let's worship god and give thanks and glory to him [Music] your grace is and i will fall at your feet [Music] jesus right [Music] i am [Music] i will fall [Music] here and here do we gave it all for us surrender july upon that cross great is from is sure [Music] other god as we just reflect for a moment on the words we've been singing how your grace is enough more than i need we recognize that that's going to be quite challenging for some people to sing especially at a time when the world is changing and things are so inconsistent we live in times where our ability to do the simple things in life of being restricted and where the wisdom and the authority of our leaders is being questioned we live in a world where we have to get used to building friendships and relationships by zooming down a computer screen in a world where we cannot be physically together as a church family and even where we can we can't sing and yet we have that reassurance father god that you gave your disciples be of good courage for i have overcome the world and father god if you can do that you have the power and the ability to overcome our challenges even when we're just a little ashamed to admit that we're feeling fearful worried concerned or just in need of a little courage because we trust in a god who cares who cares just like a father cares for his son he doesn't want to see us living in times of adversity but what's the very best for us we think of that scripture that speaks of the father running to greet the sun and when he gets hold of the sun he puts the best robe on his back he puts a ring on his hand he lays on the best food all the very best that he had he gave and we can know that relationship too by placing our trust in you and believing in the complete and finished work of jesus on the cross and so as we sing this next song help us to drink in the words that we're singing help us to understand that all my days i've been held in your hands from the moment that i wake up until i lay my head i can sing of the goodness of god help us to understand that you can lead us through the fire you can see us through the darkest night where you're closer like no other where we can know you as a father where we can know you as a friend and where we can live in the goodness of god father god we just commit ourselves to you and as we continue to worship we open up our hearts we ask that you will fill us with the holy spirit we ask that you will pour in your wisdom and your courage help us now we pray in jesus name [Music] i love you lord oh your mercy never [Music] [Applause] [Music] until my life you have been faithful [Music] to my life you have been so good [Music] of i god your voice [Music] in [Music] you have been faithful [Music] [Music] it's running after you everything your goodness is [Music] laid down i'm surrendered [Music] is [Music] [Music] you have been so of the goodness [Music] of the goodness of god [Music] so helen and peter it's great to see you it's great to be able to have this chance to interview you would you please tell us just a little bit about yourselves and your family hi thanks chris um so we're helen and p and we've been coming to vbc for about i think it must be close to seven seven years now we came i think even before we were pregnant with sophie um and we're in eastbourne old town area pete pete was born in old town and then moved away and we moved back here together when we got married and we've got two gorgeous girls sophie and rosie who are six and three and you can probably hear rosie in the background so yeah that's us yeah fantastic so also tell us about the work you've been doing before you applied for the job for cap what have you been doing and also i think you set up we're involved helping set up a local charity can you tell us about those two things yeah so i've actually been a civil servant for 20 years i joined the civil service age 19 and did my degree part-time alongside that and i did policy work as a civil servant which i absolutely loved you know i've had some amazing fantastic experiences as a civil servant um yeah just so many experiences got to live abroad of living work abroad uh working with number 10 it was just it was just fabulous having you know making a difference at a macro level so that's been great for you know and i've done that for 20 years but you know it's been time for a change for me we had rosie in 2016 and rosie was born with a congenital heart disease congenital heart disease and she also has down syndrome those of you who've seen her around bbc well no um and so that kind of really changed my focus i think probably both of our focuses actually i became a lot more focused on what was happening in the local community and what support was there for rosie um and that kind of ambition and drive that i'd had up till rosie's birth really just kind of it got redirected it got redirected i'd say um and so yeah so i've been a civil service faith as it was over ages and i've now kind of put that on pause hopefully forever but maybe i'll go back to it um and yeah so a couple of well when rosie was born a group of people two people who live locally who have children with dow syndrome they started to just meet up once a month on sunday afternoons and that started when i was pregnant with rosie um and yeah it was later stage of being pregnancy wasn't it we went to i went to one meeting when rosie rosie spent much of her first six months in and out of hospital and on one of those meetings i kind of left her in hospital with the nurses and went to meet the other local families with people in thousand training because that was really important i felt really disconnected when we were in hospital um and then i became kind of quite a key player i think i'm really boosting that and setting it up from being just kind of an offshoot of the seafood group to actually being something in its own right in eastbourne so we're now the t21 friends eastbourne down syndrome support group and it's just been an amazing amazing support network for us um so i've been acting as secretary for that for the last have a long three years or so and they didn't have a down syndrome pathway for the nhs locally so help to set that up well kind of put quite a lot of pressure on our on lovely colleagues in the nhs locally to get that up which means that we've had a more consistent offer for our kiddies with down syndrome and really holding to account the nhs for the service they do or don't provide um initially when we came home with rosie there was no physio input there was no ot input occupational therapy input so um very little speech and language so we really pushed for and even things like half of the babies that are born with down syndrome have a heart disease and they weren't routinely doing the heart checkups in eastbourne and hastings until sometimes the kids were four or six months old and one of the early successes we got was that within the first couple of weeks of a child being born locally with down syndrome they were getting their heart check up and then routinely getting one a period of time afterwards to see if they had been changed so that for me was like a massive win when the first babies were down some people were born after that and they were getting their heart checkups so yeah so sorry so that's absolutely tremendous it sounds like not only that sounds like a huge blessing to a great many people if it's parents uh give birth or a mother gives birth to a child with down syndrome it sounds like there's it was an awful lot that wasn't in place that now is in place and and so bless you for that that's fantastic so tell us then okay about your own uh journey in faith and tell us about your place at victoria and how that all fits in yeah so i i was brought up a christian and as a child my parents kind of went to church religiously my dad was a church organist so he really did go to church very religiously and when i was a child i remember having a really strong faith like i loved reading the bible stories and um i was brought up in church of england background and confirmation i remember being an absolutely massive thing for me at that age and so i had quite strong faith when i was growing up and then you know teenage life happened and i moved to london and i was like this young focused career person you know moved out of home loving life um and i really feel now looking back like god placed me in this flat share but i went my first flat show in london was with two girls becky and karen i'm still in touch with today and we were all each other's bridesmaids and then karen started to go started going to this church and at the time i kind of really lost my face and becky and karen both started going to this church the first karen went and then becky started going as well and i was just like yeah and i was really really challenging them about it and being quite kind of um really saying to them well you know does it really exist does god really exist you know and then although i was kind of loving my early twenties in london something was definitely missing um i'd have some really dark days and feel really quite isolated and um i think we're going to get joined by rosie that's fine she's very welcome um and so i just said i felt like i actually want to try this out i want to try this church out and i said to karen i was like can i can i just come along with you today and she was just really shocked wait are you going to say hi hi hi rosie and she was really shocked and i ran and i've i just felt something that i hadn't felt for a long time you know i don't know i don't know how i'd describe it now it was a long time ago i don't know how i describe it now but it was like there was something by rosie bye pete it was just like there was something missing and that missing piece i mean now i know it was it was god's grace you know i hadn't had grace in my life for five years or so you know i hadn't had the spirit and it was almost like going to church was like going home that's what it felt like felt like i was going spiritually home so did the did the typical london early 20 things we're going to the alpha course and recommitting myself and i just remember that time when i recommitted myself and it just i i felt like i was glowing inside and out you know it's amazing god's spirit really came on me and you know i'll be honest chris there's been times when my faith has gone up and down i found it very very hard when we were diagnosed with rosies well we had quite a few miscarriages and trouble conceiving and things like that so that was a challenge and then to be pregnant and to find out first of all about rosie's heart condition and then about the down syndrome and i didn't know anybody with down syndrome or you know i knew nothing about it and it just felt it felt like god wasn't there and i felt so isolated we thought early on that we were going to lose this baby um it was quite a difficult pregnancy we thought anyone were going to lose lose her and then it felt like we were having her at the 20 weeks again it was like oh no god's blessed us and now we've got the heart condition and then we've got down syndrome and i was just like where are you god what are you doing and um it felt really isolating you know i like i isolated myself and then every time i went to church i first sent tears so i couldn't go to church i mean i have to say you know members of bbc were amazing you know i wasn't forgotten about even though i found it hard to keep going to church in touch with me popped around um when we were in london in hospital ross came along um so yeah and then you know the first six months year two years of rosie's life it was just difficult to keep going to church because she would have her she's tube fed she'd have a tube feeds at the same time as church service and it was just all quite difficult um but i knew i needed to come back and so we started coming back a couple of years ago now yes sophie sophie loves church she's like mommy when are we going to do kids club when are we going to go to sunday school um and rosie loves it because you know rosie loves anything with other people and so no it's been great being back good great now then so tell us why cap then you've got all these other things are in your life what why have you wanted to be at our cap debt center manager so i think ever since we had rosie i felt like i the job in london just hasn't really motivated me i haven't felt like i was doing god's work you know i had been quite ambitious and going for promotions before and i just lost that will um and i lost the love for it and i always believe that you can do god's work anyway god doesn't have to put you into a into a ministry job you know i think when i was a civil servant i was doing his work but that feeling had gone and when we were in and out of hospital with rosie it's really expensive having a child in and out of hospital in london you know um because you're essentially you're having to eat three meals a day takeaway um and you know i just my shopping habits got out of control you know my you know there was a marks and spencers i remember marks and spencers in the eveline or in some thomas's and i just used to eat their fresh food and they're expensive and i put things on credit cards i was on maternity pay and i would just put things on credit card and think well i'm going back to work so i'll pay it all off and then i went back to work obviously on considerably reduced hours because of rosie um which meant that i just didn't have a chance to put to get the finances on top you know it just the debt starts to really accumulate and i went from having quite a nice healthy salary to suddenly really struggling to cover the bills for the debts let alone anything else and there really we used to i reached a point january 2019 i can remember the day uh 9th of january 2019 and i just you know god really spoke to me and said helen you've got to do something about this and then very shortly afterwards went to a church service and we had the opportunity to write things on a piece of paper and put them over the bridge and hand them over surrender them to god and i just put there and ever since that point i was really intent on kind of paying down that debt church did the bbc that sorry the cap money course i went on the money course and just really changed my financial situation around um and then when the but i hadn't thought about having a career in it you know why would i have a how would i have a career in this you know it was to me it was just something that i had done and i have felt really life-changed by it and then when the job came up in the in the newsletter i was like oh pete i came back from church but he hadn't been that week i came back i was like i think i think this would be amazing and he's like yeah yeah go for it and i was just like no no i remember like just like no no um and a couple of people you know pete was just like helen just do it i didn't think i stood a chance of getting it i thought i'll apply and then yeah so it really feels amazing to have this opportunity to do the job it i feel like god's placed me here right now so yeah and we do too and we're absolutely thrilled to have you as our cap debt center manager and it's great to introduce you to people in this way um so tell us lastly what can people in church do to help so the first thing is prayer um the first and main thing i think is prayer when you know we're a new center a lot of the places across eastbourne haven't heard of us or don't know what we do there's a lot of people across eastbourne this is this is the prayer that's on my heart at the moment is there's a lot of people across eastbourne who's had a sudden change in income they might be held up by the furlough scheme at the moment which may or may not continue but you know it's about people who are in serious debt and don't know where to turn or people who don't yet realize how bad their debts got and almost don't want to so i really pray for all the people in eastbourne who are in this situation that they might have happened to them what happened to me which is god just saying you need to act on this and you're not alone so a massive prayer i think from all of the congregation to the people of born to say you know you're not alone in debt and there's something you can do and you know we're here practically there's plenty plenty of things people can help us with and thank you already to those that have so we're looking for befrienders um we're not looking for a lot of befrienders at the moment we're looking for for a handful and we've got a couple lined up which is just brilliant um but we're also looking for people to join kind of a prayer team to regular take on prayer for specifically for cap um and then as we move forward it would be fantastic to have people so if you've got a particular school around social media or around kind of maybe some of the admin stuff whatever your skill is if you think that you've got a role and god's telling you then just talk to me and we can see what we we can do and how you can help um i did cheekily chris for those that are actually getting into church i did leave some little leaflets with people to tick to say how they can help right so people can check those out next time they're in church fantastic yeah also then just one last question because um people probably have in mind a stereotypical idea of the kind of people that are in debt and you are not that kind of person and i expect there will be number of people in our church who will be struggling with debt may well feel embarrassed because they don't want to tell people they're struggling with debt maybe they feel that there's something wrong with being a christian and struggling with death and what what can they do if they want to actually speak to somebody confidentially about their situation what what's the first thing they should do yeah um i think the first thing says there's no there's no shame in debt you know it happens to anybody and everybody you know it can be something that happens really suddenly that changes your situation or it could be as a result of something more ongoing so there's no shame you know and if you approach us if you approach me for help it's completely confidential i might see you on sunday at church but i'm not going to talk about that at church you know you probably want a break from that as well you know you just want to pray your prayers and you know um but you can email me i met helen at victoria baptist church it's on the newsletter um but also you can call the cat debt helpline and then they can set up an appointment a formal appointment with me so it's let me just double check i'll give you the right number that would be terrible wouldn't it i mean obviously call the office call me i'm more than happy to take calls and you know colin and others are very good at forwarding calls to me but if you want to set up an appointment with me if you call oh 800 328 double zero yeah zero zero zero six so it's o eight hundred three two eight zero zero zero six and the wonderful people in cap head office in bradford will set you up with an appointment and we'll have a good old chat brilliant that is fantastic thank you so much for your time thank you we please thank pete for us i'm going to pray for you as a family now and for you and then and then we'll close the the interview thanks so much helen heavenly father thank you for helen thank you for peter thank you for their family for rosie and sophie thank you for this family thank you that you brought them to victoria and you've been working in their lives lord i thank you for the blessing they have already been to so many people through the work they've done with the charity and the work they've they've done in the civil service father god i pray that you would make them a great blessing to victoria baptist church and to old town in eastbourne through this cap debt center father i pray for your for wisdom for helen for grace for her to have the ability to manage her time well and we pray in all things that the lord jesus would be glorified in us and through us in his name amen amen [Music] hello victoria baptist church it's a pleasure to be here with you today as you launch your debt center my name's peter i'm from christians against poverty and in the next 20 minutes i want to answer for you three simple questions number one what are you doing number two why are you doing it and number three how can you be involved and to do that i'm gonna use the image of a power cut and a few props a bin bag a root mat that way around and a moniker but before all of that this is actually an interactive talk which is exciting i'm sure chris's sermons are always very engaging i for me i struggle a little bit with digital church so i have made it interactive and you will need a device to follow along um there's a there's a quiz that goes with this talk um now roll your eyes say i'm too cool for quiz no seriously it will help you engage and understand and so i'm just going to give you a moment to get a phone in your hand or laptop by the device um so you can go and do that now so just give you a second to do that now this is dangerous i have lost 20 of you to facebook already for the rest of you there should be a link next to the video that starts with a tiny url just did that to make it small that you can use to get to the quiz so click on that link either in the chat or in the video description if you don't have it i'll just read it now it's tinyurl.com forward slash y5hs for yl4 bit of mouthful i know anyway hopefully you are now there right so let's start your debt center is about helping people in unmanageable debt but what is unmanageable debt i hear you odds well unmanageable debt is about being forced to make impossible choices unmanageable debt is about being forced into impossible choices the choice between heating and eating the choice between keeping a roof over your family's head or food in your children's stomachs a manageable debt is simply that it's being unable to meet your financial obligations and your basic needs and in 2018 before coronavirus was even a thing this was in normal times go back there um the money advice service they did some research and actually broke it down by area and included eastbourne in that and so this is the first question on the quiz so get on that webpage get on that quiz and answer this question how many families do you think in eastbourne in 2018 were estimated to be in need of debt advice because they were in unmanageable debt how many families in unmanageable debt in esport in 2018 if you haven't gotten to the quiz by now maybe share it on the chat bar or something like that if you've got a chat bot hopefully the answer is 2 470 2479 families in eastbourne it's like the size of a small suburb and some of those would have been especially vulnerable they would need face-to-face debt advice or at least something that's more in-depth more than just someone um sending them something over email or on the internet how many of those that needed that real in-depth advice do you think how many couldn't access the help they needed because there wasn't anyone to help them that's the next question again i'll give you a moment to guess how many people needed help real in-depth debt help but couldn't get access to it the answer to that is 295. 295 families desperately in need can't pay the bills skipping meals so they can feed the children and no one to help them families in eastbourne that number will only have risen and that's why what you are doing today is so important and so life changing for them but it's all very well talking about numbers how does it feel to be in debt here's where the image of a power cut comes in i wonder when the last power cut you were in was take yourself back there especially if it was at night when the lights are out and actually you're really struggling to see there's no internet there's no tv um just darkness you see just like a power cut cuts off your lines of communication it kills the landline and the phones unmanageable data cuts people off it cuts them off from their friends and friends and family because they've got money from bus fare on petrol and it cuts them off because i've got money for fun credit just like a power cut it comes without a warning unmanageable debt can happen to anyone you know common reasons include redundancy and ill health things now more than ever we know that could happen to any of us and just like a power cut that leaves you in the dark depth really does leave people hopeless and when we ask our clients we do this year after year how did you feel before seeking help from camp one in three that's 98 families in eastbourne tell us they have seriously considered or attempted suicide as a result of their death that's the reality of the darkness that people feel now when a power cut hits what's the first thing you do well the first thing you do is probably decide if you're going to get a candle or a torch the second thing you do is you go outside and we'll look out the window and you see who else is affected is it just me is it my street is it a whole neighborhood um and sometimes it's you know vast areas it's all in darkness but sometimes sometimes it's just one side of the street and you look across to the joneses over the other side and there they are lights on netflix on the telly tucking into a bucket of kfc the house is still warm and you stood there in the cold and the dark and seeing them it just reminds you of how annoying and how dark your situation is right now see unmanageable debt in the uk is like that many people feel deeply isolated and alone and seeing everyone else going about their lives just reminds them of how desperate their circumstances are but what does this mean for us as followers of jesus i want us to open up our bibles briefly and take a look at chap luke chapter 14. i warn you this yeah this this is dynamite this passage it really is and as we read it you need to understand it it's funny in this very socially awkward sort of way as jesus often is right so he's been invited to a sabbath meal with pharisee it's a little bit like you've been invited to lunch with a mayor in they're a prominent local person and not only that they've invited their pharisee friends as well and so it's like the mayor and east board divided they have a council on a few prominent local businessmen the point is jesus is sat down with the who's who of that a local city and they sat down for a meal and they're probably expecting some deep and profound wisdom um and he sits down and this is what he's this is what he says and i warn you this comes with a health warning all right so says then he turned to his host when he put on a luncheon or a banquet he said don't invite your friends brothers relatives or rich neighbors friends brothers relatives and rich neighbors shuffle socially awkwardly in their seats at this point i'm imagining for they will invite you back and that will be your only reward instead invite the poor the crippled the lame and the blind then at the resurrection of the righteous god will reward you for inviting those who cannot repay you in other words guys you're saying this merely invited was a lovely meal but you've invited all the wrong people you could hear a pin drop in the room there i'm sure and jesus message is actually really simple then as it is now who you ate with was the defining social activity that said who and what you valued then as it is now the social norm is that you would invite people who'd invite you back and then and still today jesus says that a life that pleases god turns all of that on its head jesus following jesus it means making a deliberate choice to be generous to those that can't repay you not just at arm's length but around the table of your life and so let me ask you who is around the table of your life that's the challenge of this passage and honestly as i have read it and reflected on it yeah most of the people on the table of my life they are friends family and rich neighbors who can invite me back i've got some work to do on my contacts book on who i invite and who i reach out to i wonder where that lands with you see some of you today you're in the power cut you're in debt and you know that you need help most of us we're the family with a bucket of kfc and what if we looked and saw around the corner of our eye the people standing in the cold looking longly through the window what if we went to our frontal opened it wide and said come in that's that's the heart of what your debt center is about being generous to those who cannot repay you now some of you wondering how does that work because we don't pay people's debts for them let me make that really clear it's not being generous in that way um what we do is help them find their own way out of debt and so this is where my props come in right the bin bag the harmonica and the root map it's first bin back see that person will have heard about cap on the radial tv and their demand letters and paperwork will be piling up often literally three bin bags full so they'll call our free phone helpline and they'll get booked in for an appointment with helen and helen and someone from the church here will go and visit them in their homes at least when home visits are possible or some kind of creative video conferencing solution at the moment and they will just make a cuppa pray with them maybe share share something their own testimony i'll take all of this stuff away and i'll take the burden of all of that away and they send it up to our team at head office in bradford and that's where the route map comes in see our team takes a mess of paperwork and confusion they advocate for people get interesting charges stopped where they can and they find the best route out of debt for that person the route from a to b they make it clear that might be a repayment plan it might be some kind of negotiated arrangement it might be formed for insolvency depending on how long it's going to take for that person to repay their debt but they'll find a right route out of debt and they're fca authorized and regulated really specialist amazing people and they they give that to him she takes it back to the client and they present that and the client signs up and then together they begin on their journey out of debt and together you the church and us can we walk with that person month after month however long it takes until the day when finally they become debt free and that's a harmonica we we celebrate we actually celebrate debt freeze with by blowing a harmonica um and we we love it that is just such a celebration because we know the freedom it brings for people um and you know here's one more question on the survey i want you to go back to your survey again take a look how long do you think it is before that people wait just before they actually call cap for help how long do you think they'll wait before calling cat for help after they've got into unmanageable debt okay so here's the answer one to two years one to two years of being in that difficult and hopeless place and so you can just imagine the relief the hope that flows into their life as a result of what you're doing today cap also partners with churches help people get back into work build a central life skills and get free of life controlling habits um or other causes of poverty um and everything we do has jesus at the center of it we always have to pray with people we always find opportunities where we can to share the good news of jesus and we do it all through the local church because we're passionate about you you as a church community being able to welcome these people to your table and to be generous towards them and to introduce them to jesus so it's all very well mean it's all well and good me saying this there is nothing better than seeing it happen in someone's life and i'm delighted to say this incredibly incredible lady called sharon she's actually agreed to share her story with you so i'm going to stop talking and let you see what's happened in her life back in the past when i was all on my own i mean i thought that there was never any hope and it's always dark i never felt like god would ever be able to use someone like me even though like things that's happened to me it still felt like god had his hand on me [Music] through the situations that i've been in so to me that's always been my dark side of my life it's yeah sometimes it catches up with me but now it seems like now i'm living in a brighter more bigger more colorful life just me it is like night and day my ex-partner wouldn't let me have any money so that's the reason why i had to take out loans and he was taking that loans in my name as well so yeah it was all done to me that's how i started to get myself in trouble it was because i had seven kids that's one of the reasons back then how i didn't why i couldn't do work because i was pregnant or there was all still little and i couldn't work and now i felt i was stupid anyway because he used to tell me i was stupid i was fat i was ugly [Music] and he used to manipulate me like that so i was underneath his control until i used to run away for a little while going to a hostel and they only used to turn up outside the hostels and the hostels couldn't have the other women in their friend and i had to go back to him i had nowhere to go with the seven kids so and then that's when i started to get like a private place to live in and then um of course as soon as i got that that's when the letter started coming and the teacher actually answered the door to the bailiffs and they come into the house i hid in the bedroom on the bedroom floor curled up in the corner while i was actually taking my stuff out the house so hard for me to actually see that happen and they were saying mommy help us these men are taking our stuff i'm saying to him you can take the washing machine you can take that but just can you leave the kids stuff alone they wouldn't i hate doing that i didn't want to live no more how am i going to get out of this situation [Music] and then i met this lovely lady called esther she was amazing absolutely amazing and i started telling her a bit about my story of my life and stuff like that and she said oh i can help you this come through today she goes meant to help with your debts and there's not a cost it's done by charity i was like what no that can't be true so she goes right i'm going to put your name forward but it seemed like it just happened just like that it happened in weeks i was like wow and i had my first appointment and catherine when she come in she could see there was no lights in the sitting room the curtains was closed i had free bags of the um shop for life bags and big bags i had three of them full of letters that's not even been opened and yeah and carol and carol and catherine said don't worry we're sought for him and then um just before they was leaving they said can we pray with you i've never prayed before in my life never and the warmth that come off of them too and they was praying for me was unbelievable the only thing i could do was curl up and cry because i just felt like wow what has just happened to me the whole i just felt so warm and i felt like how much they actually cared for me they gave me all the options they gave me everything every inch of the way they were just in contact with me catherine was in contact with me telling me what was going on everything i was constantly i was constantly with her like she didn't leave me she didn't leave my side or did carol i've been debt free now for about about just over six years and and them six years has been the best i've got to say the best time of my life because i've got family i've got friends i've got all sorts of stuff now and i've actually got a life i'm i'm walking my life with god and yeah yeah it's amazing wow sharon's story it's just amazing that the strength and the hope that comes from her now i've been working for cap over six years now and my mum actually also did this death center work on the isle of wight actually where i grew up for several years and if there's one thing it has taught me more than anything there is no life beyond the redeeming power of god and if you're in debt right now i want to tell you really clearly there is hope there is a solution and we want to help you so i'm going to give you a number please don't delay write it down and the moment that the phone line opens on monday morning call it and get yourself booked in with helen and the team here to find hope um even if our service isn't quite right for you we will be able to direct you towards someone that can help so please write this number down it's oh 800 328 006. that's oh 800 328 triple zero six now for each of us i know there are families in eastbourne that are going to call that number and their lives are going to be changed forever but how do we personally respond to this challenge right now i want to come back to that question who is at the table of your life and today i want to ask you to do something really simple take five minutes look down your contacts or look up and down your street and find one person you can reach out to and be generous toward maybe inviting for a meal or do whatever you can do in the context of the current corona virus restrictions but take some time today to put this into practice and to find someone that you can invite to the table of your life to be generous towards that cannot repay you i pray and hope and expect that in the coming months and years as a church you will find more and more people coming into your church as a result of this debt center that you can exercise that towards but you know what it's time to practice it it's time to get into the habit it's time to get used to it and so um yeah take five minutes to do that today so that's number one number two um we're just gonna go back to the quiz for a moment there's one last question on it and it is how many people do you think are involved in helping someone like sharon how many people are involved in helping someone like think their options are one thousand seven thousand thirty thousand pick your answer um okay so here's the answer [Music] there are two primary reasons why we're standing here today number one is your commitment and passion as a local church to serve the poorest in eastbourne and see their lives transformed the other reason is over 30 000 people that give regularly to cap to make that happen that's the answer over 30 000 people are involved in seeing a life like sharon transformed you see every time cap opens a debt center the church that's you will contribute about a third of the cost and we're so grateful and thankful for that and your partnership with us in it and the other two thirds cap fund raises from other means and most of that comes from individual regular gifts from people like you that are passionate about seeing life transformed and are passionate about seeing it done with the good news of jesus unashamedly front and center in everything that we do and each person that gives when they hear a story like sharon they get to celebrate they get to celebrate with her and say yes i can take joy and the fact that i was some part of her story of seeing that renewal and hope come in now being really honest over the next few months it's going to be a difficult time for us as a country the furlough scheme is going to end there is going to be significant economic hardship and we know that as a result in the years to come we simply are going to see a tsunami of need coming towards us there are going to be so many families in need that dare help but i hope if you see one thing today is that there is hope in for those that are in debt it doesn't have to be a life sentence it doesn't have to be hopeless actually through the local church and cap really these people can see their lives changed you if you're in that situation can find hope and so i want to give you the opportunity to give hope to families that are going to be in that situation um through a gift of just 12 pound a month you can do that why 12 pounds well 12 pound is actually what it costs to answer the first phone call of someone like sharma and get them books in for their first appointment with helen or whoever their local person is 12 pound pays for that first call where they get the first ray of hope and they start to believe that the power is going to come back on in their life and so if you did that 12 pound a month you'd be doing that for family every month you could even be doing that for family in eastbourne even a family on your street that would be calling us um asking for help equally if you can't give 12 pound but you still like to give um you can um please don't be restricted by that you can give three pen a month five pound a month whatever you can afford yeah we are so grateful for your partnership with us and of course if you can give more then don't be limited by it either um there's there's a group of people that give 50 pound a month or more we call them vision sponsors and our founder john kirby also sends personal monthly emails to them just to give them a sense of what is happening a bit of insight into how their money is being used so to do that today just go to capuk.org forward slash respond126 that's capuk.org forward slash respond one two six and i just want to give you a moment i don't wanna get in the way to um please if you'd like to do that click on that link now or maybe have a chat if your finances are joined with someone else i might just take a moment now to do that thank you so much if you've made that decision just now and you really yeah i pray that you feel encouraged and hopeful that you are a part of seeing lives like sharon's turned around um and lastly as i finish and as some of you just filling that in let me pray for helen in this sense that you're starting and as i do this i encourage each of you in the coming days months and years to uphold the center in your prayer jesus you gave up the glory of heaven to sit at our table to eat with us and draw us back into relationship with god i pray that you help each of us to be generous to those that can't repay you just like you've been generous to us who cannot repay you i especially pray for helen and all that will be involved with this debt center in the coming years may hundreds of families in eastbourne experience the light of hope flooding into their lives as a result of what has begun today in your name we ask our men victoria baptist church thank you so much for watching have a lovely day god bless [Music] [Applause] [Music] lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon and be gracious towards you and give you peace bless you and keep you make his face his face [Music] um [Music] um [Music] be gracious [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] may his favor be upon you in a thousand generations and your family and your children and their children and their children may his favor be upon you in a thousand generations and your family and your children and their children and their children these presences [Music] rejoicing he is for you he is for you he is for you he is for you [Music] [Applause] um [Music] um generations and your family and your children and their children and that children [Music] he is with you in [Music] [Music] he is for you [Applause] um [Music] [Music] he's for you [Music] the king is for you he did you is them [Music] we've come now to the end of our service i want to thank those who've helped this morning particularly helen diplock and we look forward to seeing god use you in in wonderful ways in the coming years and also just to say two things firstly if you are a believer of this church and debt is not your problem right now then that's something to be grateful to god for and i just remind you of peter's challenge his question who is around the table of your life did you did you actually go through your contact list did you actually spend any time thinking about the answer to that question who is around the table of my life that's a challenge from jesus himself maybe some of you thought there wasn't much content to the sermon but if there wasn't oh if there was only one point a simple point and you haven't actually responded to that point then what would be the point of making more profound ones who is around the table of your life will you in the coming weeks begin to invite people around your table who are not in a position to invite you back will you think about people in your contact list will you think about people in your street who you might begin to show the kind of grace that jesus showed to us and secondly if you are a person in debt whether you belong to this church or not i want to say simply this that this debt service is free it is confidential it is open to everyone and it works it is free it is confidential it is open to everyone and it works caps debt centers change people's lives and i want to appeal to you to respond to pick up the phone to call the number on the screen to take that step not to wait for one year or two years before you begin to deal with the problems of debt this service can help you whoever you are wherever you are we believe that god made you that he loves you and we would consider it our privilege to be able to help you on the journey of getting debt free so i appeal to you again if you are watching this and this strikes a chord or a need in your life please please respond and we would consider it our great privilege to help you the service is free it is confidential it is open to everyone and it works and now i'm going to close the service with these words of blessing i pray that out of his glorious riches god would strengthen you with power by his spirit in your inner beings and i pray that being rooted and established in love you have may have power together with every believer to know how wide and long and high and deep is the love of christ and that you may know this love which passes knowledge being filled to the measure of all the fullness of god amen the lord bless you all you

Channel: vbcsussex

Views: 680

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: pInISm3lNSU

Length: 75min 8sec (4508 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 20 2020