Outreach

The Mission and Outreach Group

The Mission and Outreach Group within High Cross Church aims to spread the word of God, both within the local community and the wider world.

Its goals are simple. The Group aims to hold one major outreach event each year, as well as supporting the Church’s Welcome Team, Company in the Café, Melodies for the Mind, Community Lunches and prayer initiatives. The Group also supports the fundraising events for the Church’s overseas charity of the year and supports Besom as part of the Churches Together in Camberley initiative.

As part of our mission, we try to have a Church member available on the ground floor throughout the lunch period.

High Cross hosts Community Lunch

High Cross Church hosts the town centre lunch where various representatives from across the community come together to network. Click the link below for more information. There is also a Podcast where you can listen to the talk given by Deputy Leader of the Council Cllr Richard Brooks.

Click here for more information and to hear the talk

Company in the Café

Every lunchtime there is usually at least one member of the Welcome Team in the Coffee Bar. Anyone feeling low or needing company is welcome to come along. You can also join the team for lunch on most Wednesdays.

Melody For The Mind

mftm1 mftm2 mftm3 mftm5

This group is for those people with dementia and memory problems, along with their carers.

The group meets on the first and third Fridays of each month at 1.30pm. We start with refreshments, then follow on with an hour of singing and musical activities. There is no charge for this activity.

Besom

We support Camberley Churches in this intiative, supplying food packs, kitchen packs,and baby packs for people in need. To find out more information visit www.besom.com

Church Charity

Thembalitsha – Village of Hope

Accommodation Play area The House Family

Every three years, High Cross Church members elect an overseas charity to support. From January 2011, our charity is Village of Hope.

The Village of Hope is a Thembalitsha Foundation project based on a farm in Grabouw 60km east of Capetown, South Africa. Although it is in a beautiful area surrounded by vineyards and apples, Grabouw is where the workers live. It is a town of 65,000 people, where 40% of households live on less than £170 per month. HIV and TB are huge problem diseases and there are also other drug and alcohol related problems.

The focus of Village of Hope is to care for young children infected or affected by HIV, AIDS or TB in a 9 bedded unit which opened in April 2009. The children arrive at the Village following medical care and are medically stable but unable to be looked after by their own family.

The aim is to see each child back in a loving family home and on average one child per month has been placed with a family. Some of the children have complex problems and will need full time care in the future, so the project is investigating the possibility of providing cluster homes with staff within the community. But more funding is required to expand into such areas.

The project has extended its outreach programme in the community through kids clubs activities every day after school for 9-15 year olds. They use sports activities to teach key Bible-based life skills such as team work, as well as teaching hygiene and personal health. In the school holidays, trips to the beautiful beaches are organised, which for most children would be otherwise inaccessible.

The wider Thembalitsha Foundation also runs health and education projects in the local area. But the Village of Hope project is one we were moved to support, where a modest financial contribution can make a big difference.

If you would like to see more you can pick up a leaflet from the Church Office or visit the website

www.thembalitshauk.org.uk

The photo on the right shows Village of Hope volunteers Rob and Emily House, with their children Rosie and Isaac, on their visit to High Cross Church in June 2011. At the rear of the photo are Minister Revd David Hamblin and Church Member Barbara Gathercole.