Receiving donations for Readifood, Reading's foodbank, is ongoing.
Donations can be left in the church porch. Please continue to remember those most in need at this difficult time.
Here's Jane dropping off a recent delivery!
Mission
St Andrew's Church, Caversham
Mission
- We encourage giving to a
Charity of the Year- currently (2022-23) the charity Reading Street Pastors.
- Our recent Charities of the Year
have included: No5
(mental health support for local young people), Readifood
(Reading's Food Bank), Launchpad
(working with people in Reading who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless); the Sue Ryder Duchess of Kent hospice
in Reading; the Reading Refugee Support Group; Alana House
PACT's local women's support project;
- St Andrew's people actively support Readifood, Reading's foodbank, and donations can always be left in the church porch.
- St Andrew's people are active supporters of the projects of Churches Together in Caversham, including R.E.inspired-Caversham and the CTC summer holiday club.
- We run a community café, the Fisherman, in the church hall in order to provide a space for people to meet.
- St Andrew’s regularly supports a number of projects, including CIRDIC, the Christians in Reading Drop-In Centre, and Christian Aid.
- Partnership between St Andrew's and the Grow Hope Trust in Zimbabwe:
Grow Hope Trust & Foundations for Farming
June 2022: Matt receiving an award for the work: watch here
(Matt is at the 15 min mark).
St Andrew’s Church is partnering with the Grow Hope Trust
in Zimbabwe in a long-term mission project, in partnership with Highlands Presbyterian Church
(HPC), the church attended by the cousin of a
member of St Andrew's.
Associate pastor of HPC, Matt Mbanga, and his wife Lauren, lead the project, supported by Marvin and Amy Vogel. Both Matt and Marvin and Amy have visited St Andrew’s, Caversham to share the progress of this new venture.
Associate pastor of HPC, Matt Mbanga, and his wife Lauren, lead the project, supported by Marvin and Amy Vogel. Both Matt and Marvin and Amy have visited St Andrew’s, Caversham to share the progress of this new venture.
Grow Hope is led by Matt and Lauren Mbanga, assisted by Marvin and Amy Vogel. Matt writes the following...
Due to the greed of man and our unfaithfulness with the abundance that we have been blessed with in Zimbabwe an entire generation (over 50% of the nation is below age 15) exists that has never known freedom or prosperity. This is a fatherless generation - whose fathers have either died of AIDS or left in search of financial aid in neighbouring countries. More than 3 million Zimbabweans are believed to be working in South Africa alone. God has always had a better plan and if the future of Zimbabwe is ever going to be bright we need to engage and inspire this generation and equip them to take a leadership role in their own lives.
To this end the Grow Hope Trust has been established as a non-profit whose named beneficiaries are the youth of Zimbabwe. The centre will initially accommodate 50 campers in male and female log dormitories and 10 staff in a brick and mortar lodge. The centre will also have a meeting/dining-hall and kitchen and several team-building activities and obstacle courses to enable facilitators to run outdoor, experiential learning activities.
The property already has a small dam and half an acre under shade tree nursery and demonstration plots that will be used to grow much of the food for the centre and teach the Foundations for Farming principles of conservation agriculture. (FfF is a discipleship tool developed to help small scale farmers in Africa apply the gospel of Jesus Christ to their lives and become productive on their small farms.)
The Senior Minister of Highlands Presbyterian Church is one of 5 trustees and HPC is participating in the building process and several members of the congregation have offered material donations. The 2015 HPC men's camp travelled to the site to help build, and future retreats, trainings and outreaches to this impoverished farming district in Zimbabwe's rugged Eastern Highlands will take place over the coming years.
Grow Hope is sourcing grant funding to run leadership and conservation agriculture trainings for impoverished schools and charge nominal rates for churches and Christian groups to use the facilities to host Christian events. The centre will also host paying guests from private schools, weddings, corporate functions etc to ensure the maintenance of the centre.
To this end the Grow Hope Trust has been established as a non-profit whose named beneficiaries are the youth of Zimbabwe. The centre will initially accommodate 50 campers in male and female log dormitories and 10 staff in a brick and mortar lodge. The centre will also have a meeting/dining-hall and kitchen and several team-building activities and obstacle courses to enable facilitators to run outdoor, experiential learning activities.
The property already has a small dam and half an acre under shade tree nursery and demonstration plots that will be used to grow much of the food for the centre and teach the Foundations for Farming principles of conservation agriculture. (FfF is a discipleship tool developed to help small scale farmers in Africa apply the gospel of Jesus Christ to their lives and become productive on their small farms.)
The Senior Minister of Highlands Presbyterian Church is one of 5 trustees and HPC is participating in the building process and several members of the congregation have offered material donations. The 2015 HPC men's camp travelled to the site to help build, and future retreats, trainings and outreaches to this impoverished farming district in Zimbabwe's rugged Eastern Highlands will take place over the coming years.
Grow Hope is sourcing grant funding to run leadership and conservation agriculture trainings for impoverished schools and charge nominal rates for churches and Christian groups to use the facilities to host Christian events. The centre will also host paying guests from private schools, weddings, corporate functions etc to ensure the maintenance of the centre.
The property measuring 14 Hectares has a small dam, abundant timber resources, a windmill, 3 staff cottages, 10 sleeper lodge, tree nursery and 225,000l reservoir. It is 3km from Bonda Mission Hospital in Nyanga District, Manicaland. It is 250km from Harare enabling weekend visitors to reach it easily on a tarred road all the way until the last 1km.
We believe that the timing has never been better to commit to such a project. Zimbabwe has the lowest life expectancy of any non-conflict nation at present, and is the 2nd poorest nation on the planet in terms of GDP and rank last on every other list including alphabetically! We believe that such an initiative at this time is a prophetic statement of the way God uses the weak and foolish things of this world to shame the wise. We believe that if we begin to 'rebuild the walls' while they are still being torn down that God alone can receive the glory and that His name will be made famous!
FfF has had tremendous success across Zim and the world, so is the perfect tool to equip young people in our agriculturally based economy. The problems in Zim and Africa as a whole can easily be blamed on the lack of leadership. Our tribal history was usurped by colonial supremacy and then replaced by despotism - we Africans of all ages need to be inspired to take a leadership role in our own lives.
We welcome any questions, ideas and suggestions! We would love to host visitors from your community that would like to come and be part of the work and eventually join us for trainings, retreats and camps as co-workers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We believe that the timing has never been better to commit to such a project. Zimbabwe has the lowest life expectancy of any non-conflict nation at present, and is the 2nd poorest nation on the planet in terms of GDP and rank last on every other list including alphabetically! We believe that such an initiative at this time is a prophetic statement of the way God uses the weak and foolish things of this world to shame the wise. We believe that if we begin to 'rebuild the walls' while they are still being torn down that God alone can receive the glory and that His name will be made famous!
FfF has had tremendous success across Zim and the world, so is the perfect tool to equip young people in our agriculturally based economy. The problems in Zim and Africa as a whole can easily be blamed on the lack of leadership. Our tribal history was usurped by colonial supremacy and then replaced by despotism - we Africans of all ages need to be inspired to take a leadership role in our own lives.
We welcome any questions, ideas and suggestions! We would love to host visitors from your community that would like to come and be part of the work and eventually join us for trainings, retreats and camps as co-workers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
To support join St Andrew's in supporting Grow Hope financially, please click here.