Anita joined us on our last day at Pilgrim's Way school and then went back to the Evangelical Alliance press office and wrote up her experience of Orison. You can find the article here.

On leaving school I worked in a shoe factory with some lovely people and had a good social life until the failing shoe industry made me redundant 3 years later. The unemployment situation was bad at this time. It was a blessing when my uncle started his own scaffolding business and offered me a job. However 24 months later I was diagnosed with a tumour of my spine and it was 8 months before it was removed meaning that I was, again, out of work and at times unable to walk. I had some hard months ahead of me but somehow I got through it. I think God must have played a part as I prayed quite a lot and I wasn’t even a Christian then. At the time, my first wife was very supportive. Unfortunately, I found out, sometime later, that she was having relationships with other men. I had a difficult decision to make. I would not take our daughter, Gabrielle, from her mother, so I left with just a few clothes and went to live with my mother for a while to try to rebuild my life.

While working delivering food to customers, I met my wife, Michelle. She had been through many physical difficulties but she found time to talk to me and we fell in love. She had a bad fall and a minor stroke which led to me moving in with her and becoming her husband and full-time carer.

Here's a short video that explains the sponsorship programme that Grasssroots runs in partnership with SKM in the slum of Chennai. These pictures were taken during a team visit where we met each of the children and caught up on what was happening in the lives.

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If you need something to give someone that explains what "Hope and Song to Freedom" is all about then click here and print off the pdf

Here is the latest from Jade and the team.

And here's a quote:

An American ministry has recently linked up with Miriam and provided shoes for all the kids in the kids club (around 35) and they also went into the prison with her, where they carried out some foot washing and gave the ladies in the fellowship group some tights and shoes.  They have promised to do more with us again in the future. This was a lovely surprise which came out of the blue and we thank God for His unexpected provision!

P.S. Miriam;s daughter Isamar arrives this evening and will be with us for 6 weeks. We are really looking forward to sharing with the youth here and doing whatever God allows us to in the coming weeks…..

In September 2009 Hugo Anson joined a group going to Kygyzstan to help build a house. The group was organised by Habitat for Humanity. Hugo got involved because he felt the Lord was calling him to learn the best practise in taking groups to help with building work. The video below will tell you the story.

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Rach Warwick, who coordinates Orison, is very excited about how many prayer spaces are now happening in schools. She is now part of a coalition that meet to discuss how to share the idea with others. Another member of that group is Phil Togwell of 24/7Prayer. He has just posted this on his blog! It is a report of an orison like space at a secondary school in North London this week.

Also this week, Rach and others are leading orison in Pilgrims Way Primary School in Farnham. This is part of an ongoing programme with the Farnham Assemblies and Schools Team to run Orison in all the local primary schools that will invite them over the next year or so. It has been a wonderful week and both children and staff have been talking about the impact on their lives of having the prayer space on site.

During last week's trip to Romania Sharon spoke at an event for successful women in Bistrita. A journalist from the newspaper was present and this is the article she wrote.

Hello!

As I'm sat reading through my little notebook that I use at our prayer meeting on fridays, I am amazed by how much God has done this week. There is a total of 28 names written in there and that is from just this week alone. Some of those names have been mentioned frequently over the last few weeks and some haven't. 28 names. 28 different lives. 28 different situations. 28 different opportunities. 28 times God has stepped in to actively pursue someone....... and that's just the ones we know about. How many others has he touched this week that we do not know about? How many others are being affected by Him and His presence but have never let on or said anything.