Missionary Sunday - Rachel's Table Homeless Charity
This year our Missionary Sunday speaker will be Rev Carol Lacey who will be leading worship and talking about Rachel's Table - a local charity providing food for the homeless within the Leicester City boundary.
We usually start our morning with a Church breakfast on Missionary Sunday, however the January Church Meeting decided not to proceed with breakfast this year due to the current levels of Covid and previous falling attendance.
We did agree that Rachel's Table would be our charity for the whole of February to ensure we were able to support them without the breakfast and will be accepting donations each Sunday morning at the refreshment hatch.
More information about the charity will also be available.
Please do give generously for this charity, when Carol speaks to us you will see how life-changing this has been for the homeless in our area.
Rev Carol Lacey's talk is printed below:
Rachel’s Table Homeless Charity
Rachel Morris is a very special friend of mine who loves God and lives her life by following Jesus. In fact her husband and four grown-up children are all Christians, so when God gave Rachel a vision to help homeless people in Leicester they all supported her.
In 2020 Rachel saw homeless people in Leicester confused, hungry and in need of help because Covid had hit the City, together with the rest of the country and the world. The homeless people didn’t know why there weren't any people in the town to give them money for food. They hadn’t seen the announcement by Boris Johnson, telling us that we were in lockdown on our television at home.
When Rachel saw the homeless people without food and shelter her heart was moved into action to feed them because they are God’s children, he loves them and so should I.
Rachel gathered her family and friends and hot meals and drinks were distributed to homeless people living on the streets of Leicester everyday, because in the early stage of lockdown all the charities closed their doors leaving the already vulnerable people to go hungry and without clothes or shelter. Apparently, the Council shut them down. We often ran out of food because there were so many people needing food and drink at this time.
It has been two years now and God has blessed the hard work and generosity of many people and organisations who have supported Rachel’s Table, now a registered charity (Charity Number 1193033). Rachel or one of her team drive to Calais Hill in Leicester (at the back of the Little Theatre Car Park) and there will be a queue of homeless people waiting for the hot food and hot drinks that we give out to our homeless friends. They also receive a bag with water, cans of coke, a pot noodle, chocolate bar and fruit. Then, every month we give out toiletries, socks, underwear and warm clothing.
This is very good and they do appreciate it but the essential things that they need, and we can’t get enough of, are sleeping bags especially in this cold wet weather. So if anyone has spare sleeping bags we would be very grateful for them and can collect them or if you would like to make a donation to this charity you can find Rachel’s Table on facebook or Email info@rachels-table.co.uk.
We continue to see God at work as we tell the vulnerable people that God loves them and we pray for their needs and healing. They tell us that God has heard their prayers and has helped them with the many difficult things that they are trying to overcome eg. drink, drugs and mental health issues. Please pray for Rachel and her team but most of all pray for those we serve that their lives will be transformed through Jesus as we proclaim his love in active service.
Thank you to Julie and the Congregational Church for inviting me to speak to you about Rachel’s Table on your Mission Sunday.
God Bless Revd Carol Lacey
