Thursday morning I looked out of the window at the rain and low cloud. I’d heard a rumour on the weather forecast that there was a heat wave on the way. No matter what they said I could not ignore the weather I saw through my own window. I grabbed my raincoat and hat and put on an extra jumper as it felt a bit chilly as well. By mid-day I was sweating and carrying everything bar the T shirt I had put on as a base layer. (and my jeans of course). Summer was well and truly on its way and with a Bank Holiday weekend in front of me I was hot and bothered but smiling.
That afternoon I was headed to the Smiths Arms for a meeting of the Swansea Sportsmen’s Club. The club has been running for a long, long time. They meet to often honour local sporting heroes or just to spend an afternoon meeting and having a chat. In amongst all the fun, banter and tall tales they raise money for local charities.
John Davies – President of the Swansea Sportmen’s Club presenting me with a cheque for Cwtch Clos.
My first involvement was to receive money on behalf of the Cwtch Clos Appeal. I had become a bit of an Ambassador for the project organised by the Swansea Bay Health Charity to raise money to refurbish five 2 bedroomed houses based at Singleton Hospital. The houses are for the use of families who have a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), somewhere they can escape for a moment and somewhere to stay if they are far from home. I was expecting to receive a cheque for £600 but after I shared my family’s story and the reason for my involvement they had another whip around and I left with £1100 for the charity.
Since then I’ve been adopted as a bit of a Swansea Sportsmen’s Club Ambassador and that was the reason I had been invited to the luncheon.
The 2 charities being presented with cheques on Thursday both serve our local community and try their best to give people hope in what can often be a dark and confusing world.
Swansea Community Farm Gala Night
The Swansea Community Farm has been in being for over a quarter of a century. I was delighted to host their recent Gala Celebration and found out so much more about their work than I had imagined. Founder Ann Bell told the audience how she had worked at a Community Farm in London and after finding herself relocating to Swansea she shared the dream that Swansea could also benefit from such a farm. She had been surprised and delighted by the response from the people of the city and now all these years later the farm is going from strength to strength.
The farm is made up of animals, gardens and allotments which are all looked after by the volunteers. Some of the volunteers come to the farm weighed down by burdens that some of them might have carried for years. As they work the land and with the animals its great to see lives changed.
Whilst the farm does receive grants from National Organisations and local sponsors they also depend on support from the community where they live and work. Cerys from the Farm gave a short speech about the work and invited the Sportsmen’s Club along to see for themselves. When it comes to keeping a charity going it might seem that a pound is a pound no matter where it comes from but to my mind a pound given or raised locally has something extra valuable about it. It blesses the local people giving as well and builds connections that tie us together just a little closer.
Emily and Andrew form Matt’s House
The second charity supported on Thursday was Matts House. It was back in 2017 that Matt’s Café was launched at the old St Matthews Church on Swansea High Street. The idea was to take edible food destined for landfill and give really nutritious meals to the guests who were invited in to talk, share and pay whatever they could afford. The organisers were overwhelmed by the offers of support from volunteers and local businesses and now Matt’s house offers so many other facilities like showers and laundry as well as the opportunity to join their own Matt’s Community Choir.
Swansea Big Sleep Out rasing money for Matt’s House at Swansea.com Stadium
Just before team leader Emily accepted the cheque on behalf of Matt’s House I couldn’t help myself, I jumped in and said a few words. From a very early age my favourite Bible story was the tale of the lost sheep. I told the Sportsmen about a Shepherd who had 100 sheep. One day he stood there counting them and thankfully didn’t fall asleep. He counted once and then again and realised he only had 99. One of his precious sheep was missing. So he decides to leave the 99 in the wilderness to go looking for the one that was lost. And when he finds it…
‘he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ LUKE 15 NIV
When you walk into Matt’s House there is a big stain glass window of the Good Shepherd with a lamb gently being carried home. I still remember when I saw it for the first time I felt tears rolling down my cheeks.
And that’s what Matt’s House does. It goes looking for the lost ones and brings them home. Then, just like the Good Shepherd, they tell other people so that they can share in the good news.
In many ways that’s what the Sportsmen’s Club was doing on Thursday. All these tough, old, gnarly business men touched by the story of people at Matt’s House and the Swansea Community Farm going out of their way to look after the lost ones and they celebrated as well.
I finished by telling them that maybe they thought they were simply giving some cash for good causes but maybe, just maybe they were in fact storing up some treasure in heaven.