Greetings in the beautiful name of Jesus. After a long wet winter its good to see that Spring is in the air. It’s just good to walk around the city and see the trees bearing foliage and the flowers coming up out of the ground. And when the sun shines it gives us the feel good factor.

We are hoping to see God’s hand again moving in our city. We are praying and we would love you to join us in prayer as there is a group of us praying to bring to Manchester a Christian rehabilitation centre. The organisation we are hoping to bring here is a Spanish based group who came to the United Kingdom some ten years ago and already have a number of established projects set up across the British Isles. These projects are run on strict Christian guidelines and aim to bring people to freedom from drugs and alcohol and ultimately to know Christ as their Saviour. Our little group are prayerfully looking for a suitable premises situated close to Manchester. So please friends join us with your prayer support for this venture.

Here within Barnabus things continue to flourish. All our facilities and activities are widely used with 71 individuals engaged in afternoon activities at the Beacon alone from January to March.

Our trustees will shortly be issuing our statement on intent for the following twelve months. We are deeply in prayer and conversation regarding the future for Barnabus at this time so watch this space.

Love and little fishes,

Peter and Beryl Green

On the twentieth of April Manchester City Council withdrew permission for us and other agencies to take our vehicles onto Store Street. Store Street has been our outreach home for some four years. We would ask you to join with us for prayer for our City Council and in particular Andrew Crompton who acts as our liaison between the Council and ourselves. Andrew is a young man who over the years has gained great wisdom and insight into the workings of the soup kitchens and has a great deal of sympathy for our cause and for the men and women we serve.

Our new site is situated underneath Mancunian Way at the rear of the skate park. We do feel that God has intervened on our behalf to get us this location as the skate park is managed by a young Christian man who again has a heart for our work. We are praying for good relationships not only at management level but most importantly between the service users at both projects.

The City Council have given us a three month probationary period to operate from this site. So we will have to wait and see what’s going to happen from August onwards.

We are still serving a great number of people and have been blessed by a sandwich making company who have generously agreed to supply us with whatever number of sandwiches we require each evening. Please pray for this company, they do not share our Christian faith and we would love to build a solid relationship with them from which to witness. Please pray particularly for our main contact whom we have christened ‘Bill the butty’.

Good news also, our medical team has now expanded and it is very exciting that we are now in a position to operate on an extra evening per week. Our medical team is led on a Monday evening by Suzanne Icke who has recently joined our team of trustees and on a Tuesday night by Tony Rogers. Please keep them and this part of the ministry in your prayers as they seek to physically heal the wounded.

The red light district continues to be very busy and we are looking to form a working partnership with the statutory agency MASH to operate one evening a week a late night run starting at midnight until 4am. Please pray into this working relationship as there are hurdles to overcome prior to this commencing.

  Helen writes: ‘Exciting news from the Shop: we\'re now ready to launch Phase 2 of Barnabus Operation in 

 Please keep the donations for the shop coming through, keep us in your prayers as we try to reach out to those in the area and do come down for a cuppa with your friends!’

Becca writes: ‘The eight raised beds at the allotment are now full of seeds slowly germinating and finding their way to the surface. First to pop up was the garlic and now we have potatoes sprouting all over the place which we hope will soon be followed by radishes and all sorts. Not bad for a bunch of beginners! 

As well as planting a mixture of vegetables and flowers across the allotment, the lads attending have started to invest time in the general allotment surroundings, taking responsibility for keeping the area clean and tidy, waterproofing the beds and providing attractive features, including a willow arch and converting a fire pit into a new flower bed for sweet peas. 

We are looking forward with great anticipation to the late Spring and all the produce the allotment will generate. The more consistent weather of the early summer months will be appreciated as well as the team have ploughed on these past few months through ice and rain and random hail storms!’

Use the internet to help raise funds for Barnabus by using Everyclick.com to surf the internet. Sign up at www.everyclick.com. 

Adele writes: ‘The work at the women’s hostel has seen Gods Holy Spirit moving with lots of the women. I’ve had lots of opportunities to talk about God and how much he loves them. I prayed with a woman called Sarah for re-housing and that week she got re-housed praise God!

I’ve had opportunities to build on relationships with some of the women taking them for coffee, and in particular a girl called Lorna who gave her life to Jesus. Please be praying for her. I am so looking forward to seeing and experiencing more of the power of God in women’s lives.

raise the profile of the Street Soccer initiative whilst  also raising much needed funds for the ongoing

work. Find out more and how you could potentially get involved at www.soccertwentyfour.webs.com.

Here at Street Soccer Manchester we are looking forward to the delivery of a brand new kit this month thanks to the generosity of the 9 Lives Community fund. It will replace the yellow kit that Gloria’s Coffee Shop kindly supplied for us 18 months ago.’

And finally…an organisation called CSV contacted us a few months ago regarding their Agents4Change campaign which aims to raise awareness of local charities amongst their surrounding communities with a particular emphasis on involving young people. CSV

recently hosted a poetry event called Outspoken at which a talented young lady called Rachael McGuinness performed a poem inspired by the work of Barnabus. We liked it so much we have included it on our prayer pull out for you all to enjoy!