CRC newsletter: June 2002: News

The Chairman thanked the club members for their prayers and support over the past year – having fewer committee helpers has meant that they have felt the strain at times. However, it has been good to see the club come out of the foot and mouth crisis with attendance at events returning to near normal levels. The committee are waiting for the non-renewal’s questionnaire to be returned before they can see if the crisis affected the renewal of membership numbers, but it does seem that this is slightly lower than last year. However, there have been more folk joining the club from October to the AGM, than the club had in the whole of last year. So hopefully this will mean that the membership numbers will stay static.

The committee has also spent a lot of time looking at where the club advertises. The Chairman thanked Margaret MacWilliam and Lorraine Thorneycroft for their help in this matter. It was too early to know of the success of these ventures, but it is hoped that they would be useful. The Web site continues to be used with `hits’ most days. The issue of links and how to maintain them was an area that the committee needed to discuss over the next few months. Thanks were given to the webmaster Diane Kingston for all her help in this matter.

Thanks were also given to all those who work behind the scenes thus enabling the club to function - Roger Philpott for the hostel book distribution, Jane Wood for looking after the club’s equipment and programme typing, Roz Jackson for organising the printing, the `stuffing’ team who meet to ensure the mailing gets out, and Ann Arnold for acting Newsletter Editor. Thanks were also given to all the walk and event leaders as, without them the committee’s planning is in vain.

The new hostel booking system was also discussed with questions answered and clarification given. In general the system did seem to be working, but comments from the membership and the YHA show that some fine-tuning is going to be needed. Further comments on the new system should be sent to the Chairman by July 16th 2002, so that they can be included in the committee meeting. A meeting with the YHA would then be organised.

Looking to the future – how would club members like to celebrate the 25th anniversary in three years time? A weekend at Lee Abbey or Scargill House have been suggested - should it be spent in fellowship, or should we undertake a sponsored event? Again comments to the Chairman by the 16th July. The committee is aware that it is a way off yet, but things do need to be planned.

Thank you to all those who made suggestions or offers following my previous article regarding club finances consequent to the foot and mouth problems of last year. I am pleased to report that we have made no further significant losses, and owing to the popularity of many events since then, we have even occasionally made some small profits. We implemented some strategies for reducing costs later in the year and as a consequence were able to cover the losses made within our total budget (largely from subscription income).

Of more concern in the long term is the 25% increase in the number of bed-nights for which the club had to pay in advance. This is a substantial drain on our resources as payments are required long before most members buy the beds from us. One of the benefits of the new booking scheme will be to reduce and perhaps reverse this trend, but it remains to be seen to what extent this will be successful.

Full accounts for 2001 were presented at the club AGM in May. If you were not able to get there and would like a copy then send me a stamped addressed envelope and I will mail one to you.

For those of you unable to join us at the AGM held this year at Arnside, here is a summary of my report.

As you will undoubtedly recall, 2001 was the year when much of the countryside was closed due to Foot and Mouth disease. This had a significant impact on our programme, with 12 planned events being cancelled. This brought the tally of events for the year down to 43 but unevenly spread over the country as two of our favourite areas, the Lake District and South Wales closed for much of the year.

We still managed a varied programme, with the usual range of BIG events. This included one at Oxford over New Year, in numbers on par with the one at Derwentwater. Other significant happenings were two New Members events, Navigation Training (which I recommend to everyone, you never know when you might need to find your own way home off a hill) and eight ‘week long’ events.

A few statistics, 4 members each attended 10 events (their names were revealed at Arnside). 29 people led the events, with two of them leading four events each. As you can see, some people are doing a huge amount for the club. If you feel pulled, it would be good to expand the number of event leaders and spread the load! The active membership is about 375 with about 200 ‘sleeping’ members.

My love of walking and the countryside began on a school visit to the Brecon Beacons when I was 15. On return I persuaded my parents to buy me some walking boots and joined the local rambling club. I went on to study geography at Exeter University, where I walked most Saturdays with the Out-of-Doors-Society and served on the committee. I also became a Christian there, during a CU mission.

I graduated in 1984 and joined the Civil Service as a trainee computer programmer at the Office for National Statistics. I’m still based at our Titchfield site in Hampshire, where I currently manage several teams supporting the Births and Deaths systems.

I’m an active member of New Life Baptist Church in Locks Heath. We are a small cell-based church with Sunday meetings in a community centre and close relationships with other local churches. Over the years I’ve been involved in many aspects of church life, including children’s work, Alpha courses and the leadership team.

I heard about the CRC on an Oak Hall holiday and my first event was at Alfriston in 1995. I prefer moderate walks and now attend 6-8 events each year, mainly bank holidays or longer. I've been leading club walks for about 2 years and recently started leading events. I also walk regularly with the Hampshire local group. The CRC marries together my joint passions for Jesus and for walking, so I'm very glad of this opportunity to serve on the committee.

I grew up in Inverness and went on to do general nurse training in Glasgow and parts of the Highlands, where I enjoyed the opportunities for skiing and hillwalking. A time of family illness and bereavements sent me on a search to find if God was real. This resulted in becoming a Christian in 1981.

Whilst doing midwifery training in Bristol.During the 80's when living mostly in the south, my walking boots were'nt much in use! However after moving to London in 1990 I began to go walking with the London group quite often, and went on my first CRC Event in 1994. Since then I've enjoyed walking in various parts of the country and also with the local groups in the south east.

I live and work in east London, currently as a Practice Nurse in a local Health Centre.

While on committee I hope to give back in some way for the blessings which I've received from being in the club.

Thank you very much for choosing Bulgaria for £150 of your tithe this year. It is a real encouragement to me too, to be remembered by you in this way.

So how is the money going to be spent? Well, in line with CRCs outdoor and athletic image – it will go towards buying a table tennis table, a couple of footballs and board games for the seventy patients of the Hospital for People with "Chronic" Mental Illness at Hurcova. This is in a village 5 miles outside of Blagoevgrad, on the side of a mountain valley. Sounds delightful, but it is rather isolated and run down, with little structured activity for the patients. Many of them are quite young. Some have been rejected by their family, have no home of their own and have lived here for 2, 3 and 4 years. With some other money I have been given we are hoping to turn a disused building adjacent to the hospital into a patients’ kitchen/dining room to help retain skills or learn new ones.

I visit the hospital every week to facilitate a social skills discussion group with some of the patients. It can be very chaotic but everyone seems to enjoy it! I work with two bright women doctors and senior nurse, who are keen to improve the patients’ lives.

I have also begun to work with a Social Home for Vulnerable Women, which is an even more isolated spot and have provided some training for the new Child Protection Team in the town.

Community Services for people with mental health needs are generally only beginning to be developed here. As someone with long term mental illness it is easy to feel forgotten and your gift helps the patients feel remembered and cared for, and offers a positive rehabilitative activity. Many thanks.

Evelyn Wilson
VSO Social Work Adviser
Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
(since March 2001 to March 2003)
22nd April 2002

Suggestions for prayer are welcome. Please email me - it would be good to hear from you.

18 June	Safety on our walks and travelling
25 June	The French Alps holiday week
2 July	The Reading group
9 July	The Keswick Convention week
16 July	The Cornwall holiday week
23 July	Thanks for creation, the beauty of the countryside
30 July	The rescue services
6 August	The new members event at Clun
13 August	The Shropshire group
20 August	The August Bank Holiday events

The Prayer of Jabez: Jabez was a more honourable man than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying ‘I gave birth to him in pain’. Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory, let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I would be free from pain’. And God granted his request.
1 Chronicles 4:9-10

I hope you find the diary useful, and the prayer of Jabez a blessing.
Liz Nichols

I am sad to have to report the sudden death of Diana, please pray for her family and friends

Reminds me of a week I spent near Braemar not far from Inverary, where the night was sharp and clear as water in a dark stream and the Pleiades seemed to be there in their hundreds. Problem with the wilds of Munro and Corbett Highlands, is the rarity of old world, nook in the corner, teashops, there are a few but never enough. Usually the dark, sinful luxuriousness of the cup that heals lies back in the hostel. But if you know the ground and the country there are places of delectation.

Even in places that lie of the northern shores of all the maps that you seem to have, for not far from Archinver, within cloud shades and the grey lines of rain on Ben More Coigach is a garden centre. There under glass, is a deep pool that would satisfy a roman sybarite, where the tired, or discouraged can sit among the hanging gardens - and drink tea.

While a few miles along the coast lies another unexpected well of delight, among the sands of Archmelvich. Only a memory of one, for this was a chance meeting on a campsite with a retired warden, he used to be in charge of now defunct almost forgotten huts on the far coasts of the North West. Here, he was amongst his memories and haunting scapes of Sulliven, isolated as a grey turret above the houses of Lochinver. I drank tea there and spoke of old times and he of places he remembered and how things were, in the hostels of old along the coast. A private chance encounter of a tearoom, but one that was mine for a short time.

A sip of the potion that cheers, and memories to share, maybe of the week that has just gone on the northern most shores of Tongue. For there the sea ran impossible blue among the islands as the sun hesitated and then went down in crimson bars. We had our share of Haggis and Neaps, watching an evening that resembled the sinking scarlet of the sun that shone red as omen above the waters of Loch Broom. For this was the final dregs of what had been a grey wet of a day that ended in Ullapool. Unexpected and extraordinary but there was a compensation and a closure to the day that had just gone, an ending to the day in the hills whatever the rain and everything that had gone before.

Chairmans Chatter June 2002		Event Reports June 2002
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