Bookaid

I have been on placement this week, and having completed my Common Purpose course (more on that another time), I thought I would take a look at some local charities and see where the church, public, private and not for profit organisations work together.

You can never have too many books just look at my house:

On Monday I spent time with BOOKAID in Ranskill, I bought some books too:

• Vol 1 & 2 of Simon Shama's History of Britain
• Can't Swim, Ride, Run- Andy Holgate (Brilliant book, review coming soon)
• Trianing Techniques for Cyclists- Bicycling Magazine  
• Eden Project- Matt Wilson
• The Bible Jesus Read- Philip Yancey
• Hello I love you: Adventures in Adoptive Fatherhood- Ted Kluck
• James: Mercy Triumphs (DVD)- Beth Moore

Thought I would list them to let you know some of the range of books available (I almost bought Calvin's Institutes's but I have a better copy of Vol.1 and want a set).

BOOKAID is a very simple charity established in 1987, they want to provide Christian books to serve the church in the UK and abroad. People travel from miles around to buy books and drop books off, yet it is not very well known in the area, I find it a brilliant resource.

Book Aid- Ranskill

It is however a difficult charity for those who have no faith to get behind on first glance, but this is where management of a shop (even by Volunteer's) makes a difference. I spoke with Russell and Stuart and they have begun to transform the shop, it now has a children's area, Complimentary tea and coffee (it doesn't give you nice comments, but is nice), with comfy chairs to sit on. They have opened up one of the back rooms and have a packing area to show what they do with books which come in and go out.

They want to make the venue a haven for people to come in, where they might be able to have prayer and relax. It's great, maybe a book club, or reading group. The venue could have many uses and it's rare to have parking for a project like this. You could easily have a computer club or conversation group, but it will need to work with the church opposite and others in the community to achieve this, always work with your neighbours! I know St John's in Bramcote where I trained support it and many other churches and Christians. It now has a good fiction and non fiction section too, though not sure where the Lance Armstrong Biography should go...

If you think this is a good idea one simple change could make a difference. It is likely that many popular Christian titles are in stock here, and more than likely some which are rarer, before you go to Amazon or the like you could come here instead...if you were in the building trade could you give time, could you volunteer? All you need to do is like books and be friendly (the second of which is the harder skill in my experience).

I like to buy a book, sit down with a cup of tea, maybe a cookie (OK, yes always with a cookie), and enjoy 30 minutes of peace and quite, so maybe it is already a haven...