Almost there!

Esther and Marcus are this week handing in the application to CFAP (Community Facilities and Activities Programme from the Welsh Assembly)for the first £300,000 of the money we need for our programme to restore the Hall so we can do far, far more for our community here in Pontypridd.

Thanks to all who have helped. The petition has 1,276 names on it - which we collected in a little over four weeks. In addition, we have received around 80 letters of support from local people and businesses stressing how important the work we do there is. Many of them use the hall themselves, or have family members who do. Then there's the Facebook page with over 200 members - that's ten times the number of people who've joined the church's Facebook page! - and we are so grateful to the whole community for getting on board with this project.

Ponty often comes across as a town filled with despair - an air if "you'll never do that here". It is fantastic to see that we can be part of something where people want to help change things for good - in this case, a hall, so that many, many people will have a place of community and life.

I'll finish for now with 2 anecdotes: one of the mums in one of our toddler groups said yesterday that she is not a religious person, but she found a better welcome at our toddler group than at any of the other ones she went to, and a better atmosphere and her daughter loves it. That'll do me. And secondly, we've had a Wednesday afternoon craft group for a while - parents whose toddlers are now at school. We've also started a group for retired people as part of the St Caths Plus programme on Thursday mornings. The Wedensday people have said - let's all meet on Thursdays, we'll learn from each other, and we think we can bring more people in. That's what we are about - that intangible thing called building community. That makes people's lives better. Young and old, finding a home here.

So now we take our application to CFAP and ask your prayers that this time we'll be successful!