Written by: Colin Lowther, CEO.
There are some big changes coming up regarding our Reach Beyond office in West Yorkshire.
Reach Beyond have been based in the same building in Grattan Road, Bradford for nearly 40 years, and there have been many changes through that time.
We started out by renting the top floor in the mid-1980’s, then soon after that built two radio studios on the first floor. In 2007 the Lord gave us the opportunity to buy the whole building and miraculously provided the funds to make this happen. Then in 2017, we created the Millside Community Centre on the ground floor.
God has been so faithful through all these seasons – and now things are changing again!
Like many charities, we’ve seen a growing gap between our income and our expenditure. The covid pandemic and the current cost-of-living crisis seems to have resulted in people being a bit more careful with their giving at the same time as prices are going up.
As a result, the trustees of Reach Beyond UK have been looking at ways for us to become more financially sustainable as a charity. We have a small team (many who work remotely now) and a large building, so one of those options was to sell our property and relocate to a smaller office so that we could focus on our core mission projects.
Our main concern was - what would happen to the Millside Centre?
The Lord graciously brought this community centre into existence through Reach Beyond, and we’ve now had six years of amazing services that have been improving the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in inner-city Bradford. There was no way that we wanted to see all that come to an end. So – what was the answer?
We rent the top floor of our building to Hope Housing, a Christian charity that helps homeless people find a place to live and a sense of dignity. The charity has been with us for quite a few years and their team is now outgrowing the space that we rent to them.
After much prayer, we approached their team leader Phil with the idea of Hope Housing buying the building and running the Millside Centre themselves. He was very excited…
Phil said it was “their dream” to run a community space and to be able to help people such as their homeless clients to improve their lives – all in the name of Jesus.
To us, this was confirmation that we were thinking along the right lines.
We were encouraged at the thought that the Millside Centre would be in safe hands and be further developed for those with the greatest needs in our community.
Hope Housing are now trying to raise £395,000 to buy the building.
Please pray that the Lord will supply these funds for the charity.
And pray for Reach Beyond as we move into a lovely new office at Fountains Church in Bradford later this year.
Ask for the Lord’s leading as we focus our attention on mobilising people into mission and reaching the unreached through voice and hands projects overseas.
We are excited to discover what God has in store for Reach Beyond UK in this new season ahead.
This is a big change for us, but we trust the Lord to supply all our needs - as he always has done in the
past!
Thank you for your prayers during these next few months of transition.
