On the 12th of December 7pm at Gloucester Cathedral Pastor Richard and the family of VOUK would like to invite you to a Christmas with a difference as we celebrate with Carols, Testimonies, Choir’s and a powerful message on the reason for season.
No ticket is needed and the event is free (offering will be taken towards the work of VOUK)
If you or your church are intending on being with us please call Lisa on 0845 4092449 to help us with numbers.
Can you believe it! we are already planning for this years Carol service which will be held at Gloucester Cathedral on the 12th December. The evening will be packed with testimonies of transformed lives and music in conjunction with the ‘Soma’ choir. Get the date in your diaries for what will be a very exciting evening.
Venue: To be confirmed (Cwmbran)
Time: 7pm
Speakers: Cyrille Regis (former England footballer) Rev. Richard Taylor
Date: 12th September 2009
More information regarding the venue will be posted shortly, we would love to see you there to support what will be an awesome occasion.
Victory Outreach UK were pleased to have received a cheque in the sum of £2807 from the Gwent police. We would like to thank the High Sheriff of Gwent who came to deliver the cheque and shared his work with the lads from Victory Outreach UK. The money will help us to improve the property to continue to provide a home for young adults in our care. The High Sheriff Stephen Hughes pictured here commented on how Victory Outreach UK is making a difference in the lives of young people a few of the young men shared how they had come to Victory Outreach UK as addicts and how we had helped them to rebuild their lives.
BY THE time Lucy Bryson was 17, she was hooked on heroin and crack cocaine, spending up to £200 a day on drugs. She stole and begged to get cash to feed her habit, and eventually turned to prostitution, selling herself when dealers demanded she pay them off for the drugs she had bought from them.
The dealers were threatening and violent, and she was terrified they would attack her. She says the first time she took drugs, they were forced on her – but by the age of 14, she was regularly taking acid, ecstasy and cannabis.
Then came the harder drugs, and the despair that goes with them. At her lowest point, she says, she was suicidal and would take large amounts of drugs in the hope that she would fall into a coma and never wake up.
Miss Bryson’s parents tried to support her through her problems but she refused their help because she didn’t want to get better. She simply didn’t care whether she lived or died. Miss Bryson, now 25, said: “I ended up in situations where it is a miracle I’m still alive really.
Dangerous men would pick me up and refuse to let me go.
“I did not care about myself, I just needed a fix.”
From the age of 19, she lived on the streets of Bristol sleeping in squats and graveyards with her Collie-cross dog Stan. She said she felt safer living rough on her own than living where the drug dealers she owed money could find her. She said: “I didn’t want to be around those people and felt safer on the streets than in crack houses.”
She said she stole “anything and everything” from shops and industrial estates to get money for drugs. She would often take orders from people who wanted specific items such as clothes, mountain bikes and car parts to get the money she needed. The thing which saved her life and started her on the road to recovery was being caught stealing. In 2005 she served two months in prison for theft and her experience made her realise she had to change her life.
She said: “When I was in prison I could see the state of everyone else and I wanted to help them.
“But there was nothing I could do because I was in the same place as them. One night I cried out ‘God please help me’. The next day a chaplain came to see me and said God had a plan for me and I felt peace.”
She became a committed Christian. When she was released from prison, Miss Bryson was helped by Christian organisation, Abertillery-based Victory Outreach UK, which provides homes for young people who want to rebuild their lives. Whilst living at one of the homes she became involved with a Gwent project which helps people learn to trust again and build up their confidence by caring for animals. She now works as an animal manager at the centre in Crumlin and is helping others rebuild their lives in the same way.
Miss Bryson has also recently enrolled on an HNC Animal Studies course at Coleg Gwent and is nominated for the Inspire Adult Learner of the Year Awards, which recognises learners whose achievements have been inspirational or life-changing. She will find out if she wins next week. She said: “I have never succeeded at anything and I was never interested in anything but the opportunity of studying with this college has been fantastic.
“I could not help these broken people without this training.” Miss Bryson will now attend an award ceremony organised by NIACE Dysgu Cymru at Bangor University on Thursday. And she hopes her story will encourage other offenders to change their lives for the better too. She said: “They need to get a goal and go for it, no matter what mess their life is in they can transform it. If I can do it anyone can.”
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