By Sandy Medway
Sandy Medway works within the Christian voluntary and community sector as a freelance consultant and for the last 20 years has helped support a wide range of Christian charities and social action initiatives. She is a Street Pastor in Eastbourne, and an Associate Consultant with Aid for Trade, a Worthing based charity providing free online micro-enterprise resources for people in developing countries. Sandy is also part of a local group seeking premises to set up an Eastbourne-based wood recycling project.
Sandy says, “Instead of a new year’s resolution this year I thought it more beneficial to work out some reminders around my calling and ministry, which would help me stay focused on the important things during 2014.
- Care and protect vulnerable people around me (neighbours/family)
- Focus on work that supports community and family life
- Be plain speaking at all times
- Restore Jesus’ teachings as a force for good
- Remember, choices have consequences
- Get out of the way of progress
- Collaborative solutions need the right people round the table
- Encourage good people doing good work
- Enable leaders to serve
- Capture ‘difference narratives’ not targeted outcomes
By “capture difference narratives”, I mean that I will find ways to ensure that people benefitting from Christian social action are given a voice to personally express themselves and the difference a service they are using has made to their lives. This is an alternative approach to getting people to tick boxes against pre-designed questions or choosing to only work with people who measure up against a targeted outcome.