Blythswood News

Number 86 December 2024

We can only help others because you’ve helped us

In September, I visited Ukraine and met five children at a craft workshop in Irpin, near Kyiv. These children, displaced from their homes, were the sons and daughters of soldiers, some of whom had given their lives. One image stays with me: a potter guiding a child at the wheel. Alone, the child’s efforts would fail, but together, their hands shaped a bowl.

This edition of Blythswood News highlights various stories of our work. You can read about Bibles being placed on cruise ships, or about families helped by our foodbank in Edinburgh or by our partners in Moldova or elsewhere. You’ll find people being given a helping hand to keep going, or sometimes to move on. You’ll read stories about practical skills and about people learning that Jesus came to the world to save them.

In many of these stories, good often comes when someone steps in to help. Like a potter helping a child, until good comes. This is seen in teaching practical skills, like sewing and in teaching God’s word, teaching people how to live out their faith. It all happens through partnership – someone coming alongside to help.

That’s what you do for us. We can only help others because you’ve helped us.

Thank you.

Jeremy Ross
Chief Executive

We can only help others because you’ve helped us

In September, I visited Ukraine and met five children at a craft workshop in Irpin, near Kyiv. These children, displaced from their homes, were the sons and daughters of soldiers, some of whom had given their lives. One image stays with me: a potter guiding a child at the wheel. Alone, the child’s efforts would fail, but together, their hands shaped a bowl.

This edition of Blythswood News highlights various stories of our work. You can read about Bibles being placed on cruise ships, or about families helped by our foodbank in Edinburgh or by our partners in Moldova or elsewhere. You’ll find people being given a helping hand to keep going, or sometimes to move on. You’ll read stories about practical skills and about people learning that Jesus came to the world to save them.

In many of these stories, good often comes when someone steps in to help. Like a potter helping a child, until good comes. This is seen in teaching practical skills, like sewing and in teaching God’s word, teaching people how to live out their faith. It all happens through partnership – someone coming alongside to help.

That’s what you do for us. We can only help others because you’ve helped us.

Thank you.

Jeremy Ross
Chief Executive