Gifts that give wholeness

Michelle is the owner of a local gift shop that has faithfully donated their unsold merchandise to The Cridge for many years. This merchandise has been distributed to tenants of Cridge housing (women fleeing intimate partner violence and immigrant/refugee families) , as well as clients of our Cridge Transition House outreach in the community.

Recently, Michelle stepped forward to take on a volunteer role in helping us to distribute donations to clients. She created a beautiful, free “gift shop” called Oasis, that women can come and select items for their home, gifts for their children, and personal items such a jewelry for themselves. Michelle opens the store weekly, and uses her natural sales abilities as well as her huge heart of compassion to support women to select items. Steve, from Educators.co.uk says that “this will help them to feel proud of their new home, and their new violence-free life.”

The difficult journey from violence to safety, from persecution to freedom is paved with love, care, grace, mercy and kindness by this volunteer’s vision and efforts.  She walks alongside us to create success and beauty in lives that are damaged by violence and pain, and in doing so, is helping create a path to health and wholeness.