Art aid for addicts

Art sessions at Hebron House in Norwich are adding a bright contrast to the strict recovery work for women addicts with serious drug and alcohol problems. Sandie Ridgley reports.

The Christian rehabilitation centre for drink and drug therapy promotes weekly art classes where women can wallow in paint, clay and collage to help find their inner selves.
“Each person has a unique contribution to make and something to say as art is a form of communication, a language of colours and textures,” explains former art student Shirley Marwood, who has been helping to run the sessions at Hebron House for the last ten years.
It is common for some new residents to say; “I can’t do art,” since they may lack self-confidence and are afraid of failing. But Shirley is positive: “Others are excited and their immediate attempts encourage others to be creative too. Art opens their eyes to beauty and design and is a confidence-builder which can lead to creativity in their own home once they leave, helping to replace the void left by drugs or drink.”
The work may highlight difficult emotions but the emphasis is on growth. However, sessions are geared so residents are discouraged from indulging in negative past influences.
Shirley, who teaches alongside Rita Bevan, aims to produce a safe, non-competitive and judgement-free environment where mutual, resident help is encouraged. During the two-hour sessions in the art room, women have the opportunity of learning how to use and care for a variety of art materials.

Art can be a language for moods and emotions, highlighted by two paintings by one resident at different times. Her heart picture, interlaced with red and white, shows despair and sadness at being separated from her child to undergo treatment (Bethany Lodge - the new mother and child unit - now enables Hebron to cater for residents with their 0-12 year-old children). The bright flower picture depicts a buoyant mood. She says: “Art is really good, you get so absorbed you forget everything else.”
Holding the pictures are Rita Bevan (left) and Shirley Marwood.

“When women arrive at Hebron House they are often tired and emotionally low and miss family and friends. Also some may wrestle with a new awareness of sin and the goodness of God. Without prayer support we would flounder helplessly as we try to sense where people are at and seek to give them needed breathing space,” explains Shirley.
Art can produce wonders and miracles from even the most damaged person, as beautiful work unfolds.
One former resident explains: “I came to Hebron House a broken-spirited, frightened and lost young woman. The recovery work and all that is involved is immensely tough, so to take time out and be given the opportunity to slow

down and relax into reflection, a time of quiet concentration, is refreshing and much needed.
“I not only enjoy being creative, but I am gaining a measure of true self-worth. I am discovering the artist in me and to know that I can apply myself, and achieve fair results, is exhilarating and most rewarding.
“Surprises, occasional frustrations, maybe the odd mind blank will pass my way, but nevertheless, with each session I learn something new about myself and art.
“I end with either a completed piece or a huge mess, mentally stimulated, emotionally stretched, a huge yawn, a smile and the inevitable cup of tea!”

Quiet contribution was considerable

OWEN CHILVERS, who died in early November, made a considerable though quiet contribution to the work of Festival Norwich 1990s as treasurer for some four years. His quiet determination that all things should be done ‘decently and in order’ sustained Festival Norwich through a financially difficult spell, and the Lord certainly used his gifts of quiet, patient persistence to help us to keep the right balance between vision and practicality.
Owen was a private man who was always battling with asthma, and it was only as I visited him during his last illness - from a brain tumour - that I began to learn something of the breadth of his interests: our common interest in photography, his aero-modelling and his keen involvement as a radio ‘ham’. It was a very special experience for me to witness his quiet, patient trust in the Lord and endurance of the many indignities resulting from his paralysis and growing weakness.

Now he is with the Lord who sustained him, and I have subsequently heard from Gail Wickham of her memories of him as her Sunday School teacher at Dereham Road Baptist Church: a faithful biblical mentor, a great help to her during the years after her father’s death. She mentioned with affection the many visits to his home for the youth activities, always fascinated by the massive radio aerial in the back garden.
He and his wife Joyce were the first people to greet Gail when she first visited Surrey Chapel on her own, and Gail and Mike were amongst the first people he wanted to see when, during his last few months, he felt able to let those of us who were outside his very closest circle of family and friends come and see how frail he really was.
We give thanks for his life and faithful service - one the Lord will have greeted with the words ‘Good and faithful servant’!
Ernest Forbes

Straight talking from a Norwich cabbie

Norwich cabbie Roger Quick.

Getting into Roger Quick’s Norwich taxi you are warmly welcomed and throughout the journey you are aware of his gentle manner reinforced by a near continuous smile. The black cab parked safely away, Kevin Gotts talked to Roger in his home close to the city centre.

Kevin: Briefly tell us about yourself?
Roger: I was born in Norwich, educated locally and have lived here all my life. I have two teenage daughters Helen and Sarah. After leaving school I had a variety of jobs including almost 10 years in the Health Service. And just over 20 years ago I became a cab driver and currently work day shifts for Phoenix Taxis, travelling 30,000 miles a year. The work involved is transporting the elderly and the disabled with the bulk being bookings for Social Services. My main hobby is membership of a gym and I have even been known to partake in ballroom dancing.

Kevin: Were you involved in church life previously?
Roger: Yes, I became a Christian nine years ago. Prior to that I was a church-goer although not a believer. I went to church every Sunday morning and night but not only was I not a believer but I had other beliefs as well. I knew how to please myself and do my own thing. I didn’t know what it was to be saved by grace through Jesus Christ.

Kevin: What do you mean by your saving experience?
Roger: I began to know God’s love for me within the local church and sometime later the full conversion took place at my first ever Bible study when I experienced the Holy Spirit. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the greatest experience I have ever had in my life - the joy, the release and the love that goes with that experience I would recommend to anyone.

Kevin: How was your life affected after this?
Roger: My life changed, as if I was a totally new man. A lot of the old stuff I was able to lay down and step away from. It was as if my life had begun again, I was literally born again. My thinking and attitude changed and God gave me the ability to love people, something I’d not been able to do before.

Kevin: How does this new experience help you with your work?

Roger: It’s amazing how I can relate to people. Before I was shy and aggressive. My confidence has been boosted and, with Christ living within me, I have respect for those people I get alongside each day. The love for them can only emanate from God.

Kevin: How do you pass this enthusiasm into your church activities?
Roger: For the last five years I have been attending Norwich Community Church based in the old lads club on King Street. We have a ministry to the elderly, where we are invited to conduct services in a number of retirement homes on Sunday afternoons. My view is that Christianity is not dull and boring as people think it is. Christianity is a great way of life which can enable youngest to oldest, richest to poorest to really enjoy their lives to the full. It’s only made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. I do not know how I lived before without the peace I now enjoy through knowing Christ.

Praying for our partners in faith

By Sandie Ridgley

Steve Brown’s face was set like stone and his arms were folded tight across his chest. The people’s praising at a Christian convention could have lifted the roof but it did nothing for this former airline pilot and heavy drinker. “It was hysterical and nuts,” remembers Steve as the congregation spoke in tongues.
Despite no glimmer of hope, his wife Jacqueline, a Christian conference centre manager, believed God would save her unconverted husband. It had taken a faith walk of obedience, wisdom and above all, love, to see that promise fulfilled.
After a two-day battle, “a light was switched on” in Steve’s life. Amid tears of remorse he prayed with Jacqueline for salvation.

Steve and Jacqueline Brown.

“God does things in a surprising way,” said Jacqueline. “There were no altar calls and I felt so privileged. It was a new beginning of learning to relate again in a different way,” explained Jacqueline who joined Steve at St Luke’s Church, Norwich, to talk about their new relationship.
At the autumn meeting she urged women with unsaved husbands, to get their lives in line with God’s word and fight for their marriages.
The teaching and encouragement day was organised by Sandie Hammond, who runs Partners in Christ, a group of seven Brundall women praying for their husbands to come to faith.
Difficulties are commonplace when a marriage is not faith-bound. But now, in the face of negative, aggressive and drink-related behaviour from their spouses, these women aim to show love and forgiveness. “Our homes are to be our mission fields,” says Sandie, who meets and prays

regularly with group members.
Jacqueline, trustee and director of studies for Living Word Ministries and Living Stones Church Trust in Gloucestershire - a teaching and nurturing ministry - challenged women to claim and pray God’s word over their husbands’ lives.
Love was the key to Steve’s conversion. “Jacqueline’s wonderful example sowed a mustard seed in my life and I was impressed by the loving, caring discipleship from the special people who were her Christian friends,” said Steve. “My wife prayed for me to be convicted about my drinking and I was, by the police. I spent a night in a police cell and her Christian friends said they would pray for me; I was moved because they hardly knew me.”
Two cassette tapes of the teaching (£5.50 incl p&p) are available from: Sandie Hammond, 9 Longmeadow, Brundall, NR13 5LY. Tel: 01603 713630 (day time).

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