This week I got to meet the lovely Gwen, one of the pastoral carers at the Hub.
I hope she doesn’t mind me saying that she is also our oldest pastoral carer. She’s introduced to me as “the best biscuit-maker ever!” The Hub certainly seems to attract some great bakers (just check out our facebook posts for proof of all the baked delights we’ve been given!)
Gwen found out about the Harrogate Hub through her church, Kairos, and decided to go on the training course to become a pastoral carer. “I thought it would be a good way to help people, because there are just so many lonely people. I chat to people on the bus and most people like to talk, but a lot of people don’t have time to listen.”
At the Hub, Gwen works alongside other pastoral carers at the Hub, who come from different churches across Harrogate. “It’s good fellowship and we can learn from one another. We all show each other a lot of love.” (I find out that some of this ‘learning’ includes Gwen giving Yorkshire dialect lessons to Vernon, one of our pastoral carers, who comes from America!)
Before Gwen moved to Harrogate, she was a pastoral friend and visitor at her previous church.
“I’ll go on as long as I can. There’s no age limit to being a pastoral carer. It’s been rewarding when people have come into the Hub and we’ve been able to help them.”
If you’d like to help at the Hub, whether you’re 18 or 80, please do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
By Ella Green, Charity Officer