Kirsty is a 17-year-old college student. She has just discovered she is pregnant. Her parents and boyfriend are urging her to have an abortion but she’s uncomfortable with the idea.

These are real people with real problems  - individuals who wouldn’t normally think of seeking help in Church, but who have come to Cedar House Counselling Centre, a facility provided by local Christians as a way of serving the people of our city. Cedar House is based on the belief that Christians are called to get out of the Churches and their comfort zones to bring the love of God to the folk around us in a practical and relevant way.

Cedar House was opened in 1998 in a small house on Mount Street in the centre of Preston. At first it was only open a few hours a week, with a small team offering help and support to women and girls facing the trauma of an unplanned pregnancy. Twelve years later, 60 volunteers offer counselling by trained and qualified counsellors to men and women facing a huge range of difficult life issues. Referrals come from GPs, hospitals, the police and many other local agencies and Cedar House has been described by a mental health practitioner as the ‘main provider of counselling in Preston’. Hundreds of clients are helped and about 2,500 appointments have been offered annually in recent years.

It’s a real privilege to be able to see change and hope coming into clients’ lives and to be able to demonstrate to the people of Preston that the Christian Church is relevant to 21^st century life. Of course we don’t ram our faith down their throats and some clients will never know that we are a Christian organisation – but many comment on the peaceful and homely atmosphere and we are always happy to talk about spiritual issues with clients who so choose.

But life is full of challenges for us at Cedar House. In this increasingly stressful and fractured society, there are more people seeking help than we can cope with and sometimes we have to turn folk away. If we were to be able to meet more of the needs out there, we would need more space, more volunteers and, of course, much more financial support. At the moment we receive no input from outside the Christian community, despite repeated attempts to involve the Primary Care Trust, whose patients are constantly being referred to us.

Our faith in God, who we believe called this service into being, has kept us going through many years and many challenges. He has equipped us to do things we thought were beyond us and has constantly provided for all our needs. Last year it took £20,000 to keep Cedar House up and running and we balanced the books with £26 to spare!

Back in 1998, when we were working to set up this project, two Bible passages became very significant to us. Firstly Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats – ‘….I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, thirsty and you gave me something to drink…’. (Matt 25:35) Also God’s charge to Joshua, ‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’ (Josh 1:9) There is no doubt that God calls his people to care for those with all kinds of needs and to show that care in tangible, practical ways. And he didn’t say it would be easy – far from it! But he did promise that he would stand with us and equip us for the task.

So if you would like to be involved in the work at Cedar House or know more about it, do contact us or take a look at our website – www.cedar-house.eu. We need qualified counsellors, volunteers to be involved in administrative tasks and answering the telephone, plus as much financial and prayer support as possible. We would love to chat to you about what we do, so feel free to call us at the centre on 01772 880909 or phone Hazel Sewell on 01772 690266.