A huge thank you to Liverpool Community Spirit for including us again in their “A Taste of Life” Course.  The Course is  a 7 session personal development course and gives the people we support a 'Taste of Life' from different faith and cultural perspectives: Hebrew (Jewish), Ethiopian (Christian), Arab (Muslim), Indian (Sikh and Hindu), and Chinese (Buddhist), Welsh, Jamaican and Irish/Scouse.  We are really grateful to Liverpool Community Spirit as the nature of the course means that it is small groups and pitched to suit the needs of the people in the group.  We have really benefited from this as different groups of people we support have been involved over the last 3 years, learning new skills, making new friends, going to new places – and once again a new cohort of people we support are getting this amazing opportunity.

 

The great thing about Liverpool Community Spirit is that it is based in a house and although it can be a wee bit of squash at times, the homeliness and welcoming feeling of the Liverpool Community Spirit House makes this course a great success.  This time the people on the course are people that don’t often engage with group activities or courses and having listened to their peers and support workers have given it a try and the first week was a huge success!

 

As usual we began with the Jewish Faith and Michelle came in to tell us about the Jewish Faith, she bought in toys that had belonged to her daughter that she had received at Hanukkah.  Hanukkah is at the same time as Christmas for Christians however it is 8 days long and each day Jewish people light a candle and at the end of the 8 days each candle in the menorah is lit.  Michelle told us that the holy day is Saturday and it begins as it goes dark on the Friday night before.  Michelle told us about the blessings the mother of the house makes, about the Torah – which is the Holy Scrolls of Jewish people.  Michelle said that that she had had a brilliant couple of days earlier on in the week celebrating Simchat Torah in the Shaul (synagogue) with her friends and family.  Simchat Torah is a Jewish Holiday that celebrates the end of the annual cycle of public Torah readings.  It is a time of singing and dancing and partying.

 

People had helped to prepare some Jewish food for us all to eat and share.  Ted and Karen had peeled and chopped vegetables for roasted vegetables.  Rory made everyone fresh apple and pomegranate juice.  Rory chopped the apples and put them through the juicer and it tasted delicious.  David prepared the chicken for everyone with honey and mustard sauce and Dave helped Alison to prepare Kugel for dessert.  Michelle blessed the food and explained that Jewish people usually give thanks at the end of the meal – so we did.

Everyone worked really hard and it was great to learn new things, meet new people and sit and eat together.

Dave said “I’m really glad I came, I will come back next week, I am looking forward to it.  It’s been really good.”

 

Karen said “I’ve helped Matthew with the stories and I’ve done the singing and I’ve helped to do the vegetables.  I am going to come every week.”

 Thank you to Matthew and Alison for your hospitality.

 If you would like to know more about Natural Breaks and what we do we would love to hear from you!