Tracy Barford is our Children and Families Worker andfor the last few years she has been working on Northampton East at part of the team in the Emmanuel Group of Churches. She is married to Julian and has three children, Chloe 16, Kristian13 and Abigail 9. They have two cats, a hamster, two leopard geckos, a corn snake, a Giant African Landsnail and a Jack Russell dog.
Tracy says "I am really excited to be so clearly called by God to the Benefice. It's a huge adventure to be moving forward with God especially as I loved my previous job so much and The Emmanuel group where I have been since I was 7 years old".
We consider that children are very, very important in the life of the Church. They are a gift to us and we are to treat their care and nurture with the utmost seriousness. To that end we have decided to establish a Trust registered as a Charity with the Charity Commissioners. This Trust will be entirely separate from the Parochial Church Councils of any of our Churches and will be responsible to the Charity Commissioners, through the Trustees of the Charity, for the Children’s work in our Benefice. We have London Solicitors assisting us in the formation of the Trust, which, we hope, will be registered in the next couple of months.
The principle objects of the Trust are:
i) The promotion of Christian religion and education for young children and persons
ii) To assist the United Benefice of Mears Ashby, Hardwick and Sywell cum Overstone in employing a Children’s Worker.
The second objective of appointing a Children’s Worker is the advancement of the Christian religion and proclamation of the Gospel including the provision of assistance for the Benefice.
It is our vision that this Children’s Worker will not only assist the work which goes on within the life of the Church but will have growing interaction with the schools within the Benefice and will ensure that the quality of the Children’s work provided in the Benefice will be as high as possible.
We need to raise £20,000 per annum to fund the project and have raise the funds to ensure the post for 1 year. We have received monies from
HRH the Prince of Wales (through the Duchy of Cornwall)
The Lady Juliet Townsend
Mr Alan Mason
Various members of the parish who do not wish to be named
Should you wish to support the Trust please contact:
The Revd. Duncan Beet, The Vicarage, 46 Wellingborough Road, Mears Ashby, Northampton NN6 0DZ or e-mail avsy17@dsl.pipex.com.
