Origins of Alabaré Christian Care & Support

Alabaré Christian Care & Support was born out of Alabaré Christian Community. The Community was founded by a small group of people who wanted to live their lives based on the values given by the early Christian communities and now, through Alabaré Christian Care & Support, has grown into a major outreach to the vulnerable and marginalized. 

John Proctor’s story (Founder and Chairman)

Sometimes we feel surprised by the way in which the Lord works in our day, but he is the God of Surprises. Back in 1985 in the very early days of the Alabaré Christian Community we moved to Wilton and established an ecumenical House of Prayer. We had not been around very long when we received a phone call from the local Baptist minister asking if we could provide accommodation for a homeless man.

My first reaction was one of total surprise and lost for words. I recall asking, why us? And the response came, “well you are a Christian Community aren’t you”. This had never been a part of our vision but we did want to be truly ecumenical and work with the local Christian churches so I heard myself saying yes.

My wife came alongside and started asking me questions so I enquired a little further only to discover to my horror that this homeless man was an alcoholic man of the road. I immediately retorted, well aren’t you a Christian Community, meaning his church, and he said, “well yes but we have all tried these past two years and no one else is prepared to do any more”. Well you can imagine I felt even worse about what I was committing my family to. I immediately began searching for excuses as to why it would not be suitable. We had three young children all under five, we were both working full time, we had no experience in this area etc.

Well the bottom line is we took Bob in to live with us on the one condition he could not drink while he was with us. Bob spent two years with us on and off and became a great friend of the children. We in turn discovered he was just another man with a fist full of problems and on a good day he was great on a bad day it was difficult. Eventually Bob moved on to a treatment centre and within a week we were asked to take in an expectant mum whose husband had been sent to jail and so it continued until we felt we could do no more. Our jobs and our family were too demanding to afford the time that was necessary and so after a year of prayer and reflection we embarked on an Appeal to raise the funds to buy a home in which we could accommodate these referrals. That was the birth of Alabaré Christian Care Centres which later became Alabaré Christian Care & Support.

Had we known at any stage along the journey what was in store for us we would certainly have said no at every step. Why? Because we would not have felt qualified, we would not have the time, we were probably lacking in faith and trust. But looking back God has journeyed with us every step of the way. In turn our faith and trust in him has increased and it is only when we look back we can see clearly his hand at work in the lives of so many whom we have helped and in the lives of those who have helped us.

You can visit the Alabaré Christian Community by clicking this link www.alabare.org.