interview with Lizi bowerman
You never know what’s just around the corner, or what will happen next as you journey through life. 5 years ago we’d have laughed if you told us we’d be moved from our house in Oxford to Harwell by Christmas and yet here we are and very happy too! It’s true we’d felt a longing to move into an area with a real sense of community, to share life with the people around us through church, school, leisure and work and make a positive contribution – but had no idea where that would be or how quickly it would happen! All we knew was that we could trust God to place us where he wanted us. Since then it has been a pleasure to serve the community here through various opportunities and we hope to continue to do so for as many years as we are here for.
As Christians, one of the most important things for us was finding a church we could get actively involved with and serve our community through. Eventually St Matthew’s was the natural choice and we were warmly welcomed! It is exciting to see the church positively impacting its local community, especially through the children’s work and soon through valuable life skills too.
For 7 years Lizi has been working for Christians Against Poverty, the leading face to face debt counselling charity in the UK. Originally getting involved with CAP because we were clients, after becoming debt free ourselves, Lizi went on to train and manage the Oxford CAP Centre. Now the Area Manager for the South region Lizi oversees 14 debt counselling centres from Banbury to Poole but it is here in Harwell and Chilton we long to see people helped with the service. Christians Against Poverty realised that education was a major key to preventing people getting into debt in the first place and in 2008 launched the revolutionary CAP Money Course.
As our desire is to see people helped through the local church with a message of hope, not just for their practical circumstances but also their spiritual ones, it was important for us to be a part of a church like St Matthew’s Harwell and All Saints’ Chilton who are equally passionate about serving their community. As a result, one step towards helping our community was realised with the training of 6 CAP Money Coaches back in April. Whilst the long term vision is to see the vital work of the debt centres cover our area, until that is possible we can still do something for people through the money education course. Resourcing people to avoid debt and providing some support should they find themselves in debt - because you never know what’s just around the corner!