WESTMINSTER COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE

Ruth's Team page

Ruth Dewis
Team

Team captain: Ruth Dewis

About

Westminster College is a Resource Centre for Learning for the United Reformed Church which offers a diverse range of online and residential courses and events to equip people for service in the Church. Current and future ministers of Word and Sacrament, lay preachers and worship leaders, Children and Youth Work Development Officers (CYDOs), Training Officers, those in pioneering roles, as well as independent students, exchange students and sabbatical guests, explore faith in an open and inclusive environment.

Westminster College has been located head of the iconic Cambridge ‘backs’ since 1899 and comprises a refurbished arts and crafts-style interior. The heritage building requires significant maintenance, and ongoing fundraising is being planned, but the wet winter in 2020/21 has pressed the need for urgent structural repairs to be made to the College’s Tower. This will cost £500,000 at a time when the financial implications of the Covid-19 pandemic are being felt by all, but responsible stewardship now will help secure the building’s fabric.

I am hoping that you can help me to raise some funds to contribute to the cost of this urgent work so that others have the opportunity to experience Westminster College, as I have.

STRONG TOWER TOUR

Starting: Monday 1st March 2021for 40 days (36 days plus 4 Sunday rest days)

Covering 1084 miles (Lands End to John O’Groats equivalent).

This is 30.1 miles per day on an exercise bike.

Finishing: Friday 9th April 2021.

It started as a throw away comment, a fun idea for someone to do to raise money. The trouble was that idea seemed to be returned to me by God! The throw away comment kept coming back in my mind and I found myself quiet out of character asking my husband did he think I could do this. Rather than being a couch to 5km kind of person I am more like a couch-to-couch person. I am also no slim Jim! Still a shock to me even now was that I actually found myself trying to cycle for half an hour and amazingly for me clocked up 12km. I thought this might work if I am sensible.

I feel a strange loyalty to Westminster College that runs a lot deeper than me being an ordinand there. It is its history that has drawn me in and the thought that I am one of the many who have trained for the ministry there. I sat looking up at the 2 sisters, over 3 meals a day when resident at college and wondered what they would have thought about me. I certainly do not fit the usual mould of ordinand and I certainly do not have their brains. I often thought if they had not given the land, I would not be there looking up at them and nor would those who had been there before me nor the future ordinands to follow. And now the tower of this glorious building needs strengthening. A building that was my home for my first year, that houses an amazing community of warmth and compassion, with tutors who lovingly and continuously support my learning (I fear I am no academic!). The confirmation for me came when my husband announced that this all reminded him of some scripture on a laminated card I gave him after a service I led – it must have been 3 years ago. It was Proverbs 18:10,

The name of the Lord is a strong tower;

the righteous run into it and are safe.

(New Revised Standard Version)

That was it then! I felt that was the poke I needed and so my Strong Tower Tour will begin on the 1st March. I am now very apprehensive to say the least and I have no idea of what will happen or how much I will raise but I do know that God will be in it and alongside me – his name is MY strong tower. I would really appreciate your support. Thank you.

Ruth

Logo design: A. Earle.

138%

Funded

  • Target
    £2,000
  • Raised so far
    £2,758
  • Number of donors
    66

About

Westminster College is a Resource Centre for Learning for the United Reformed Church which offers a diverse range of online and residential courses and events to equip people for service in the Church. Current and future ministers of Word and Sacrament, lay preachers and worship leaders, Children and Youth Work Development Officers (CYDOs), Training Officers, those in pioneering roles, as well as independent students, exchange students and sabbatical guests, explore faith in an open and inclusive environment.

Westminster College has been located head of the iconic Cambridge ‘backs’ since 1899 and comprises a refurbished arts and crafts-style interior. The heritage building requires significant maintenance, and ongoing fundraising is being planned, but the wet winter in 2020/21 has pressed the need for urgent structural repairs to be made to the College’s Tower. This will cost £500,000 at a time when the financial implications of the Covid-19 pandemic are being felt by all, but responsible stewardship now will help secure the building’s fabric.

I am hoping that you can help me to raise some funds to contribute to the cost of this urgent work so that others have the opportunity to experience Westminster College, as I have.

STRONG TOWER TOUR

Starting: Monday 1st March 2021for 40 days (36 days plus 4 Sunday rest days)

Covering 1084 miles (Lands End to John O’Groats equivalent).

This is 30.1 miles per day on an exercise bike.

Finishing: Friday 9th April 2021.

It started as a throw away comment, a fun idea for someone to do to raise money. The trouble was that idea seemed to be returned to me by God! The throw away comment kept coming back in my mind and I found myself quiet out of character asking my husband did he think I could do this. Rather than being a couch to 5km kind of person I am more like a couch-to-couch person. I am also no slim Jim! Still a shock to me even now was that I actually found myself trying to cycle for half an hour and amazingly for me clocked up 12km. I thought this might work if I am sensible.

I feel a strange loyalty to Westminster College that runs a lot deeper than me being an ordinand there. It is its history that has drawn me in and the thought that I am one of the many who have trained for the ministry there. I sat looking up at the 2 sisters, over 3 meals a day when resident at college and wondered what they would have thought about me. I certainly do not fit the usual mould of ordinand and I certainly do not have their brains. I often thought if they had not given the land, I would not be there looking up at them and nor would those who had been there before me nor the future ordinands to follow. And now the tower of this glorious building needs strengthening. A building that was my home for my first year, that houses an amazing community of warmth and compassion, with tutors who lovingly and continuously support my learning (I fear I am no academic!). The confirmation for me came when my husband announced that this all reminded him of some scripture on a laminated card I gave him after a service I led – it must have been 3 years ago. It was Proverbs 18:10,

The name of the Lord is a strong tower;

the righteous run into it and are safe.

(New Revised Standard Version)

That was it then! I felt that was the poke I needed and so my Strong Tower Tour will begin on the 1st March. I am now very apprehensive to say the least and I have no idea of what will happen or how much I will raise but I do know that God will be in it and alongside me – his name is MY strong tower. I would really appreciate your support. Thank you.

Ruth

Logo design: A. Earle.

Ruth Dewis is fundraising towards