Snowy Belfast – PBCC get stuck into it..

When the snow warning came for Northern Ireland the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church Rapid Relief Team (RRT) knew it was going to be a busy weekend.  It had snowed all day Friday and throughout the night it continued to snow heavily. To make things worse, the wind had built up causing drifts of up to 8 foot high, leaving many cars stranded and many homes without power or water, especially in the more rural areas.

Daylight came and the Belfast  RRT sprang into action.  They put five 4×4 vehicles out and over 25 men with snow shovels and set to work on the big clear up.

Plymouth Brethren - Belfast RRT Shovel Snow 2

The RRT Team Leader, Adrian Hughes said “Throughout the whole weekend our team worked long and hard to make at least 6 roads passable, cleared more than 25 driveways and dug out over 20 vehicles including an oil tanker, a Tesco van and a gritter lorry”.

However this wasn’t where the RRT members stopped. Many other activities took place throughout the course of the weekend; they delivered supplies to old age pensioners including medication, cared for a bed ridden man as his carers weren’t able to get near his house for 36 hours and provided shelter and food to those without power. Adrian went on to say “One anxious lady we came across was the senior registrar at the Belfast City Hall and had to get to work as there were 3 weddings scheduled for that day.  When one of our team offered to take her there, she couldn’t believe her luck”.

They even opened their church car park on Monday morning to facilitate parking for some local businesses.

16 thoughts on “Snowy Belfast – PBCC get stuck into it..”

  1. Buy Gold says:

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  2. Granny says:

    You mean the PBCC actually dug out the GRITTER LORRY?????
    Isn’t that simply priceless????

  3. Ed says:

    Hello Zap,
    thanks for your comment and checking out this website.
    Whilst we have had to make the Charity Commission aware of our public benifit(the website covers part of this) we also feel a responsibility to right any wrong and false reports in the news about our life/church/schools etc.etc. that seem to be continually publicised in even more ways than this humble blog!
    Other organisations haven’t been attacked for their charitable activities as we have, is this fair?
    Take time to browse the whole site and find out about our way of life,Christianity is real…
    ” but according as it is written, Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him,”(1Corinthians 2:9)
    Not everything is seen, but thank God that we can have that assurance in Him, it helps us carry out some small works for mankind that sometimes are seen and apprieciated by others.

    1. Green Tea says:

      Zap – its so true what Ed says that not everythiing is seen. I have been involved in helping out at three fire incidents where we went out to feed the firemen, and also have presented checks to countless charities over the years – recently some friends and I presented a check to West Midlands air ambulance and to Help for Heros – none of this is on the website or has been published in any way. So we only publicize the min we have to so that our benefit to the public is recognised by those concerned.

  4. Zap says:

    Do you think that good works should be continually publicised in this way?
    Other organisations do good without continually drawing attention to themselves. Is this publicity related to your dispute with The Charity Commission?

    1. D says:

      Do you think they’d all fit on here? I think this is just a selection of a few refreshing items out of countless for the benefit of all!

    2. Zet says:

      Zap
      Let’s just think rationally for one moment at least! Give me one good reason why good works that the PBCC do so unselfishly shouldn’t be published on THEIR OWN website????
      It’s not as though it’s being published through any of the social networks.

    3. Zip says:

      Zap, apparently you do have to publish your good works – according to the biased “charity commission” who don’t believe that the PBCC help the wider community… and I work for some PBCC, and I think that they don’t publish half of what they do for the community – let alone how they care for their own (Elderly, sick etc) it really is awesome seeing it.

    4. B says:

      A good comment for April Fools’ Day.
      No, good works shouldn’t have to be publicised, but many groups – just go and look at any charity’s website – DO have to publish them to keep the charity commission happy. Just a way of proving that you ARE a charity, that’s all.
      Don’t miss the point that it is actually an awful lot of ‘free hours’ spent simply having to run a website like this, at great cost I would imagine. I have never met a member of the PBCC TRYING to draw attention to themselves, by the way – they are good, honest, hard-working people, and if attention is being drawn to them I honestly believe that it is NOT their choice.

      Thank you PBCC, keep up the great work, I have a lot of admiration for you folks.

  5. Amy - Australia says:

    Wow…..from the story I have just read above, Neighbors and Grandads, Housewives to Business-owners reap the benefits of the Brethren….the good deed here was well paid for with an un-seen chain reaction of events. Do the Belfast newlyweds know that they were able to exchange vows due to the unselfish act of a simple christian ?
    Do I understand it correctly that all this work is donated, fuel for 4×4’s, refreshments, tools etc ?

    1. TRL says:

      Amy – yes this was100% voluntary, unpaid and CHARITABLE.
      Working hours Saturday 6am to 8pm

  6. davy says:

    What a good job u peoples did. top marks.

  7. Ozzie PBCC says:

    That snow is incredible…..
    Awesome work……….once again PBCC…….

  8. Fred Blogs says:

    I bet it was cold, keep up the great work. You are all STARS

  9. Zet says:

    Once more, the Plymouth Brethren are the heroes!
    What a generous bunch of people you are – how anyone can criticize you for never doing anything for anyone outside of your community is unbelievable!
    You are truly lifesavers…..keep up the good work and don’t ever let anyone stop you.

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