WANTED: New members and helpers

If you know of any visually impaired people (VIP's) that would appreciate the opportunity to meet and chat to other VIP's, to have fun, to sing, worship and pray together and hear a short message, then let us know.
We are a non-denominational Christian organisation and hold a monthly fellowship meeting in Norwich on the second Sunday of each month except August. Giant Print and Braille Hymn Books are available. (Each service is normally recorded and copies on cassette or USB stick are sent to those VIP's who are unable to attend.

Drivers needed

Our Torch Fellowship group is in need of more drivers and helpers, so if you have a car, 3-4 hours to spare on the second Sunday of the month, and a heart to help visually impaired people to meet together with Jesus, please contact us.
We need people who are able to collect our members, bring them to the City Gates Centre to arrive just before 3pm and then take them home again around 4.30pm. Drivers are welcome to stay for the service and refreshments, or if they have other commitments, leave their passengers and come back later.

We are particularly looking for volunteer drivers in the Greater Norwich area to fill specific needs.

Other help needed

We are also looking for a committed person with an interest in audio technology to operate the sound system, record the meetings and make approximately a dozen duplicate copies to send to those who can not attend regularly. The equipment is provided and training is available if required. For further details, please contact us.

Volunteer Opportunity for Bookworms

Do you enjoy reading? Do you regularly read Christian books?
If so, you could help make Christian books accessible to people who are blind or partially sighted.

Torch Trust are seeking to recruit volunteer book reviewers who could dedicate a few hours per week to help them select books for their library.Your task would be to read the book and then write a short review (150 words).

To learn more about what is involved, please ask for a Reviewer Information Pack by contacting the Library at Torch HQ. Either e-mail library@torchtrust.org or call 01858 438266

You can also request a copy of the poster above for your church noticeboard when e-mailing or phoning

Get your church involved in Disability Sunday 5th June 2011

66% of churches say they need ideas for how to include disabled people in church activities*

Details of this year's theme are still to be released but in response to the statement above, the theme of the 2010 Disability Sunday was Finding Hidden Treasure and resources were provided to help congregations engage more fully with disabled people.

Churches For All believe that disabled people have an enormous amount to offer the life and ministry of the Church. However too often barriers are put in their way that hide the contribution they can bring: too often the gifts and faith of disabled people are Hidden Treasure waiting to be discovered.

To download and use the DS2010 resource pack visit: Disability Sunday 2010 Resources

If June 5th is already booked in your church calendar, you are welcome to use the resources on another Sunday.

THUNDER FOR ALL

Just think about how much you take the Internet for granted

Whether you use it for email (we send around 250 billion emails a day apparently), looking up information or just telling the world through social network sites like Facebook what you had for lunch, the Internet can play a big part in your daily life. Basically, the World Wide Web is brilliant, isn't it?

But how do you access the Internet if you are visually impaired or dyslexic?

Click here to watch a new video about how screen reading software Thunder, makes being able to use the Internet a life-changing experience for visually impaired people. In the video made by See The Difference, Roger and Margaret, shown above with their guide dog Tania, explain how Thunder is used on a daily basis by over 40,000 users world-wide.

Thunder is made available as a free of charge download to visually impaired people and the charity, Communication For Blind People welcomes donations to keep the Thunder software up to date with the latest trends in web development.

Torch Trust do not endorse any particular screen reading software but the local fellowship have tested Thunder successfully with the low graphics version of Network Norwich, the local Christian News portal.