Never has our strap line been so apt as today! We’ve always liked, “Making the impossible, possible” ever since it came to us as a way of expressing Matthew 19:26, ‘Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”‘

Phase two of our first project started on Monday 1st August – I write this on Sunday 7th and boy, have things moved on. With a congregation of some 8 regular adults until very recently, a project with an estimated cost of £100,000 seemed an impossible dream. However, as we have seen, God has his plans for his centre in Cross Hands and has made the impossible, possible.

We are very grateful for the help and support we are getting from tradespeople who are currently working on the Redrow site. If it was not for the Redrow build going on alongside the church, we would not have such ready access to such skilled individuals and at prices that for us as individuals would be impossible. But God makes the impossible, possible.

Photos in the video below show the development that has been achieved in the past week and the entire church fellowship is excited to see how the rest of this second phase continues over the next few weeks. We’ll keep you updated so watch this space!

Long term supporters will know that late last year UK home builders and developers Redrow gave bricks to support our first project in Cross Hands. Sitting here writing to the company’s Welsh MD to ask that Redrow might consider helping us further, I suddenly realised that I never did show you the end result of the hour long photo shoot. So here, for your entertainment, is me holding lots of bricks. (And no, that’s not a fake smile. The whole shoot was a massive giggle thanks to Redrow’s wonderful sales manager Carol. She really is a star!)

If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a look back at the site 12 months or so ago when the development had only just started. What a difference a year makes!

Just a super short video on behalf of everyone at Give A Brick to wish you a very Happy Christmas! Have a wonderful day and lots of love to you and yours.

You need to begin your job hunt but so far you have mainly been studying at school, college or university. You have no or little work experience so what are you going to put on your CV to impress employers?

Your CV is the document that will get you an interview along with the covering letter so it is worth spending time to get across your strengths and skills and what you can bring to an employer so your CV stands out from the crowd.

Skills and Abilities

You have lots of skills and abilities. Think through the things you have done to help identify them.

1. Did you win any awards or certificates for achievement in any of the subjects you studied?
2. Did you belong to any clubs or societies? What were your responsibilities and achievements?
3. Were you a prefect, a mentor, a buddy? It doesn’t matter if a lot of people did these roles, what is important is what you brought to the role.
4. Did you do any sports? Were you a dedicated member of the team. Did you have any special responsibilities?
5. Have you ever brought a group of people together to achieve something, in a youth group, sports group or interest group.
6. What are your computing skills? Good typing skills, understanding of search engines and social media can all be useful assets as well as advanced spreadsheet and database skills
7. What are your hobbies. What skills and interests do they show?
8. What activitie have you been involved in that shows commitment, team work and leadership.

Remember companies receive hundred of CVs, so yours needs to show more than just your academic achievements. You need to project your personality, capacity for hard work and desire to learn.

Work Experience

Make the most of any work experience you have

1. If you did a boring routine job very different from the one you are applying for, was there a time when you showed initiative in the task, helped another person, had foresight to react to something.
2. Was your time keeping and commitment great?
3. Was there any incident that showed your skills?
4. Did you babysit regularly (baby sitting is a very responsible job)
5. Did you demonstrate excellent customer service skills?

Volunteer work

Volunteering can be a great way to gain experience so while you are job hunting, look for some volunteer work. Go to your local Volunteer Bureau or look on the website www.i-volunteer.org.uk

1. What skills did you learn?
2. What did you bring to the role that you are proud of
3. Did you work as part of a team, take responsibility?

Words of Warning

Don’t put anything on your CV that you aren’t happy to talk about at  interview

1. Don’t put anything on your CV that you aren’t happy to talk about at  interview
2. Be completely honest about dates and the roles you did. An employer interested will almost certainly take up references and any discrepancies will show.
3. Make sure your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook) so not contain anything you would not be happy for an employer to see. Some employers do look at these to get a more rounded picture of you.
4. Make sure your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook) so not contain anything you would not be happy for an employer to see. Some employers do look at these to get a more rounded picture of you.

Top tips

1. Do not include your date of birth or your marital status. Both these are irrelevant to your application and can be good information for anyone wishing to steal your identity.
2. Put some short key words / sentences that briefly profile your skills and experience – then ensure all these are further covered in more detail under your education, work experience, volunteering or hobbies and interests
3. Most employers glance at a CV for a few seconds to seek key facts that interest them. A profile should attract their attention to make them want to read the CV in more depth.
4. It is vitally important that there are no spelling or grammar errors on your CV. Do get someone to proof read it for you.

Covering Letter

Your CV may be going out to many potential employers. A covering letter can draw particular attention to the skills and attributes which relate to the job specification and person specification for the specific job that you are applying for. It is always wise to include a covering letter as it also shows you have taken time and trouble to find out more about the company and the job

Final comment

Looking for a job is hard work and time consuming. You may need to apply for many jobs before you find the one for you. But your hard work will pay off when you get that job!

The clocks have gone back, the evenings are getting darker, it can mean only one thing: Bonfire night is nearly upon us!

This Saturday, November 6th, at 6.30pm GMT, Give A Brick treasurer Dr Egg and his lovely wife will be hosting their annual Bonfire party. For the first time ever though, they’re holding the event in aid of Give A Brick. Cool eh?

If you live in or around West Wales, come along on Saturday evening. It’s looking set to be the best display Ty Canol has seen to date.

But (and here’s where it gets interesting for everyone else) do you remember our party back in July when I said we were testing the new tech? Well I’m delighted to announce that the Give A Brick Fireworks party will be streaming live via UStream. The indoors bit will be done via the laptop but, thanks to the wonders of technology (and last year’s Christmas present!) I can use my phone to show you the wonderful display, live as it happens!

From half past six on Saturday, just visit Ustream.tv/channel/give-a-brick and you’ll be able to join in the fun.

People will be donating on the night and if you’d like to help with that too, why not be the first to donate via our new Just Giving party page? JustGiving.com/fireworks-party

Image: Liz Noffsinger / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Back in June I went to Christine Livingston’s Worklife Makeover workshop in London. It was a brilliant day, totally worth getting up at silly o’clock for. And an unexpected bonus came when I met Adrian Swinscoe. We knew each other a little via Twitter and here on the blog but as the day evolved, I found out about Adrian’s latest project and he made an unexpected offer.

Last month, this ‘project’ was published: Rare Business. It’s Adrian’s baby and here’s the really wonderful thing for all Give A Brick supporters: Adrian is donating 10% of all the profits direct to Give A Brick! How totally cool, kind and amazing is that?

Adrian and I hooked up via Skype to talk about the project, his aspirations, motivation and reasons for donating 10%. You know how I like to talk? Well Adrian’s a pretty passionate guy too so I imagine you won’t be that surprised to hear we ended up chatting for over an hour!

I’ve taken the best and most relevant bits and edited them into two short videos. The first is about the book while the second follows our more standard Friday Friend interview format. I look forward to hearing what you think and of course, if you’ve got any questions for Adrian, the comments would be a great place for that.

However, before I show you the videos, it would be remiss of me not to tell you how you can get your own copy of Adrian’s book (and donate 10% to GAB at the same time!)

To buy Adrian’s book direct from his site (AdrianSwinscoe.com) please click here and to order via Amazon.co.uk, click here. After you’ve read it, why not add a review to the Amazon site to help others find, buy, enjoy and donate? (P.S. The link via Amazon is Give A Brick’s Amazon affiliate link so we’ll even earn a few pennies courtesy of Amazon if you click that link. Very sweet eh?)

If you’re on Twitter, head over and say hello to Adrian @AdrianSwinscoe. He’s this week’s Friday Friend and our #FollowFriday recommendation.

And now for the videos:

Give A Brick doesn’t do long, boring application forms. We think they’re very dull! Instead, we ask for video clips. Our latest clip is from a lovely chap called Jonathan and his under 11 football team. He had a few issues with his webcam so, seeing as he lives about a 5 minute drive from my house, I went to meet him and filmed this short video:

So what do you think? Give A Brick has the opportunity to support a group of under 11s and their football. But as Jonathan said, it’s about more than just football. It’s about showing a group of young men that someone cares and believes in them. It’s about morale and a sense of self-worth. It’s about showing these lads that people have faith in them. At a time when they’re just getting ready for the move into secondary school, all that stuff is a big deal.

But as ever, whilst the final decision rests with the trustees, we want to hear what you think. Love or loathe the game (and, being married to a huge football fan, I have to be honest and say that I don’t usually have a lot of time for it!)  there’s something magic about the idea of making a positive impact on a group of 11 years old boys. But do you agree? Tell me.

P.S. If you want to help support more projects like Jonathan and his football team, please visit our Just Giving page and give what you can. www.JustGiving.com/GiveABrick Thank you

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

I’ve always loved that quote. It empowers me to believe in the power of little things. It inspires me to just start, even when I don’t know all the details.

Today, in my head at least, feels like the start of a new chapter. A fresh momentum. A heightened sense of purpose.

I’ve been waiting for all the technical bits to click into place and life, being what it is, has caused unplanned and inescapable delays.

We have an awesome, slick new design coming to this place so very soon. Waiting for that stopped me moving forward.

But this place is bigger than a site design. This place has always been about community and thanks to my needing all the bits in place so as to move forward, the community has lost it’s voice.

Not anymore.

I can’t wait to unveil all the new stuff. We have some awesome columnists standing by to share their wisdom. But that will come when it’s ready.

In the meantime, Give A Brick is back.

In truth, we never went anywhere but I hope you know what I mean.

As is often the case, it took something sad to shake me awake. Why is life like that? Why do I never learn?

So welcome to the next step. It’s soooo great to be back!

This week has been brilliant. If you were here yesterday, you’ll have read about how we’ve teamed up with Just Giving. Didn’t read that yet? Go ahead, click here, you can come back when you’re done.

So there was that. But then after all the excitement of that, we had yesterday. And yesterday, well it left me so full of zing I literally couldn’t type. I sent a text message to one of my friends to tell them how all this cool stuff had happened but do you think I could write an email later to tell the full story? Nope. Just couldn’t get it all down.

So I did this video update for you instead. At seven minutes, it’s one of the longest I’ve ever published but please don’t be put off. I’m sure you’ll love this update. So go ahead, click, watch and then tell if you’re nearly as excited as I am.

So what do you think?

This is a really exciting day for Give A Brick. For months I’ve been dreaming about writing this post. Seriously. I’m so excited, I can’t type in full sentences! At first glance, today’s thing won’t be that big a deal for you. Bare with me though and I’ll explain. But first, the big announcement:

Give A Brick has joined

This means lots of stuff but (in my head at least) it means we can finally start living up to all the aspirational things I’ve been dreaming about. People coming here, reading about the brilliant stuff we’re doing and catching the vision.

Teaming up with Just Giving allows wonderful people like you to do something exciting in the name of Give A Brick. You can create your own fundraising page, add the Facebook app to your profile page and download the Just Giving app for your iPhone.

You can tweet and email all your friends and family from your fundraising page, asking them to support you as you support us.

You can even be one of the fabulous people who commits to giving a fixed monthly donation.

All this stuff is possible and super easy thanks to Just Giving.

Now there is a catch and it’s something I personally battled with a few months ago. Just Giving is our first regular admin cost. You’ve got to spend money to make money, I get all that. But because I’m on a personal mission to prove that you don’t have to have a massive budget to do lots of really good stuff, I’m very careful about every single penny we spend.

Just Giving costs £15 per month + VAT so with the current market, about £17.60 (around $28 according to the app on my phone.)

The great news is that Just Giving is set up such that when someone Gives A Brick via Paypal (currently the top donation method here on GiveABrick.com) we only lose 2p on every pound donated and (and this is a biggie) we get Gift Aid. With our own Paypal efforts we lose 22p and we can’t easily claim gift aid. (What is Gift Aid? Read about it here.)

Once we get this place running smoothly and being all lovely, shiny and compelling, Just Giving will pay for itself just by the way it saves us 20p on every single donation.

But what I’d really like is to find an amazingly kind company or individual who is willing to commit to donating that money on a monthly basis to pay for our use of the Just Giving service. If you know someone like that, please ask them to email me (el (at) giveabrick (dot)com) or they can set up monthly giving from our shiny new page on the Just Giving site.

That’s it for now. I have some more (very different but still super exciting) news for you tomorrow so if you don’t want to miss it, be sure to sign up to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter or sign up to our sparkly new newsletter.

In the meantime, thanks for being with us thus far. Hold on to your hats, the next bit is going to be awesome!

And have yourself a fabulous day

P.S. If you’re not sure where to go next, check out our new What Do We Do? page or for my latest blog post, head over to Give A Brick friend Matthew Needham’s Big Red Tomato Company where yours truly has a guest post.