New book by Hucknall priest can help us all find calm in a time of crisis

Simon Robinson minister at Watnall Road Baptist Church, Hucknall, wrote Help! I’m Caught Up in a Crisis after drawing on lessons learned from helping people during the Covid pandemic.

In it, he sets out four simple steps that will help us navigate through a crisis.

He said: “I wrote this to reflect on all the lessons we’ve learned through this pandemic and also for my own sake to establish for myself what I’d learned too and I how I could help people.

"It’s also really useful to reflect back on this time and how we can prepare ourselves for any other crises that come into our lives in the future.”

Lockdowns, variants, R-numbers and surge tests are phrases that a couple of years ago would have meant nothing to us, but are now part of our everyday speech.

And Simon said the church has found life as hard as anyone.

He continued: “It’s been very difficult at times, we haven’t been able to meet as we would normally and provide facilities, so we’ve had to go online.

"And when we have gathered, we’ve had to stick to social distancing and been spaced out and while we’ve had music, we’ve not been allowed to sing, so it’s been very unusual.

"On the positive side though, we’ve always wanted this church to be a safe space and so wherever possible, we’ve kept it open as a place just for people to come and pray and reflect and it’s been good to do that.

"That was partly what inspired me to write the book because, having talked to people and heard what they were struggling with, I wanted to give them a sort of tool to help them.

"Even though we’re now hopefully coming out of this crisis, there will be other incidents and crises for people in the future and I wanted to draw on the lessons learned from this and keep them together for people to turn to when they need them.

"This book is a short guidebook really that you can put in your pocket or read on the bus or train that can give practical help with real issues.

"I asked the publishers, Day One, if they had anything that had been written about issues and solutions that come about solely from the pandemic.

"They said ‘no, not really’, so I said ‘I’ll write one for you then if you want’, so I did.

"It’s a Christian book so it’s written from a faith perspective and it talks about, as Christians, how do we approach and look back on this pandemic and also about looking outside of ourselves and how we can help other people.

"It’s not War and Peace, it’s not a huge tome, but it’s just something that I hope can help people.”

The book is available now from Engage Gifts on Watnall Road in Hucknall and also online from Day One here.