A spokesman for homeless charity Shelter Cymru said: “We certainly agree that things are getting more difficult for a lot of people for a range of reasons connected with welfare reform, cost of living and low incomes.

“One worrying trend we have identified is the rise in social housing evictions in 2014, which does seem to support Cais’s view that people are running out of options.”

The Welsh government said more than £11m will be spent on tackling homelessness in the 2015/16 financial year.

A spokesman said the latest figures showed an 8% fall in homelessness between April and June 2014, which he described as “promising”.

“In April next year, the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 will come into effect which puts a greater emphasis on preventing people from losing their home and providing better services to those who are homeless,” he added.

I was about ready to leave the sanctuary of a church in Vancouver, Canada, when they challenged us non-believers to accept Jesus. Right before I put my hand on the door handle, to my surprise, an audible voice called me loudly, “Philip, if you are not saved today, you will never be saved!” I was shocked and I lifted my hand and ran to the front like a little child. That was God’s voice for sure! My spiritual journey began right after that altar call in 1992 when I was 18 years and it has affected me until today.

The tragic loss of Air Asia Flight 8501,which fell into the Java Sea on December 28 on the way from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore, has hit Surabaya’s Christian community especially hard.

Fully a quarter of the 162 passengers and crew who died were from one church. Pastor Philip Mantofa of Sura-baya’s Mawar Sharon Church discovered that 41 of his congregation were on the plane, most of them travelling to Singapore on holiday.

The Thanksgiving Service for Ice (Wales) is to be held ,
19th January, at 7.30 p.m. when the speaker will be Rev. Jeremy Bailey from
Port Talbot.

Police are warning motorists to be vigilant after a spate of number plate thefts.

The warning comes after eight reported thefts of number plates within the last week, with peak areas including Bargoed, Bedwas, Risca and Ystrad Mynach.

Detective Inspector Nick Wilkie, of Gwent Police, said: “Stolen index plates may be used to disguise the identity of cars used in a wide range of crimes, such as the theft of fuel from forecourts, avoidance of speeding charges and parking fines, vehicle cloning, ram raids and burglary.

“We’re urging people to contact us if they do have their number plates stolen. It may seem trivial at the time, but it’s no fun if you start receiving fixed penalty fines or are suspected of committing serious crimes yourself as a result.”

David found faith when he was 40 years old. Although he and his two brothers had been brought up largely without religion in a family of Lithuanian Jewish heritage, David says he had been “searching for something” all his life.

“I was a typical teen growing up in the 1960s, when everybody was into gurus and meditation,” explains David. He says he then just “forgot about it” until he was making the movie Harry And The Hendersons in the US in 1986.

In the unlikely setting of a bathtub in a hotel room in Seattle, Washington, David’s search for religion began anew.

“I was in the bath, thinking about my late grandfather, with whom I had an extraordinarily close relationship,” says David, referring to his maternal grandfather, famous Fleet Street photographer Jimmy Jarche, who died in 1965 when David was 18.

“I always felt that he was with me as my spiritual guide. I felt him sitting on my shoulder. Then I thought to myself, ‘Why do I believe that and not believe in life after death?’ That got me thinking about the most famous person who they say had a life after death, Jesus.”

It led David to the New Testament of the Bible, and to Paul.

“I chose it because I knew that somebody called Paul actually existed, I knew that he wrote letters, and that they are there for everyone to see,” he added.

David read Paul’s epistle, which says that salvation is offered through faith in Jesus Christ, and had a “road to Damascus” moment when Paul’s words chimed with him.

“By the end of the letter, certainly by the end of the book, I was reading about a way of being and a way of life that I had been looking for all those years,” explains David.

Saint Paul made it clear that faith is no easy state to obtain. “When I read his letters, I saw that we both struggle with faith – it’s not an easy road no matter what religion you are,” he adds.

David joined the Church of England, but attends Christian churches of all denominations, depending on his location. He didn’t get confirmed in the church, though, until three years ago.

“Although I’m a very emotional man, I just can’t have blind faith, I have to find out for myself,” explains David. “It took me that long to say, ‘I fully commit’.”

C. S. Lewis left his childhood Christian faith to spend years as a determined atheist. After finally admitting God existed, Lewis gave in and knelt in prayer to become what he described later as “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

Lewis’s long journey away from, and back to, faith began with his mother’s death from cancer when he was a boy. Disillusioned that God had not healed his mother, Lewis set out on a path toward full-bodied rationalism and atheism.

The road back to faith was cluttered with obstacles Lewis once thought impossible to overcome. His conversion to a robust Christianity required years of intellectual struggle and came only after being convinced that faith was reasonable.