Cardiff Street Pastors will be out in the city centre every single night this week in response to recent sex attacks in the capital.

The volunteers, who engage with, and provide assistance to revellers are regularly seen outside bars and clubs on Friday and Saturday nights.

Members of the scheme have decided to extend their services to weeknights following a request from South Wales Police.

The decision, they said, was in response to recent late night sexual attacks in the city and the fact that student freshers week and the Rugby World Cup were currently taking place, boosting the midweek nightlife.

It’s been about 20 years since Agapé’s “ACCTS” logo was first introduced to the masses!

A lot has changed since then – we’ve moved buildings, seen people ‘move on’, or ‘move through’ and others ‘move in’; but there are also things that have remained the same, such as:

• Jesus at the centre
• Church in the community
• Agapé (sacrificial) love amongst each other and those we meet
• Sticking to the mission: Luke 4:18-19

So when it came to updating the logo, a couple of things were there for the keeping:

The Cross – in the new logo this is much more prominent

The ‘C’ Church – still sitting neatly within the ‘C’ Community, affecting the places we go and the people we see with God’s love and compassion. This has greater meaning as we build up our partnerships, working with churches, agencies and residents to see changes in the hearts and lives of the community.

ACCTS – we are part of the new New Testament Church with a heart to move as God moves us and take him wherever we go.

So what’s changed? Actually, not a lot!

Straight away you’ll notice that the ‘A’ is smoother, the curve perhaps being a little bit more modern, more inviting than the old, sharper shape, and leading nicely into the rest of the logo. The font used to create the logo makes it ‘sit up taller’ and is easy to read.

As already mentioned, the ‘T’ as the cross is more prominent, and more of a focal point, there’s no mistaking what we believe, even if someone’s not sure what the logo means!

There are fewer colours in the logo. Did you notice?! Fewer colours can make a logo look cleaner and clearer; the continuity of the colour is pleasing on the eye and, again, makes the red cross stand out.

So what do you think? Do you like Agapé’s new logo? Feel free to leave a comment!

Risca and Crosskeys residents are being warned to be extra secure after three burglaries and an attempted break-in took place in the area of the weekend. (19th-20th)

Between September 18 and September 20 houses were broken into on Duffryn Road and Greenmeadow Drive in Crosskeys and Fernlea in Risca.

An attempt was made to enter a property on Grove Road, Risca.

A new community centre in Abercarn held an open day on September 12 to showcase its plans to the public.

New Life Community Church plans to spend over £1 million on the Pant Pennar Project to ensure the facility reaches its full potential for being a community base in the heart of Abercarn.

They hope to create six unisex toilet cubicles, a disabled toilet and wet room with shower, and a lift for better access between floors, as well as other plans.

They will also create a dedicated children’s room for after-school clubs and parents and toddlers coffee mornings and open a coffee lounge and games room and conduct renovation work.

A spokesperson said: “These changes will help us expand our current projects, plus create a vast array of new ones and will also expand our partnerships with other organisations.”

With the Rugby World Cup upon us, we’re delighted to report a new ‘signing’ to the Tearfund team – South African Ruan Pienaar.  A familiar figure in the world of rugby, he’s also a committed Christian and now he’s working with us on our No Child Taken campaign.

Ruan says he was challenged by fellow player Paddy McAllister’s accounts of what he’d seen during a Tearfund trip to India.  As a father of two, he says ‘trafficking breaks my heart – it needs to be tackled head on’.