Scottish charity celebrates six decades

Blythswood, a Scottish-based Christian charity with international impact, is celebrating 60 years of ministry this year.

Founded in Glasgow in 1966, the charity started out as a Bible tract society, reaching out to people with the gospel in the Blythswood region of the city, which was notorious for poverty and prostitution.

Over the past 60 years, the ministry’s reach has extended from Glasgow to the rest of the UK, and today Blythswood is working in Europe, Asia, and Africa. While Blythswood’s focus has shifted from delivering tracts in the 1960s, to opening Christian bookshops and sending out literature in the ‘70s and today, providing practical aid, its gospel heart has remained the same.

“The one area of continuity that has always been there is that the gospel has always underpinned everything that we do,” Blythswood’s Chief Executive, Jeremy Ross, told en.

However, Blythswood still supports the dissemination of Christian literature, which was its priority in the charity’s first 24 years. In its 23 charity shops across Scotland and Northern Ireland, Blythswood gives away free Christian literature to the customers who come through their doors.

Meanwhile, Blythswood’s international work combines practical support and gospel truth as it seeks to help the most disadvantaged in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. Currently, 40 per cent of the charity’s work centres on children and young people. “Going forward, we hope to build on that,” Ross said.

In one of Blythswood’s Beacon Centres in Navi Mumbai, India, the charity runs an after-school programme for the children of sex workers, where they’re given food and learn about Jesus. “We’re there and we’re giving these children opportunities to make different choices from their mothers,” Ross said. “All of that can change their lives.”

Since 1993, Blythswood has also been delivering Christmas shoeboxes to the poorest and most vulnerable around the world. The charity is currently seeking sponsorships for shoeboxes to send to Pakistan. More information is available at blythswood.org/sponsor-a-shoebox/.

Looking to the future, Ross wants Blythswood to continue to be a “word and deed” organisation, providing both spiritual and physical help to those who need it. “I want Blythswood to go forward with a focus on both,” he said.