Imagine hitting rock bottom and feeling drowned by despair. All hope is gone and everything seems black and bleak and lonely. 

Imagine finding a place that is full of light and hope, where a warm welcome is extended by people who care. Safety and peace provide a cushion and paths are laid to other places that can provide support and help towards a better future.

This is the vision of the Night Light Cafe. 

A few years ago I was hearing time and again of local people who had found themselves at crisis point with their mental health and had not known where to turn. With clinical services overstretched, there was clearly a gap in provision for crisis care, particularly out of hours. I had a notion that the church could fill this gap, and began to prayerfully consult google to see what solutions other cities had found. I came across the concept of crisis cafes; safe spaces, open out of hours, to provide support for people who were experiencing a crisis in their mental health. In the past, when chatting with friends about times when we had found ourselves in that dark place of a mental health crisis, we had reflected that our situation would have been improved by the availability of such a place, being met with complete acceptance by people who are committed to providing time and attention to those in dire need of some support. So when I came across the idea of crisis cafes, I knew that this was something the churches in Lincoln could help to provide. With the assets of owning many buildings in the city and an army of people whose foundational belief is based on loving others, I wholeheartedly believed that we could achieve this dream. But how?