AN Abergavenny church is pulling out all the stops to ensure that no homeless person in the town goes without food or shelter over the Christmas period.

The Gateway Church on Monk Street runs a drop in facility between 10.00am and 2.00pm from Tuesdays to Fridays and now the church is throwing open the doors of its appropriately-named Reheboth Centre on Castle Street as a night shelter from 10.00pm to 8.00am. The biblical name Reheboth translates as an ‘Open space.’

Pastor, Chris Vaz told the Chronicle, ‘We will ensure that all those who turn up at the Reheboth will get a meal at night and a breakfast in the morning.

‘We had seven in last night but as word gets around and the weather turns colder we are likely to get more.’

At the Monk Street drop-in, the homeless and those who are alone can get meals and a shower, there are also laundry and toilet facilities.

Chris and his wife Lyra joined Gateway in 2012 after being associate pastor in a thriving church in Wembley. Both were born and raised in India, and came to Britain as missionaries in 2006.