Two trips to London, two different worlds. My blog followers will know that I won a night at a hotel in Knightsbridge just after Christmas, during which we sneaked a peek in the Harrods sale, where I am told the sales figures are £1 million an hour on the first few days. I was interested to visit as my granny Alice had been in service in Knightsbridge nearly 100 years ago, and she used to do the shopping in Harrods, so it was curious and interesting to imagine her life in 1915 onwards, as she served for nearly 20 years before getting married at the relatively (then) late age of 30ish.
My second trip was to East London. Up until now I had not really much experience of London past Tower Bridge, apart from singing ‘Way down East’ at a Scout gangshow and a visit to friends in Bethanl Green last year. Oh, Greenwich and The Millenium Dome. However this was different and much more real.
I walked from top to bottom of the borough of Tower Hamlets, which is incredibly densely populated and poor and ethnically mixed and has all the flashing lights for being an area of multiple deprivation. People said good morning and one lady, in Stepney, commented on liking my hat. I passed an advert that said ‘You ain’t born average’ and I took that as a word from God on my journey.
I found Shadwell, and St Mary’s church in particular, where I met Kathryn Copsey, who had agreed to have me ‘shadow’ her for a few days. She wrote ‘From the Ground up’ the book on theology of childhood that I would have written if I knew how to. Kathryn is the project leader of Curbs, which stands for Children in Urban Situations, I use their resource packs for Girls God Gang, but it is the ethos of the organisation which attracted me, totally starting from where children are and encouraging their spiritual growth, not filling them up with facts and knowledge. So, already, spending time with Kathryn was going to be encouraging! A community brunch club was starting that morning, there were only 3 takers, but they had great stories to tell. A godly older guy who had a total miracle to bring him back from death’s door when he was a heroin addict – the kind of story that has your chin on your chest and you believing again. In a God who loves people and is interested in them.
Kathryn’s husband is very involved through work and calling in working with people with mental illnesses, and I was honoured and blessed beyond imagining by attending the house group they run for about twelve people with mental illnesses, some also with learning disabilities. These guys REALLY love each other. I have never experienced love and openness and trust in a housegroup like this before. Just a very simple bible study and prayer time and the chance to talk and listen, hug and cry. I felt like I was accepted and belonged.
I did a lot of food preparation and washing up, which is good thinking and chatting time, and great to be with Kathryn and Nigel and think ‘I wanna be like you!’ Heroes ( well, heroines) in the faith are sadly scarce on the ground around Southampton but these were people who had poured out their all on behalf of the marginalized – inner city deprived kids and mentally ill adults and anyone in between – and thrived.
I have thought a lot lately about the abundant life – I have a sermon written in my journal nearly – but luckily for those of you likely to read this, you won’t have to be subject to it. I had many examples of how not to live the abundant life – what it is not. That’s easy, in the world around me there are many living the non abundant version. Here I have a couple really living in abundance as Jesus meant it to look, where pouring out yourself gives such joy.
Being away in another setting gave me the space and distance to consider the life we lead, and the work I do, and brought home to me how great my love is for working with these children I live amongst. Girls God Gang was thin on the ground this week, but I have changed the day so that Rob can get home in time to look after Amy. I am trying a godly play style approach for the next 6 weeks, following a Curbs resource called ‘The Big Picnic’ which uses different meals to go through the great story of God. One of my lovely GGG girls told me: ‘I know a story about a man who went on a boat with 2 of all these animals.’ Hopefully she will know a few more stories in a few weeks time, but I know that the thing that matters most is that someone has loved her.
0 Comments