The world turned upside down

The show at Mile End Park was an absolute winner! I took along some friends and we were all blown away. Sadly my camera's battery ran out so I could only get a short clip, though I am sure if you go to youtube you will be able to see more. It was a production looking at the results of the impact of global warming and environmental changes. So often I think the church has ignored the climate problem - we know that Jesus is the solution - but we don't look at the wound. The effects of high carbon consumption are often debated and so I am unsure of what is truth and what is lie, but one thing is for sure, I rarely find Christians showing as much respect and love for the planet as many of the 'greenies'. The earth is God's creation and according to scripture it also needs to be redeemed by Jesus. When we go and talk to people who are in trouble with lives falling apart we hope that they reach out to him to bring healing - since he will heal the core of their being, bringing about a right response to ALL of creation. But so often I think we (and I include myself here) ignore the way we treat the planet. According to a large percentage of scientists at least, the way we behave in London may affect the flooding in monsoon in Bangladesh and drought in Africa. We need to learn to love globally.

London is FUN!

mad taylors For the past month I have been looking forward to the Greenwich festival which takes place over the next two weeks. We first experienced it in 2009 when we saw some really weird musicians playing at the Cutty Sark site followed by some really interesting play performed on water on the Isle of Dogs. It is a regular event and we love it. Today we saw some acrobats hanging from ropes at the Royal Naval College, some mad as hatter taylors, some human sized meerkats and the wonderful play Iron Man at St Alfege park. Here are some pics as well as a clip from Iron Man. So many of these performers would be called disabled - but their performance makes the spectator feeling as if perhaps they aren't making the most of their life. Very inspiring and very encouraging - perhaps a little glimpse of restoration in heaven -  If you haven't been - don't miss out! All the events are free. Tonight I am going to see some aerial theatre in Mile End park - see http://www.festival.org/

Disabled?     Meerkats

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A brief History of Isle of Dogs

The isle of dogs is very close to Canary Wharf - London's new financial centre, the London residence of Citi Bank, HSBC, Lloyds etc... The docks used to be inhabited by dock workers, ship builders and passing slaves. Some of the people living on the Isle of Dogs actually worked here when it was a functioning dock, in the not too distant past. With the development of containerised shipping and improvement of sea-ports ships stopped venturing up the Thames into the area and now all that remains of the past life are mostly decorative. I took a walk around the area yesterday to distribute some marketing materials. In the harbour was a 'Tall Ship' from the US coast guard which can be seen in the distance in the image. There are3 cranes that seem to be marching up the docks to give a message to the banks - 'hard work will do it!' - they I think are mere decoration. A lot of the visitors to Cafe Forever are ex-dock workers. One old guy, Danny, grew up on the estate. He remembers jumping over the fence to bunk school and go hunting rabbits with his dog. He said that this street used to be lined with trees, and there were no apartments, it was all houses with gardens. He comes along to chat quite often but he is quite unmoved by the good news of Jesus salvation. At the end of the road, next to the last remaining tree - which Danny says he remembers as a tiny sapling is Cafe Forever and I think it looks quite attractive now; we are trying really hard to get people to visit us - putting out many signs and green umbrella's hoping to give people an idea that we are open and worth a look. Please pray for our business too.

Redecoration and Kitchen staff

Over the past 3 months quite a lot has happened at Cafe Forever. In April we hired Andrew Dimon to restart the kitchen service and in May Esther Christensen. Having worked with them for a short while I can say that I am so excited now for the future of Cafe Forever. They are both so enthusiastic and professional. Esther has taken the role of Catering Manager.

Marlene and Andrew painting

During my time in the hospital Tom took to refurnishing the interior of the cafe with some new couches (the old one's had tears in them and looked awful) and removing the divider screen and replacing it with some nice foliage. Then in the last week of May we redecorated the café in chocolates, fudges and golds - including some very smart lampshades- it now looks spiffing! Esther and Andrew decided that we should have some tea pots for our tea service and I battle to remember to serve it this way, though it also looks really nice. In terms of our income I'd say we are taking double what we did previously (which really isn't saying too much since we were taking in very little) and I hope that this will quadruple as we regain our past and find new customers.

Cheese and Tomato toastie

As for the visitors - on a regular basis I still meet up with D_ and just recently we took his dog to be neutered in the hope that this will calm her down somewhat - she is a big dog and very strong and D_ is not exactly a 'strapping young lad'. He is off the wagon again and it is evident by the return of paranoia; real and imagined and occurrences of chaos that begin to raise themselves in his life. When I talk chaos it is in the major extremes I am talking. He often reads strange books and I believe these have a huge effect on his behaviour. He has also begun borrowing a lot of money. It is something to be considered when next you carry out your priestly duty.

Regularly I meet up with B_and A_, they came around for a visit the other night and we had a meal together. They are such wonderful companions and we had an excellent discussion about love and relationships - I hope that these will in some way inspire them to faith.

T_ came in yesterday for the first time in about 2 weeks. Previously he had brought in some rhubarb from his allotment which Andrew turned into a very successful rhubarb cake. He has just come out of hospital having some form of muscular pains which the doctors said were kidney problems. He has found some alcohol somewhere (not his) and drunk it and thinks this is responsible, possibly filled with some sort of cleaning fluid or something. He said he felt very near death at times. He said that he was ready to go since there was nobody left really to live for but that he questioned where he was going and was unsure of his salvation. We had a good chat. I really love seeing this man - he is such a sweet and beautiful friend.

Further the food Andrew is producing is exceptional and I have no doubt that soon we will see visitors returning. We need prayer for all of the above. Please support us.