Summertime

To start off this blog entry - the promised images and a video clip of the London Rib Voyages outing with some of the kids who attend our youth group. It was a fantastic experience and the tour leader was very amusing, giving a short history tour as we moved from The London Eye until we passed the Thames River Police, after which all 750hp was put into action. I recommend this - great outing and the kids felt really treated. And now, onto the new stuff...

Dragon Boating

One major change has taken place - City of Peace church is no longer holding it's worship service in Café Forever, having moved to Canary Wharf College. There are many reasons to move and to stay, but the major reason I believe is the Café was becoming to small, which is a good reason! I will attach some images of the new premises next time. Summer has largely been and gone and our allotment proved quite fruitful, but it required masses of work as it not only produced fruit, but also weeds. At one stage it was so hot that hundreds of people gathered at Wapping basin and cooled themselves off by diving into the water! A very festive atmosphere. We also had an opportunity at the beginning of the holidays to get wet in the Wapping basin - Ambassadors Football organised a dragon boat racing event between the families - it was terrific fun.

We wanted to take the children on a beach holiday during August school break - we were hoping to purchase a small investment/holiday property in Broadstairs but didn't like the contract - instead taking short mini trips to the beach to look at other properties and going to the zoo or playing with the neighbours. At the end of August we put an offer in and we are now very close to closing the deal! 

Painted footballers!

At the end of August or Chef, Gabby, managed to injure her leg and has been off work since then. This would have put huge pressure on the Café team had it not been for two amazing volunteers who have stepped in and helped fill the gaps. The back-garden during the summer brought in a large number of mum's with their children - some of them developing a bit of a routine, ie, visiting us on a Monday. Now that the weather isn't so good the garden is not being used so much, but some of those visitors are still in that routine! As of this Monday we have employed a temp to cover Gabby's absence - Angela (AKA Dot) who has been helping Marlene with the Kids clubs for several years. With the gaps being filled at Café Forever I was able I got to play paintball with our gap year placement (Patrick) and some of the football dad's. I really enjoy paintball and have wanted to do it for years. It was a lot of fun although I am definitely trigger happy - my hand is aching two weeks after! God is good! Café Forever is doing well!

It is not all good however, Declan's dog, Ruby died of cancer during the holidays - it was initially a big shock for him but he seems to be managing rather well and visits us regularly. He is very well encouraged by some of City of Peace people, such as Helen and Bill.
On another note, one Saturday morning we woke up to a cordoned off road outside our front door. In the early hours of the morning somebody had got into a fight - probably a gang incident and got stabbed. I do believe he has recovered. 

Churches making us proud

It is an interesting question and I am not exactly qualified to answer, but I do know where some of the money goes, as I and other Café Forever staff spend it. We are so grateful for the giving that supporters do and it is one source of pride. The recent funday that took part in St John's park was funded by London City Mission - and as such through churches, through volunteers from XLP and Finland! and RBS who supplied many staff volunteers as well as prizes for the kids.

Finnish suffering

Face Painting

I was told by one contact 'the park event was really good fun' and 'who paid for all of this, the council?' and it gave me great pride to tell him that it was through generous giving of churches that made it all happen. The donations go to various other places as well, such as funding the staff that maintain the café or building our back patio and I can only pass on the Goodwill that surrounds our venture - the impact that it is making on the various aspects of people's lives. We are being praised for the work and we give God and his church the Glory!

grow up!

Anything hindering your growth?

Café Forever has grown in size! At Last we have a back garden/ patio. The extra space means that during the warmer months we are almost doubling our floorspace, and in a beautiful way too we think.

Growing space

There are certain things that hinder growth, one visitor to the café regularly tells me he 'can't' - this phrase occurs whenever I ask him about him doing something. This is like putting up a brick wall before yourself. We should be saying it to things that are wrong to do, but shouldn't be saying it about things we should be doing. He 'can't' control his anger is for example a wrong phrase, 'I would like to control my anger' would be a better way of speaking, this leaves a door of opportunity for change. We must be careful about what we say, and think about words - they indicate a lot of what we are inside. Do you need to grow somewhere? Are you perhaps also building a mental wall that prevents your growth?

Earlier this year Marlene and I switched over a responsibility. Marlene has begun taking assemblies at Cubitt Town School which enables her to get known by the children and I have taken her role in the youth bible study on a Tuesday evening. It is really interesting being with these young people. They seem to enjoy the opportunity to hang out with us and the genuinely do get involved in the Bible discussion. These aren't the super-cool or the tough guys, I am sure there have been many who have tried to hinder their development. The evening normally begins with some sort of game or entertainment and then we have something to eat followed by about a 1/2 hour look at a bible passage.  We have done some of Judges looking at characters such as Gideon and Barak and their timidity and we have sat on the lap of King David - as Solomon would have - and heard some Proverbs. This is challenging me and I am growing in knowledge of what makes young people tick! Hopefully they are growing in the knowledge of God. The group is really very forgiving. We will finish next week with a trip on a powerboat down the Thames - pictures to follow.

From Google...    growth

ɡrəʊθ/

noun

noun: growth; plural noun: growths

1. 1.

   the process of increasing in size.

   "the upward growth of plants"

   synonyms:

   growing, extension, widening, thickening, broadening, heightening,swelling, magnification, ballooning More

   antonyms:

   shrinking, withering

   • the process of developing physically, mentally, or spiritually.

     "keeping a journal can be a vital step in our personal growth"

     synonyms:

     expansion, development, progress, advance, advancement,headway, improvement, furtherance, extension, spread, buildout,escalation; More

     antonyms:

     decline, failure

   • the process of increasing in amount, value, or importance.

     "the rates of population growth are lowest in the north"

     synonyms:

     increase, expansion, augmentation, proliferation, multiplication,enlargement, amplification, mushrooming, snowballing, rise,escalation, build-up; More

     antonyms:

     decrease

   • increase in economic activity or value.

     "the government aims to get growth back into the economy"

Why is the grass always greener on the other side?

Being a South African I have been reading a lot of posts about why South Africans living in South Africa are in the worst place ever, and others about why they are in the best place ever. The arguments go around  who has the worst crime rates, poor services, corrupt officials, best weather, best food, best outdoor lifestyle and beaches.  While their intention is to encourage you to either jump ship or remain in the pot with the other frogs, the arguments are pretty futile. While the points of contention remain the same you could be comparing Bangladesh and USA, Australia and Indonesia, wherever in the world. The reality is found in the saying - 'The grass is always greener on the other side'.

London beach

No matter where you are from there will be discontent. This is because the world is a broken place. When we can come to admit things are broken we can look at fixing them. My youngest daughter is now 6 months old and inspects and plays with anything you give her - a brand new shiny toy is as interesting to her as a crinkly plastic bag. I do hope that as she grows up she will be able to distinguish between the two. It is a sign of maturing thought when we can recognise the world is imperfect and no matter where we are there is a purpose for us. To embrace that purpose is to love your neighbourhood. When I begin to love my neighbourhood I begin to find joy in my community and I stop looking over the fence; stop yearning for the green yard over the wall.

But there's a problem - as soon as I begin to work in the community I find that people are so difficult - they are such poor money managers, they play their music late at night and they don't really talk quite as well as I do. Some of them swear, some of them go to work early in the morning and make lots of money and drive big expensive cars that destroy the ozone layer and others sit on their welfare state, producing children by the dozen! If only they could be more like me! Well here's a truth for you Mr Home Hopper, Mr Billy Goat grass is always greener. You aren't all that lovely yourself! In fact how often have you been that troll under the bridge, stopping and hindering others from developing and improving? Perhaps the change can begin with you. Yes Michael Jackson sang it but did you listen? The man in the mirror needs to change, and that change is your heart. You need to start loving WITHOUT expect of a return - that means the other person doesn't have to say 'thank you'! They don't have to respond to your birthday gift by buying you one and they may even push in front of you in the queue at ASDA! What, your heart? The term 'HEART' is an old one - it means with every fibre of your being. In order to love your neighbourhood you need to change into a person that loves with their whole heart ie. your attitude to others, to any situation (good or bad) is LOVE, and that you value others as if they were yourself.

The discontent that you have is based on your awareness that there must be a better place - you would do well to read the bible - it says there is a paradise and that there's a way to get there - maybe in finding that you will look more tenderly on this one. To move to greener pastures is to leave others in poorer one's. Yes the time may come, but I hope that you aren't just leaving without loving.

Community cures loneliness and literacy

Christmas can be a very challenging time for lonely people, it is the one time in the year when families get together and if you have no family and no real friends you can be isolated for about a week. It was great to hear about the various houses connected to City of Peace and how some of these people were accommodated. In the middle of January I had one visitor over for lunch who said that for the past number of years he has felt very lonely but this year he knows he has some friends.

We also had an amazing Christmas time - Natalie's mum came to visit and poured out gifts on the children as expected. We ate a wonderful lunch together with some local friends and everyone brought some contribution. We had a fantastic visit to a family who have moved to Tunbridge Wells. We met them in our first sessions of prenatal classes before Hannah was born and both of our children went to St Lukes for 3 years before they moved. They provided lunch at their house where Devrim's dad spent the majority of the time looking after Ella, who she loved (he doesn't speak a shred of English!) In the evening we all went to see 'Peter Pan' the pantomime. I think we may have established a tradition - it was great fun and worth doing again. We also had a nice visit by Virginia, Lars, Maxime and Amelia and went ice skating with them.

The Café has been transformed by the new door - it has a shaft of light that blazes it's way across the room from about 12 am until closing time. Previously the room was like a cul-de-sac but now it feels like it has some sort of flow, even if it is due to the cold, only visual! We began by sanding the counter - Carol having a go on the belt sander. It took us a week to get the dust tidied up from the brickwork and then we had to do some painting and cabling and transferring of heaters but now it is up and running and we are so thankful!

But even when the café is closed the work continues. Carol told me how one of our friends who started visiting us 2 years ago, and has now become more permanent, Linda, has taken to educating another aged visitor in literacy. Carol had previously visited the lady and provided her with an audio bible on an mp3 player. She told Carol how wonderful it was to hear the bible and how she would love to read it. Carol knew that Linda is a teacher and put the two together. Apparently they are having a wonderful time.

Now the back garden needs work - it is a mess, different layers of concrete, paving and earth. In order for it to be useful this summer we need to get it landscaped. I hope by the time I get the next post written in this blog we will have some sort of process underway.