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.