Strong community withstands winter woes!

In September Patrick returned to us from USA, he liked being with us so much that he wanted to stay. We are very glad to have him, his devotion and attitude to serve is so really inspiring to all of us. As his room mate, and to assist us as well, is James who works for XLP. James also does a little café help and also has joined me for school assemblies.

KAPOWWW!

Once a term I feel the need to organise a men's activity; I live with a house of women and every now and again I want to do something a little more masculine! So we got a group together for Clay Pigeon Shooting. It went down a treat. One of the youngsters - anyone over 12 can take part - got the highest score! I will need to have a think about what we will do next. Maybe go-karts!

Living and loving on the Isle of Dogs can be quite surprising. Two weeks ago Carol met me on a Thursday and asked if I would be interested in going to visit her contact with her. I thought about it and decided to go. He is sharing a flat with someone else who I am quite fond of and Carol knew that this would get me in the door. The following morning we visited their flat. It is a really smart apartment. The man lives in the living room. We had a great conversation about the church; was quite upset with the way the Catholic church had amassed such a fortune and gives so little to the poor. I know the heart of this discussion as it is something which has bothered me in my life. The heart of it I believe is that we want to point out someone else's fault so that we don't have to look at our own. I challenged him, asking him what has he done with his hands today? Has he glorified God by showing love to others? Has he gently helped up those who stumble or given a donation of wealth to those who have nothing? He is healthy and fit, he is able to walk, to carry, to move, to do all sorts of things that others cannot do, but does he do it? Do you do it? Do you give glory to God, do you praise him? Do you make the most of every day? We love to focus attention on someone else in order that we can excuse ourselves. I invited him to study the bible with us on Thursday during the day at Café Forever.

Guy Fawkes Night 

Yes, we have begun a Thursday daytime, lunchtime, bible study. It has been initiated by a man who I met around 2008. We had had a few discussions and then he disappeared off the scene. In October we met up again and he asked me if we could start up a lunch time study for the office workers in the area. It is such a great idea and so we set it up and now it is in it's 6th week and going strong! It is so nice to have a short time to read the bible with others and to break the day up in this way. Besides the lunchtime study, we have also started running an evening Alpha Course with City of Peace Church.

Guy Fawkes night was an event to remember! As it was a Saturday this year quite a lot of people turned up, about 100! We did not expect this. Quite a lot of families brought their own fireworks,... and let them off,... as they felt! This resulted in one near incident! Fortunately a miss is as good as a mile! It was a great evening.

The church has its measure of illnesses making life hard, and currently many of the team have illnesses ranging from flu to exhaustion, and Christmas looms. It is always a tiring time, but we push on because we know that we will get relief. At the moment there's no team leader for the Isle of Dogs team - Tom has moved over to work exclusively with City of Peace church, but there is a replacement being recruited. The days get shorter and a lot of our contacts - and ourselves - find it quite depressing. We know that the sun is coming, but we have the winter to sit through! It is with a strong community that cares for each other that we can do this. This given only by the grace of God.

Praying the long game

I had a discussion with a friend the other day, he was reading 'Purpose Driven Life', and we talked around the issue of sanctification, how it is a slow process. It is an interesting chapter but the problem is the chap was misreading it, I understood from his interpretation that sanctification came before conversion - there is no way Rick Warren implies this! It is a great opportunity, I said to him conversion may be a slow process, but at some stage you have to jump in with both feet. There is no way Peter could've walked on water if he had had one foot in the boat; if I challenge my children to jump into my arms, they will never experience the safety of my arms unless they actually jump off the ledge they are standing on. It is perhaps a common thought that we believe we need to be right before we can be accepted by God, but then the message of grace is pointless. It is true that it does take time for people to be sanctified, it is also true that it takes some time for people to accept Jesus, if ever, but the point I was on was that you can't become right with God until you accept Jesus, He says, "unless I wash you, you can't share life with me." John 13:9. 

But it is true, here on the Isle of Dogs, we are playing the long game, and just recently one of our long lost prodigals has come home. It has taken about 8 years and every now and again there were visits and murmurs of a return, but I have to say it is so glorious to be able to witness the return! What a wonderful testimony is coming out of this girl, and so many captives I am sure will be coming in on her train. This is the crux of a purposeful life, one that brings redemption and healing to many others. This is a slow process, but the reward is exceedingly good. God is faithful. Please keep praying.

No, our faith is not the same!

My daughter was playing in the mud on our allotment the other day and got a really muddy face, hands, feet etc... I could've just said to her that she must clean herself up, she is very dirty, and then left her to it to see how she does. If she gets it right I could be her friend again, but I will not talk to her until she sorts her dirtiness out There are many different beliefs in the world, but the message of the followers of Jesus is unique in this... The God of the universe didn't remain out of reach and distant, but came into the midst of our problems and got dirty in order that we could be made clean. It is easy for me to clean my child, and afterwards I merely wash my hands (and hers). How is your God going to fix your problems if He/She/It isn't able to get involved with your life? How loving is it to clean my baby rather than to leave her in her mess and expect her to sort herself out? Christianity is unique and radical. It is unlike any other belief. It is worth investigating even for this reason alone.

We need you!...TRULY!

There are some people that I have met at the Café, people that are unusual, and through time and through relationship they have joined our church. All along we may have had in the back of our mind, this person really needs to come to church, and now, finally, they are in. I have discovered that the reason they really need to come to church is not because 'they' need to come, but because 'we' REALLY need them! I am thinking of a few people who bring so much life and vitality, so much joy, honesty and humanity that without them we'd be so completely boring! They may have seemed weak and broken and we might think this relationship could be hard - no further from the truth! The hardest thing is finding in ourselves our own pathetic stigmas, prejudices and unfaithfulness. I was in ASDA the other day, some friends greeted me... from across about 6 aisles! I cannot tell you how welcome I feel and how loved! It is true that the weak things of this world are used by God in order to shame the strong. 

We got it!

2015 is now a memory but as I look back on the last few months of it I can say that it was a truly exceptional year. I guess every year has it's ups and downs but this year I spent so much time in the process of trying to purchase a house, I can only say that it is really a huge task and I can see why so many people get depressed/stressed around the process. I guess I am thus somewhat more sympathetic. In October we finally got our keys for our home in Broadstairs and it is really a wonderful place. We chose Broadstairs because, firstly we couldn't afford London, also it is a fantastic town very close to London and we have often gone there on holiday and wished we could stay a little longer. It is a holiday home that is also intended to be some sort of a retirement plan. I had Bill and Anna to help me on the first day moving things across and during the past holidays we have had the chance to get sofa's and beds etc delivered. It is a short walk from the sea, bring on summer! We also had Hannah Luke - a past XLP'er staying with us for 2 months while she looked for accommodation. My children really appreciated having a big sister in the house and she is quite good at disciplining them - being from a large family.

Archery Tag Group

In November City of Peace church moved to Canary Wharf College for a trial period and it seems to be going well. The space is good in particular providing freedom for the children and sunday school group. We also had a men's archery tag event combining with St Luke's Millwall. It was great fun.

Over Christmas we had the usual lunch event at our house combined with the Peters' family. It was nice to have Bill and Anna visit and have Declan join in with the fun and games - some silly little cracker game where you had to shoot hoops which we then converted into having to get the ball to land into a wine bottle. Sandra and Aime came along as did Jolly and her friend Nessa.
For new years we went to Broadstairs on holiday; it was really icy cold but there were about 100 swimmers who took part in a polar bear challenge who were egged on by about 1000 residents!