Big Fat Global Dinner

When Halloween passes us the next thing on our diary is the Christmas Nativity service and the rehearsals in the Kids Club! (City of Peace has now taken the responsibility for the kids club off Cafe Forever.) The children are always surprisingly good at taking part and learning their lines! This year the youth group got involved - they produced a strong final message in the story - a sort of aside that interjected into the play that talked about how the birth of Jesus is still important today. It was so refreshing!

And then we started wondering what we would do for Christmas. We don't like Christmas alone - it doesn't seem to be the sort of thing God intended, and family, well God provides us with a great family, so we invited them - our Church family. The Café is a great space available in the tight confines of London homes and for too long we've cramped ourselves up in our house trying to fit in too many people. It was a lot of fun, so many different nationalities represented, and each one bringing a dish that speaks of their kind of Christmas. Of course there was the obligatory turkey too. Lots of interesting cakes, salads, finger food. And we carried on from 1 til 6pm! It was however, exhausting! I slept well that night, until my phone rung at 4:30am telling me there was a break-in at Cafe Forever! The till was stolen and the iPad, annoying at the most really. First break in since I have been at the cafe, so we have done well!

In Sunday services from 2020 we will be looking through the book of Acts - having spent some time in the Old Testament and our weekly reading is in Mark - we thought it would be good to see how the Spirit of God enables action. And we look forward to the pancake day in February!

Big nobodies - happy halloween!

Have you ever searched Google for somebody from your past? Why did you do it? Possibly because that person was important to you, whether it be for good or bad. There's a need among people to be recognised, to be found in a google search, as if by being part of that library you are in some way something important in the world. We want to be celebrated or acknowledged for our achievements, Google our own little epitaph. There are some people who have been in my life who I have searched for, thinking that the world must have in some way be influenced by them. Dr Martin Lawrence, our family GP, the sweetest, most gentle doctor anyone could have wished for their child. I still remember his deep voice and his jowly face. And at the end of a visit you got a little plastic car to take home with you, or a sticker.

Surprisingly though, he doesn't appear on Google. Neither does our wonderful caring dentist, Dr Patrick Masters appear. Both of these great men seem to be very little to the world. Alongside them is Mr Roth my amazing science teacher who stayed late to get me a good grade, Mr Peart who visited us from time to time; my grandparents who meant so much in my upbringing, not merely how they loved me, but how they loved others - they are definitely not indexed. There are many others who have shown great love to me, some of who I didn't even recognise it, but now their words and actions affect me.
The origins of All Saints day is the day when the church would remember the glorious dead - those who are saints. The Bible, if we read it carefully indicates that we are all saints the moment we come to faith, we are set free to become something more than what we have been, but twisted doctrine changed that and made it a title only available to Catholics who got into google search or got some other public recognition. Some of the people I can find from my past aren't there because they were nice. Notoriety is newsworthy. 


Yet we persist in attempting to be something big, to be the front page news as if that is all life is about. I have taken assemblies in a nearby school for about 12 years, told stories to the kids and behaved like a fool for them at fun days. They see me nowadays and let me know how much they enjoyed my acts. At the cafe I'm often entertaining kids and behaving like a little kid myself. I give ears to the little people, both adult and child, who are of no importance to the world, their input is drowned out by big headlines, but each of them is important to their creator. I would be embarrassed to be celebrated for my life, and I'm not unique in these efforts - the world is full of people who are doing little things for people. But this story is about keeping on, remembering you are important on somebodies personal front page news, the gentle word, the loving your neighbour. Jesus says that when you have given even a cup of water to one of these little one's it is as if you had done it for me. Surely the place to be is in the happy stories of children's hearts rather than front page news. So I suggest give up looking for recognition, let go of all your anxieties about success. To succeed you need to let go of your own progress and cling onto the one thing that God gave you, after all he called you for a purpose. You probably will amount to nothing in google search, very few of Jesus' followers ever make front page news - those that do, it seems, quite often is because the world doesn't want their testimony of God any longer. Lets rediscover what it is to be a saint, join with the glorious dead.

Into the Autumn we fall!

Welsh Waterfall

The summer holidays were really busy for the Bellinger family. I booked a property in Wales before summer so that we could go and get some R&R in the mountains. I also remembered I had a friend who had moved to Cardiff and wondered if he felt like a house swap! It's a bit of an unusual idea but I messaged him. He agreed to the plan (house swapping is not for the fainthearted however - we had to do a lot of tidying up beforehand). So now we had two dates in Wales. One of the highlights being a number of beautiful waterfalls we visited,  and watching Typhoons fly-by at Machloop. Besides the Wales trips we also visited Broadstairs for a week and Natalie and the girls also did the Longbarn trip! I was kind of glad when the holidays were over, we had a very busy summer!

The new term was the start for Hannah at Canary Wharf Secondary School and time will tell how well she fits in there; not being inside secondary school systems before except when we were children the institution is very  different to primary. One of the challenges these new year 7's face is mingling ith year 10' and 11's who are watching 16/18 rated films and thinking and talking about more adult content. This is a complicated issue for the children and parents. In my schooling we didn't go into secondary until we were turning 13 years old but these children are going in at age 11. It may be the school or it may be a general thing of secondary but Hannah is finding the way that her peers and the staff are responding quite shocking. The children spend a lot of time on their phones, there's a lot of gossiping and unwholesome talk from years 7's.

In Café Forever we have settled down somewhat, though it is quite a long process of getting new workers to adopt the café into themselves.We had a ministry review in October where the director of mission and others came to understand the work that we do so that they were better able to assess our alignmet with the mission strategy and see if we need adjustment. We don't yet know how this will go,but we believe wholeheartedly that  we are providing a unique service in the area, and that at it's core we are sharing the good news of salvation in Christ.

Bouncing youth group 

City of Peace, our church appointed Hannah Luke as a youth worker in December last year and now we are seeing huge growth in it's youth ministry, for which we are massively grateful, especially in these times of transition between primary and secondary school. There are discussion for the children on confidence,bullying, and self-respect to name a few. In the half-term I joined the youth group who got together for a trampolining session at Zap Space in Stratford. We took about 19 kids with us who all seemed to have a great time. I never think about how the exercise is going to affect me afterwards, always feeling at the time that I'm still a youth myself.

Light party

The same youth group put on a helloween alternative 'Light Party' on 31st October at Café Forever that was very well attended, with two of the young leaders giving a brief message on why physical and spiritual light are so important to us. They lit up a candle and passed the flame from one candle to another but showed that a fake candle with a battery in it was unable to do the same - they encouraging us to be real about our relationships with each other and with Christ. So please, in all these issues, think about us as we continue to bring light into this corner of London.

Team Changes

This year has proved to be a year of staff movements at Café Forever! We have operated on and off for several years with different team leaders, Tom Carpenter looked after us for  8 years, then Jason, Sammy, and in between we have not had leaders which has sometimes proved challenging. We are  quite an enthusiastic and passionate bunch and so it might not be that easy to find someone who wants to take that role. In March this year Gareth Jones, who used to run City Gateway has taken a role with us as team leader - brave! But he has already proved to be very considerate, likeable, passionate and fun, we are very glad to have his input.

In April Sarah who worked at Café Forever for 6 years handed in her notice, she was going to pursue her art career, and giving us 2 months notice we had some time to recruit a replacement. There were a surprising number of really good applications and we ended up selecting Justyna to replace her. It's always a challenge filling someones position, we tend to have a basic set of qualities that we are looking for in someone, but not necessarily a specific set of skills although we do have some requirements; working  with computers and an aptitude in the kitchen. Sarah had a passion for baking cakes and they were a huge draw-card for people, now we have to discover what is the secret passion or talent of Justyna!

Move over Sarah!

As soon as we had Justyna in place, Duncan handed in his notice too - he moved to Ireland with his family and they are all doing well if a little wetter in Cork than they were in London! With school holidays approaching and not a lot of time we had to make a plan fast, fortunately God has provided, long before we were even worrying about this, in fact 14 years before! Stevie, who used to visit the cafe daily when her mum (Jo) was working here as a schoolchild has returned to the Café as an adult and been working as a volunteer, showing great enthusiasm and appreciation for the work, so it was quite a simple process to get her to sign up for a temporary placement, we are hoping that at the end of 2 months with us she will apply for a full time place. Now Stevie, she has that cake makers love! She is often in the kitchen trying out a new recipe, in fact as I write she is doing her first baked cheesecake!

In all these changes we have prayed, hoped, and held on. Please keep us in your prayers, a new team needs time to bond. A huge part of this work is actually starting with ourselves - we need to be filled in order to prove fulfilling - this means dealing with our pasts, our own challenges, our weaknesses. We appreciate your joining in these prayers.

Winter has left us, and maybe the EU.

How can you visit a website without it mentioning BREXIT?

Go Karting Gear is weird!

Well that's all you are going to get about it here, were fed up with it and how the whole process is City of Peace and Café Forever exist to bring people together, through the love of Jesus. And that's what we are doing! ....But it's quite difficult with men, to get us together and go and do something, some of us are old and have back pain, some of us are young and want to go to live concerts, some of us are married and tied down to helping the wife! It seems there's no end of excuses, but there's one event that we have run that has almost always been attended, go-karting! In February there was a deal on in the nearby track and 11 of us went down to go and test our nerves and reflexes. The little machines are really fast and it is a lot of fun - always a good way to make connection with those who don't normally attend a church.
causing division among people.

Another way of reaching people is through our City of Peace youth events organised by Hannah Luke.The group meets on  Wednesday evening and is attended by about 10 young people. Over half-term they got together for a game of Jugger in the park. Jugger is a strange game, eye-catching because participants run around with huge lances, maces, swords and shields, all made of foam,and try and pin each other down. Its a hard work out but a lot of healthy fun for this lot. Hannah also works in partnership with Marlene who runs the Kids club at Café Forever on Thursday night. It may seem strange for a youth-worker to be working with children, but some of these children will be considered youth next year,so it is good for a smooth transition.

The church also hosted the pancake day party, a crazy occasion that brings many local children and their parents into Café Forever to consume a huge number of the things filled with chocolate, syrup, all the messy stuff, which makes cleaning up really pleasant!

And of course our Café; you have read on may occasions that it is a great place for meeting new people and a comfortable place to talk about things that trouble people, share the gospel and the hope that comes with it. Of course it would be difficult to run a Café that has a low hygiene rating, and once again we're proud to have received a 5 star award (in conjunction with Joe Vella of https://www.magna-fhs.com/)

While we are so busy reaching out to the locals, some of us are from other lands and so it is great to be able to get back to our country of origin and visit family, which we did, in February, for a wedding. Our children spent about 3 hours of each day in the various swimming pools of the homes we visited, which is just exactly how I hoped it would be.

Ditto 2017 with exclamations!!!

2018 ended in a similar fashion to 2017, and it was good. We all want our nativity play to be fun for kids, but also we want it to be something that impacts the whole audience positively, there' always the problem of it becoming something that is a bit of a joke, and the majesty of the moment is lost in mirth. Hannah Luke and I battled with various scripts that were available and decided that we'd come up with our own. We wanted the moment that God sends Jesus to earth to become somehow a part of the skit and I had in a previous church seen something that I had somehow retained. We crafted a simple script where the actors carried the story along, providing the background for the play, rather than some narrators voice over. Many of the children are now old enough to memorise lines and at school have learnt some confidence in projecting their voice. We had the best kids you could ever ask for, all from the Isle of Dogs, and what a show we put on together. One dad, who is never able to make it because of work, filmed the entire event on his phone, singing with the songs. The play ended with Mary, Joseph and Jesus fleeing because the roman soldiers were coming!

Brian preaching to a full house!

Actors move into position

This wasn't the only highlight of December, for about 6 weeks my daughter had been meeting up with Brian Stevens talking about baptism, and just like last year, we borrowed the pool from St Peters Barge and I got in the water again and was given the honour of baptising Hannah and Theo! It was freezing cold and both of them shot up out of the cold bath pretty quickly, resulting in some rather amusing pictures. Theo has been coming to church for about 4 years and it is so amazing to see him take this moment for himself, as for Hannah, I'm an extremely glad dad.

And just to end the year with another impressive story, for a number of months Hannah Luke had been without work, and we had been wondering what she would do for employment. Having worked with Hannah at Café Forever I knew a lot about her, how hard and dedicated she is to a job and how passionate she is about her faith and reaching youth. We prayed about this and recognized we really need to see City of Peace grow from organic growth and that Hannah was a potential gift from God. It did take a couple of months of deliberation and prayer and she accepted the role! She has already proved to be an excellent asset.

On a sadder note, Vivian Webb who had attended Café Forever and City of Peace a number of years passed away. She was always good at bringing lightheartedness into a room and super friendly. She had been battling with injuries and illnesses as she got older and had been in a care home for a number of years.

Café wise we have begun a football team, an initiative by Marlene, that focuses on the kids who would probably never get to be in a team, those who are always picked last. It runs on wednesdays and is SO successful, Gareth of Ambassadors Football and a chap called Ben who is an Oak Hill student are running the show! The players get a 45 min training session, 15 minute match and then 15 minutes of  football tactics meets bible talk. It is attended by at least 18 children on each occasion.

At this point it is fair to say we are being well used, and having a lot of fun doing it, it is truly a joy to be in this position and we have a lot of wonderful stories to tell. In the new year we have a lot of plans including Go-Karting, making space for ministry, weekend away, pancake day, etc... Please keep us in your prayers and come and visit us if your'e feeling like a little challenging experience!