Cafe Church Weekend

Well, after hearing about the cafe church from Rich (in my last post if you want to know a bit more), I decided I wanted to go and visit. And, as well as that, I felt I should go, at least once. There was one coming up on Sunday 19th-and as it's currently only on every other month, I felt I should take the opportunity that was presented to me straight away. I'm not good at making that sort of decision, but I asked Rich that evening if it would be okay for me to come and visit on the Saturday, and then join him on the Sunday for that month's cafe church; as it would be a lot easier for me to come up then than try to find a way of getting up in time on the Sunday. Straight away, he said that would be no problem, and to let him know as soon as I could either way.

So, after a few days sending messages back and forth, and checking train times (it didn't take long to discover that coaches would be no use), we eventually figured out where and when he would pick me up-and, in the meantime, he'd got me invited out for a meal with him. Which was nice. He'd been invited out, and his hosts were generous enough to invite me to join them. So he picked me up at the train station and we went there via Asda and some very winding roads. We were just two of a large party, and conversation flowed well. A good time was had by all.

So we got back to his quite late, and I just about had time to meet his 'lodger' before going to bed. I got up a little later than the others, so I had to make my own way to the 'cafe'-but that was easy enough. I could see the church from the window, but it took a little longer to go round by the road than straight across the fields-still less than 10 mins, though. I got there to discover things were well under way, and a couple of friends of mine were there from my church. So I sat with them and read our paper-every table had one to inspire conversation and thoughts. I grabbed smething to eat, and sat down to chat. After a bit, the programme started, as it were. Rich and his boss, David, got up and opened proceedings by asking what people had been reading in their papers. We had The Church Times, so we read an article about how heresy is good for the church; but I didn't really think that appropriate. Anyway, a few people said stuff about things like the tax avoidance issue with Stabucks and Amazon, and they engaged with that; and then the M.A.D. youth did a sketch about miracles (that's Martley Amateur Dramatics to the uninitiated), and we had a few songs led by the Rev David. And then the main presentatin began-which this time was an interview with a friend of Rich's who had had a major heart attack, and was talking about how he drew closer to God as a result-and also how he is now healthier than ever. This touched lots of people in different ways for different reasons-the thing that touched me about it most was a bit where he said he was praying when things went really bad for him, and he was pleading with God, saying something along the lines of 'have I really been such a bad son'?; and God replied 'Now, you know that's not true'. Which is along the lines of something He's said to me over and over.

And, all too soon, it was over. The only other thing of note before we packed up was from a girl called Lottie, who was telling us about how her fundraising was going for a trip to Africa she's doing next year. She's going out to do some building work of some kind-she doesn't know what yet, as it's not til next year, and they will be doing whatever needs doing at the time. Whatever that is. In the meantime, she has to raise about £4000 in order to go. I will pass on something at some point, and if anyone else feels they wish to contribute, I'm sure that would be gratefully received.

And then, we all helped pack up, and it was off to lunch. Which was also nice and relaxing. it was a cafe in the middle of a sort of wildlife park called The Cob House; and the four of us had a nice chat about life, the universe and everything-or, as much of it as we could in the all too short time we had. The cafe church goes on every month, and my friends say they are going to go to most of them, so I may join them. They're away for the next one, so I may turn up again in July or August. I look forward to it...

Highlights Of The Week (And One Lowlight)

My last post was about the wedding on Star Wars Day, May 4th, so let's try to get a bit more up to date by covering just over a week, starting with May 6th, last Bank Holiday Monday.

As we did on Easter Monday, a group of us went up Cleeve Hill again, and then to the Rising Sun-definitely a good idea on all but the worst of weather. And it definitely wasn't. When we went out last time, it was nice but very cold, so we went round pretty quickly. This time, the weather was absolutely lovely, sunny and warm, so we took our time about going round and enjoyed the sunshine. We went further, and stopped at the top to admire the view. Unfortunately I don't have any pics to share, so I can only recommend you go up there and check it out for yourself. Then we had lunch at the pub, and despite the fact that it was such good weather that we were able to sit outside, it wasn't that full, so we had plenty of space. And afterwards we did something we didn't do last time, and several of us went back to my new house and relaxed with board games. We started in the garden by playing Scruples, which is something that is great fun, but dangerously unpredictable. And in the evening, some of us went out for a curry to the Kashmir.

And on Wednesday, we had a guest at our cluster. Richard Tweedy, a friend who is now a curate in a rural parish in Worcs, who was telling us some of his highlights of what he has been up to in basically his first year in the job. He told us some interesting things, such as about how he now has a lodger. One of his neighbours had to leave his house rather hurriedly for personal reasons and was in the middle of a college course, so would find it difficult to look for somewhere; so in desperation, he asked Rich if he could stay with him. Which Rich was more than happy to do. He's since invited him along to Cwmbran, and he was up for that. And the other highlight he had was a new initiative in his local village of Wichenford. There was a service in the church there, which was getting single figure numbers, so he suggested something, and they started a cafe church. Once a month, they use the village hall and have bacon butties-and talk about God. It's grown to about 40, in a place which has a pop of about 160. And one of the other villages has asked if they can do one too. More info can be found on their new website. He explained how when he started going for interviews, he had a long list of what he wanted, but somehow when he went for this position, the list more or less went out of the window. One of the things he thought he wanted was a good website, and his first task was to work with a web developer to build one-which can be found here.

I could have gone out on Friday-I was invited to a performance by some students-but I ended up not doing anything. However, Saturday I went to an anniversary BBQ in Prestbury; having discovered just how close it was. And that was a brilliant occasion; a time for catching up with friends and relaxing and laughing. May there be many more occasions just like that.

And not like what happened the following Monday, which thankfully is all over now. I got in on Monday to discover I'd done something really silly on the 3rd-I hadn't locked up properly before leaving. I met with my prayer partner as usual that evening and we prayed about it. I felt strongly that God had it in hand, and didn't want me to worry about it, and a couple of days ago I got an official letter saying that no further action would be taken. So that's all good, then. Now I just have to make sure I don't do it again. Ever.

Wedding Daze

Well, after all the excitement of moving in, I had excitement of quite another kind on the Saturday, when I went to a friend's wedding. I've known her for ages, and was really glad to be there on the happy occasion.

I was still recovering from the move and not taking any time off work (which was a really bad idea, by the way), so thankfully the wedding was at 4. Which meant that despite the fact that it took me about an hour to get there (due to not being able to drive, you know), I still managed to get there on time. Even a few minutes early-which is unheard of for me. So strange I didn't quite believe it myself.

The wedding was held at Blackfriars Priory, a place I was only vaguely aware of before the invitation. It's an old, ruined abbey partly restored by the National Trust; and is a beautiful place, both grounds and building. So, people arrived, we all got ourselves seated, more or less, and the music started. and at some point after that, the bride came in. I don't know quite what the music was, but some of it was from 'Star Wars'. And the ceremony got underway. It all went well, apart from a slight hitch when the groom apparently didn't know which the ring finger was-even though the bride had helpfully put 'THIS ONE' on her nail. It was even a different colour to the rest. However, that slight hitch over, the rest of it went smoothly. There were a couple of readings, including 'The Lovely (other) Dinosaur', and some bad jokes from the registrar; and then it was time for post-celebratory drinks at the bar. Pimms, anyone? Don't mind if I do.

And then it was a free for all with wandering around, and chatting to all and sundry, with the photographer taking all sorts of photos. I'm even in a few of them, here and there. I nipped off into town to pick up a card-I had a present (of sorts) but no card-and got back just in time to be in a whole group photo. And after that, there was a photo taken of the throwing of the bouquet. I wasn't in that one. And then came another opportunity for photos with a procession of us all from the wedding venue to the reception venue, which was a few minutes walk away through the centre of town. Well, why not, eh?

And then it was basically non-stop partying; or, well, chatting-and-drinking-and-eating(with vegan food, even the cakes)-and-chatting-and-well-maybe-a-bit-of-dancing-as-well ...

All photos by Angela Maria Bracewell of Stark Photography.

Moving Out, Moving On - Poem

So, as promised, here is the poem I wrote. A bit later than I hoped, but it's here now.

Moving Out, Moving On

It is not good for me to be alone,

And though I try to cope

It is only coping;

I need to be in relationship, closely,

And while alone, I am not.

And I have been in the same place 

For a while now,

I need to move on, to stretch my wings,

To see who is out there

 In the big wide world.

It may not be far in terms of distance,

But in circumstance

It couldn't be more different,

Moving from business to friends,

From friendly acquaintance to good friend.

And more than that,

It will give me opportunities to reach out,

To build community;

The resources to do it,

And the time to be (it).

I have been called to lead in this,

To be a leader,

To help build community;

To see ways into this,

And to walk along them with others.

I was going to say something about it, but I think it's pretty self explanatory. This is what I was like, and what I hope I will be like-that's what I'm aiming for, anyway.

Moving Out, Moving On, Settling In

I have been very busy over the past week or so, what with moving house and all. So, to go back to the end of  last month, as I was doing the last bits of packing, and my mum was cleaning and telling me what to do. I was quite surprised at exactly how much cleaning there was that could be done; and, also, exactly how much cleaner the place could get. I'm certain it ended up cleaner than it was when I arrived; and it definitely had the right effect, in that I got my deposit back from the landlord pretty much straight away.

So, the next day was moving day. My new housemate came round to help move all my stuff from my place to his, while my mum was still working on my room, and at some point, I cleaned the oven. Not something I ever want to do again if I can manage it; but I guess that'll be one of those things that has to happen every so often. And so, between us, we managed to move everything from one place to the other; and I found time to sign the contracts and get the final readings from the meters, and then, I had to phone my landlord, and let him know that I'd moved out. On top of that, I wrote a poem inspired by what it could mean for me. And I also found about 20 stamps to go to the Donkey Sanctuary. Completely, totally exhausting-and I was only moving down the road.

I remember looking around at some point when almost everything was out of the place, and thinking how different it was. It was quite sad, but also quite wistful, in a way. Sort of like I could see a whole load of potential for things to be discovered. Thinking about it, it's kind of what I should be thinking about life now I'm in the new place. I don't know what's going to happen in this new place, but I'm looking forward to finding out. One thing I'm sure of, though, is that I won't be as passive in this place. To a certain extent, I'm confident that there are more opportunities here-but, mostly, I will have to go for them to a certain degree. And I aim to try. And keep trying.

Being in the new place was very different. For a start, it's a lot nicer than where I was before. I didn't think I was particularly bothered  by this when I there, but now I am here, I can see the difference in how I feel. For instance, I'm much happier with the idea of inviting people round-which is a very good thing, considering we're hoping to do that a lot. When we were speaking about moving in here, my housemate said he thought God wanted him to be hospitable and pretty much have an open house. I felt that would be A Good Thing in my case, cos I'm very much capable of spending far too much time on my own if I don't have to be anywhere. I think it will be good for me to be in an environment where people will be coming round often. i'm looking forward to it...

The Art Of Giving

Well, a while back God told me He wanted me to (learn to) be more generous, which was something I was more or less in favour of. I'd quite like to be more generous; in fact, I'd like to be able to be generous as a default position, to be able to be it without having to think about it. And shortly after He said that, I saw a challenge online by an organisation called stewardship to do something generous every day during Lent. Obviously, there was a bit more to it than that. The idea was that I would sign up to receive an email each day with a thought and idea of something to do, some way of being generous that maybe I hadn't thought of before. So I did that.

Which led to the immediate problem for me that I, at that point, didn't check my emails every day, more like every 3 days-so that had to change. Obviously, it wouldn't be good for me to have several to check each time I signed in to my email account. Thankfully, for most of Lent it was no problem-until near the end when I temporarily lost my internet connection. But while I could, I did check every day.

It was an interesting time and challenge to do, ranging from some that were fairly straightforward to some that were really challenging and/or just unexpected. There were some I really thought were completely out of my capability; and I remember thinking a couple of times 'how much money do they think I have?' For instance, there was one time when there was a suggestion to pay for a holiday for someone, which I was somewhat shocked at; but I actually did do that one in a small way. There were others, which didn't cost much, but were just surprising ideas-or, at least, ones that I had never really thought about. For instance, there was a suggestion one day to just send some cards or postcards to friends out of the blue, just to say what they mean to me. Now, if I'd ever had that idea before, I clearly didn't think about it, let alone do it; but it is a really easy thing to do, as well as quite cheap. And, also, actually quite fun. And there were a few which I thought were interesting, but which either I just didn't/haven't got round to yet, or can't think how to do. One was to buy a Bible for Christians in parts of the world where they don't have easy access to them, or just can't afford them; which I still intend to do. And another was to buy a tree for someone. This I thought was an amazing idea, but I just can't think how to do it. I might look into that a bit more; I'm pretty sure that you can buy 'gift trees', where the trees are planted in parks or conservation areas, and the person gets a card to let them know what tree they have. I think I'll do a bit of digging around on that one. There was also at least one I couldn't do, which was to give blood. I can't do it for medical reasons, but I would if I could; and I'm asking here for anyone who doesn't to do it if you can. It's easy and doesn't take long-and could save someone's life. As well as that, you could also register for organ donation-if you want more information about how and why, look here. Thanks for that.

There was the option to register when I had done each one, and when I had ticked the box, it said how many others had done so. One thing I was surprised at was how low some of the numbers were-one of the lowest was for people to start buying fairly traded goods; something I have been doing for years. Now I understand that it might be a bit difficult to change your buying patterns quickly, but I was under the impression that Fair Trade was something that was widely known-especially in Christian circles. Evidentally, I was mistaken about this, so for those of you who might want to learn more, you can find out here. Again, thanks. The other thing I noticed was that a lot of the posts (all were written by different contributors) had very specific desires and aims; so much so, that I genuinely don't think anyone could deal with all of them to the level that each post would wish. And this is fine; I don't think God wants us to do that. I think He is interested in all of these things, and would like us to be aware of them; but He has different ideas and dreams for each of us specifically and that is what He wants each of us to concentrate on; not get stressed and upset that we're not dealing with every single issue in existence. Simply because we can't. And the sooner we get to grips with that, the better for us-and for those we interact with.

That is what I learned primarily through doing this. I learned some things about giving and my attitude to it: that I do it anyway; that it's not as difficult to do as I sometimes make it; and that I need to keep growing in it. But the most important thing I learned is that giving is about relationship, about caring; God would definitely like to work on my attitude to things and money-still-but, ultimately, He wants me to give because He wants me to care for and about others. And when I focus on that, it becomes easier-though not often easy. Yet.