The Return and the Ministry of Victor

Its funny you have a break and 5 minutes being back you are ready for another.

Kate and I walked to church having been away and we had heard enough to know that there were issues. Ulimatiums, tantrums, projects had collapsed, people were giving up. All in all a tense atmosphere - I was glad that we weren't leading the service. The congregation was ministered to in many different ways no more so than by Victor.

Victor is worth reading up about ( Victor - GBH and living in a soap opera; Victor and his talking flute). If you haven't enough time, it is enough to know that Victor is 'interesting'. If you haven't enough time it is enough to know that Victor is waiting for his court case for GBH. If you haven't enough time it is enough to know that Victor was hounded out of his flat because he is ... well ... interesting!

The last time I sat next to Victor in worship as we sang our last song together he checked to see if anyone was looking then went into his jacket, pulled out a mock Chinese vase and presented it to me on the quiet. 'Thanks Victor'. No one has ever given me a mock Chinese vase before 'in' or 'out' of worship! Now, our 'guest' leader asked for a time of simple prayer. I heard Victor's intake of breathe.... I waited .... with one eye open! .... "We thank you for Jesus, we thank you for our church ... we pray that you will protect it from those that wish it harm" (there or there abouts).

I looked at Victor and his face was one of peace - Victor's moment of clarity ministered to me. Again there is something in being ministered to by the unlikely.

Comments

Rob said…
welcome home!
10:28 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit of sally bashing....

Came across a good bit of Sally bashing over at salvationsoldiers I have to say we try and make sure that everything we raise goes into projects that build local community in Poplar but hopefully if you read this blog you get that sense anyway.
Read more

Lost Voices of Mission...Fred Brown

Image
Along the world famous Oxford street in London's Westend; nestled in among the classy frontage of designer shops there is almost an unnoticeable, unimpressive wooden door. It is more or less alongside The Regent Hall's main entrance onto the busyness of Oxford Street. People pass the wooden door oblivious to the equally unimpressive wooden steps that go up three storey's to what was Regent Hall's youth club. When I was 10 I played on these bare wooden steps totally unaware of the significance behind and upon which I played. Many years later I discovered a university youth work course - as an induction to Youth Work - stopped outside this insignificant wooden door to point out that Youth Work as we know it in the UK started behind this door. ...whether that be the surbanite flower people that flooded the Westend to express their free love; or the hard core drug community this unimpressive wooden door became the 'portal' that blurred encounter between church an
Read more

Types of Christian Spirituality...

Image
It is easy to think and to limit ourselves to a single approach to Christian spirituality. A 'if it works for me it should work for you approach' tends to narrow our appreciation of other ways which actually impoverishes our experience of spirituality. Urban T. Holmes has developed a means of exploring spirituality and helps develop an appreciation through discovering links between spirituality, temperament and predisposition. The diagram illustrates his ideas together with potential inherent dangers. The vertical continuum speaks and helps us understand our relational orientation to God. This ranges from engaging with God through understanding and theological process to a more emotive response. Horizontally speaks of a persons preferred means of pursuing the spiritual life. Kataphtic speaks of affirmation and the need of something tangible in an individuals spirituality- this may take the form of worship, art, even imagination with the use of metaphors, symbols and images play
Read more