I met Rick today...

It was good to sit with Rick as he drank two cups of tea - he finished his and started on mine.

It was a bit of a busy start to the day. I had two guest speakers coming to talk about the 'Mission Development Plan' that TSA in the UK encourages its churches to work through. Before anyone gets excited and writes asking for a copy it is essentially not as exciting as its title.

The phone went and it was reception, I ran down the stairs to meet the guests but Keith nodded in the direction of Rick. "It's not who you thought it was .. but can you help....!". Rick is quite obviously a man of the road. His long matted hair and beard smother his face, but his eyes look hopeful and kind.

We chat and I find out a little of Rick's life. Rick is going back to Australia in 5 weeks, but in the meantime he is living in the park. He hasn't had a hot meal for 5 weeks and is pretty hungry. I'm loath to give tins to guys likely to cook the tins up on a fire. My memory of Marcus at Poplar coming to see me after he had almost blown his head off with a can of beans is still pretty fresh. But that is the best we can do.

It was good to sit with Rick as he drank two cups of tea - he finished his and started on mine. I'm not totally certain that Rick's story measured up, but nevertheless I met Rick today and I was the better for it.

Comments

BrownEyedGirl said…
I love the way the Lord has brought the street to you...even in your new appointment. A few times now you have posted on individuals who really seem like they would have "fit" comfortably in your last appointment...God is good and knows our hearts.
Blessings.
12:54 PM
Gordon said…
Hi B E Girl! I wish it happened more often
6:52 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