Catch up

Looking quickly at my blog, I see that it has been many weeks since I last gave the world the benefit of my musings. During that time, I have spent 10 days in Southern Ireland visiting family, cooked breakfast for 20+ people, been amazed at the generousity of people and organisations and went to Beatties (a posh shop in Wolverhampton) to be measured in the Moss Bros outlet for a fancy suit for my son Neil's wedding to Lisa on October 10th!

Just a quick tip for those travelling on the high seas, somewhere in your journey your mobile will flash up a message saying you have 'latched on' to a maritime mobile network and to receive or make calls will cost you £1.80 per minute! (I thought piracy was illegal?) My advice is to switch off your mobile.

I mentioned earlier the generousity of people and organisations. I would like to say a big thank you to Adullam Housing (West Bromwich) for their gift of £250 towards the ministry of the West Bromwich Food Bank. Also, to Black Country Housing Organisation, Batmans Hill pregnant schoolgirls unit and Sure Start for their equally generous donations of food. There is also a wonderful lady who is a member of my church who each month gives a gift of £60 to the food bank and even says thank you when doing it. Many churches in West Brom support the food bank by collecting food and even delivering it to our centre. All this makes it that much easier to operate what is a vital service to our community and beyond.

My church is nearing the end of some building work and it has been great to see the new look take shape. I am eagerly waiting for the new glass front doors to be fitted, it will make such a difference and also bring the building into the 21st century! We were last 'modernised' in 1972 and it was beginning to show!

That last paragraph links in quite nicely to my final thought for this post. I mentioned in the last blog that we need to change, it is no good to just keep still and hope for the best. We will never grow with an attitude like that. Think big, dream big and with God in front of you leading the way there will be many many things you can achieve. I attended a conference earlier this year where the main speaker said that it is easy to do something where all the boxes are ticked, and there are adequate resources to do the job. He further said that sometimes we need to launch out in faith and take a risk, and operate on the premise that if God does not turn up 'we are stuffed'.

I believe that God will always honour the faith and commitment of those who follow him. He is no man's debtor!

Till next time.

All change!

Regular readers of my blog will notice a couple of changes as they sign in. First of all is the new layout and colours to the blog page, secondly I have changed the title! One of the previous ministers at my church West Bromwich Community Church www.westbromchurch.org used to say 'if things don't change they will stay as they are! That may sound a stupid statement, but it is very true.

As a church we cannot afford to let things stay as they are, if we do, we may as well put up the for sale sign now! I have been in my church for 40 years now and seen many changes from renaming the church to rebuilding and renovating the building. At present we are on our second building programme since we moved into the place in 1945. I was not around then, but I well remember the major renovations that took place in the early 70's.

If everything stays the same, it gets stale, has little relevance and can be a complete waste of time. About 18 months ago we formulated a five year vision plan for the church. This included many things but the most exciting to me are the new ministries that will be phased in during those five years. They are bold, dramatic and for some of them, we have no idea at the moment whether the funding will be available! We are trusting that God will take the lead and show us the way forward.

Till next time.

Death, life and lots in between

Some time ago I wrote about the death of Alan, a 64 year old guy who had come into contact with us through the food bank. Together with a colleague I recently attended Alan's funeral. It was a sad time in more ways than one. There were 6 mourners there, (3 family and 3 who had tried to help Alan). The minister leading the service did his best, but as is so often the case knew nothing of the life of Alan. Most of what he spoke of during the service was learned just prior to the funeral.

A friend of Alan's who was on the streets with him was late for the funeral due to a transport mix up and had to say farewell at the end of the service. It was a very sad time for everyone there and an experience that I would not widh to go through again.

It's still a time of learning at the Food Bank. We continue to hear more stories of the issues that more and more people are facing. We had a homeless man in recently who broke down and cried when we gave him food. A lady with children all of whom had undergone domestic violence came in for food. Another man asks for food because where he lives people encourage him and sometimes force him to take drugs, thus relieving him of his benefit. he is getting support from a drugs support worker but is understandably depressed with his situation.

It still amazes me that in 2009, in a civilised country that there are thousands of individuals and families where people are unable to afford the basics of life. We can come up with any number of reasons why it happens, but until we decide to do something about it, it will go on.

I started this post with a tale of death. I would like to finish with a tale of new life. On Sunday January 12th 2009, our second granddaughter Abigail was born. Abigail and mom are doing well and Emmy is delighted to be a big sister after months of waiting!

At our church, West Bromwich Community Church, http://www.westbromchurch.org/ God is bringing us into contact with the homeless community. At present it takes the form of giving them food via the food bank and, once a week opening the church as a soup kitchen. Together with other churches in the town we are aiming to minister to the vulnerable. This has reminded me of the time I used to work in hostels. Please read and pray for those who are homeless.

A symbol of power within a hostel is the keys. With the keys you can have a great effect on the life of the residents. You can use them to deny him access; you can use them to make him feel welcome. Keys can be used to lock your office door and shut out the world. They can deny your client the right to be listened to.

In my first position as support worker I had to carry round a large bunch of keys. There were keys for offices, security doors, panic bolts, filing cabinets, store rooms and so on. I had about 35 keys on that ring. They went everywhere with me. Residents soon learned that a jangling bunch of keys meant that the staff were on patrol!

Attached to the key ring was a ‘key’ called a screwlock. We used this to engage a second lock on each of the flat doors. This meant that the resident could not enter their room without contacting a member of staff first. Very useful if you needed to talk to that resident urgently or they were behind with their rent! However, it could be argued that you were denying the resident the right to enter their ‘home’ freely. The screwlock system could also be used to provide extra security when a resident was away for a day or so. Very often we were asked ‘can you screwlock my door please’?

Some residents learned to hate the sight of a large bunch of keys! They did have a point. To them we used the keys as a punishment. Used without thought by staff, the keys could be a potent weapon. Do as I say, obey the rules, or suffer the consequences.

Each resident in my first hostel had two keys, one to the main entrance and one to their rooms. With these two keys they could come and go as they pleased. To many of them the two keys were a symbol of their growing independence. They were the first positive sign that they had the opportunity to break free of whatever circumstances had led to their arrival at the hostel.

Everyone, whether they are homeless or not need to have a symbol of security. To some it could be their partner; to some it could be their business or job. To a homeless person forced to leave their natural home that symbol is more often than not the key. The key to their own front door where they can enter, lock the door and for a time shut out everyone and perhaps for the first time in their lives feel secure and able to see a way out.

A week at the food bank

The West Bromwich Food Bank is a project set up by my church together with support from neighbouring churches, which aims to supply food to people in our community who for whatever reason are in crisis. Since the project started in December 07 we have fed well over 1000 people (including children) who have not known where their next meal was coming from.

It hs been a steep learning curve for myself and the great colunteers who man the project. We have heard some sad and tragic stories which make you despair of what the country is becoming. This last week I met a guy who was seeking leave to remain in the country but had beeen turned down. This meant he had no recourse to public funds, was homeless and had lost all hope. As I tried to talk to him (he could not understand me very well) he asked a question that to my shame I could not answer. He asked me what advice I could give him regarding his present situation. I could not think of an answer and even now I feel guilty that I could not help.

An agency also contacted the food bank to request help for a woman and her three children who were victims of domestic abuse. They had been relocated but because the husband controlled the bank account she could not access her money. The agency were supporting her with trying to get benefits but needed short term help with food.

A man who was fortunately supported by a caring agency had had his benefits stopped because he had not turned up for an appointment re his job seekers allowance. Because of this, he had to reapply for benefits which meant that he had to wait while it went through the system. The fact that he had not received a letter telling him of the appointment meant nothing to the job centre plus. Because he had missed the appointment (of which he was unaware) the rules said he had to reapply for benefit. Why is is that government agencies never believe what their clients say?

I remember a similar situation when I worked at a hostel in Birmingham, the resident had his benefits stopped because he failed to answer various letters sent to him. The fact that they went to his previous address and he was unaware of the situation meant nothing. After about 3 months and reporting the DSS to the parliamentary ombudsman, the DSS admitted they were wrong and offered a miserly sum as compensation.

As Christians we need to stand up to the injustice that we encounter. It is not enough to say 'oh well, bad things happen'. We must be pro-active and fight for those who have no help, no money and no hope. We cannot turn the other cheek. The only option we have is to fight to overturn the injustice we come across.

Life (and death) on the mean streets of West Brom

Last November I wrote about life on the mean streets of West Bromwich and introiduced you to Alan, a 64 year old who was on the streets, nowhere to live and totally isolated. He was beaten up a few times, his benefits were stolen. Alan had other problems, he liked a drink and would sometimes sell his giro for a bottle of cider and a few quid. At one point, social services were involved but because Alan did not make appointments they eventually closed his case.

We, (the West Bromwich Food Bank) tried to help Alan, we fed him at various times and attempted to talk him into getting help and support so that he could get off the streets. We failed, and did not see him again.

Recently his friend John came to our offices and informed us that Alan had died in a bus shelter, still on the streets, still alone.

Although we tried to help him and he refused that help there is always the lingering doubt that we could have done more. Is it an indictment of our society that in 2009 there are still people without homes, without support and without hope?

In the course of my work I see many people who are in crisis often due to no fault of their own. The 'system' has let them down and because the system is rigid and cannot think outside the box it has created for itself, the misery is compounded and drags on and on, to the detriment of those it is supposed to help.

We have a lot to answer for!

House of Cards

I have just finished watching live prime minister's question time and what a shambles it was! The PM as usual never directly answered a question, the leader of the opposition was, as usual, making mischief, the liberal leader was as usual the liberal leader.

I have tried not to comment on the expenses row, but how can the people that make the rules effectively clean up the mess they have created? Once the story broke, instead of fighting each other, the three main party leaders should have resigned on a matter of principle! Those who illegally claimed should have resigned and finally, Parliament should have been dissolved and a general election called.

The Bible relates an episode where Jesus entered the temple and found corruption, dishonesty and deceit was rife. He did not walk away, but took decisive action and cleansed the temple by driving out all those who had brought the 'house' into disrepute.

What seems to be happening in Parliament now is along the theme of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. True, it's a course of action, but it will make no difference whatsoever. As I am writing this, the t.v. is on and politicians are queueing up to either defend or attack the government. The party line has never been so apparent. Lord Mandelson has just said, we (the politicians) need to clean up the mess. This brings me back to my original point - how can those who have abused the system clean it up? (Poacher turned gamekeeper?).

Thank God there are genuine people in Parliament who are not claiming what they can but are seeking to do the best for the people they represent. We need a full house (of commons) of like minded public servants.

Having said all that, the Bible tells us to pray for our leaders!

Food Bank and soup kitchens

You may remember from previous posts that I am involved in a project called the West Bromwich Food Bank. We collect food and store it ready to freely give out to people in crisis. This week, I totalled up all the statistics and found that by 1st May 2009 we had reached an incredible 1003 people we have supported since we began in December 2007. Included in that total is 311 children under the age of 16. God has blessed the project over and above what we thought was possible.

Changing the subject, (but still on the theme of supporting) my church has teamed up with others to run a soup kitchen for the homeless and vulnerable in West Brom. Launching on Monday 8th June, (and weekly thereafter) our aim is to provide a warm, safe environment where the homeless and lonely can come in, enjoy a light meal, talk to each other and perhaps hear that there is someone who cares. We are looking forward to the challenges!

London Marathon 2009

The people in this photo are my son Neil (left) and one of his running partner's Chris at the 22 mile stage of the 2009 London Marathon. It was their first attempt and I am proud to say they completed it and have a medal to prove it. Chris's wife Meg also ran but she was way in front of the men. (She does have more experience of running and is a fitness centre manager to boot!).

We had travelled down to London for a long weekend and with the intention of being somewhere along the route so that we could support and cheer them on. It was an inspiring sight, as what seemed like a never ending stream of runners went past. There were some dressed in heavy rhino costumes (honest), a group roped together, another group carrying a boat. Barrack Obama, Batman and Robin and even Elvis was there also.

We had seen Neil and Chris at the 14 mile marker and they looked extremely well and were even smiling as they passed us. Even at the 22 mile marker, they still looked in remarkably good shape. One thing all the many thousands of runners had in common was a determination to finish what the.y had started. You could see that in their faces, along with the pain that they were feeling after such a long time running. There were disabled entrants, running or walking, one with the aid of crutches. One very moving sight was a disabled man walking, who was way behind, but you could see he would finish. The human spirit never fails to amaze me.

A tale of two cities (apologies to CD)

After a long period of not going away, I will be visiting two cities within the space of five days. The first is London for a long weekend starting on Friday. The reason is that my youngest son Neil is actually running the London Marathon on behalf of the NSPCC. Along with two friends, one a police inspector, the other a fitness centre manager they will be running their hearts out. If you would like more info, visit http://www.runfatboysrun.com/ The website also contains details of how to sponsor them should you be so inclined.

We get back from London on Monday 27th and next day I am back on the trains to Salisbury for the Food Bank Network conference. Salisbury is famous for two things, Stonehenge and being the place where Edward Heath (ex tory prime minister) lived. It's a lovely city, (wish I could say the same about London!). Anyway, I have a room for the night in a hotel with views of the cathedral, complete with a full English breakfast on Wednesday morning. There will be a day of business and then back on the trains to West Bromwich. I certainly live the high life!

See you soon.

You too can find someone to blame

Someone (I forgot who) once said 'if you can keep your head while all about are losing theirs, you've found someone to blame my son'. This week, I have watched two programmes where everyone blames everbody else and no one seems to accept responsibility for what goes wrong.

The first one was Prime Minister's Question time on Wednesday 12.00pm. What a shambles! Questions went unanswered or were answered with a statement that went part way to answering the question but deflected blame back to whoever had asked the original question.

The second programme was The Apprentice. I have never seen such an excellent example of rats leaving a sinking ship. In this case, the rats were female! They had lost the task set by Sir Alan and were trying to avoid being fired. If looks could kill, there would be at least two females waiting in the morgue for a post mortem!

Then there is the culture of if anything goes wrong - sue the other party. Imagine the scenario, you go into Starbucks or MacDonald's, order a coffee, drink it, burn your throat and then sue the proprietor! Come on guys, coffee is supposed to be hot!

Then we come on to health and safety. We now have to put up notices warning users that the hot water tap can, when turned, on emit water that can get very hot!! Oh good grief, it is a hot tap after all.

This is a short blog, as I have to go and defend myself in crown court as allegedly I ignored an acquaintance in the street and they are suing me for compensation for post traumatic stress

Famous people I have met and seen

I am at that stage in my life when the mind tends to wander and you remember things from years ago whilst forgetting what you did ten minutes ago and completely blanking out what you need to do in the future.

For some reason I thought about the famous people I have met or seen. Years ago, I was a governor at a local school. The school had been closed for a few months due to an oil leak. When it reopened, we had a big celebration. The guest of honour was Betty Boothroyd, our local MP and the first female Speaker of the House of Commons! The school had originally been opened by the then Secretary of State for Education, one Margaret Thatcher so to redress the balance we had to have Betty. Anyway, to cut a long story short I had the privilege of serving Betty with a cup of tea and a sarnie!

I have seen Russ Abott in Woolworths, Cliff Richard in Boots (the shop not the footwear) and appeared on the Rolf Harris Show (BBC in its black & white days). I have met Violet Carson, (Ena Sharples from Coronation Street) been introduced to Princess Anne and had a soundbite aired on Beacon Radio news.

Recently, we had our AGM at the church. This is the time when we hear and read reports on what has happened over the past year. It is good to remember (see above), but what really made the night for me was what was planned for the future. There are some great themes being explored that will impact on our community and expand the faith and expectation of our church members and friends.

Watch this space!

Not perfect, jsut forgiven

Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. Just because you are a Christian, it does not mean that everything you say and do will be ideal. We will make mistakes; there will be some decisions we make that we will instantly wish could be undone! Sometimes, we refer to ourselves as practicing Christians. That is exactly what we are, practicing! The more we practice, the better we should get. We will not be perfect until we arrive at the place that Jesus is preparing for us.

The first thing we have to realise is that it is perfectly normal for us to make mistakes. Think for a moment of some of the great characters in the Bible, not one of them (apart from Christ) was perfect. David, Samson Peter, and Moses are some of the great heroes of faith; even they got it wrong at times.

Having established that it is o.k. to make mistakes, what do we do next?

Firstly, we admit that we got it wrong,

Secondly we ask forgiveness of God and, if applicable, of those who were hurt by our mistake.

Thirdly, we put it right!

Fourthly, we learn from our mistakes.

It is not easy to admit that we have made a mistake, our pride gets in the way, we do not want others to know what we have done and so we put it off and try and forget it. Believe me, if you take this approach the one thing you will not be able to do is forget! It helps when we confess where we have made a mistake. You will probably be amazed at the amount of support you receive from those who you thought would judge you. They have been where you are now!

During the periods that I have been a key worker to homeless men and women I have seen the results of not admitting a mistake. I have seen the destructive effect that it has on their lives. Their whole life has fallen apart because they have ignored the issue facing them. Instead of taking action to rectify what is wrong they have drifted and ignored the warning signs. This has led to other complications and suddenly they are faced with a major problem that will not go away. This can result in the breakdown of a marriage, losing their home, or relying on chemical help or alcohol to blot out the issue. After a period of life in a hostel, some do realise their mistakes and begin the painful process of facing up to it and putting it right.

In talking to some of the hostel's residents, I have had to say 'stop, this is where you went wrong, what are you going to do about it'? This was not an easy option on my part. I was quite literally forcing them to face their fears. This method is very confrontational and is not recommended unless you are 100% confident that you can handle what comes immediately after you have uttered that sentence! Some will react in a positive way; others will continue to rely on drugs and booze.

Before you cry out in protest and say it could never happen to me because I'm a Christian it can! In my last position I worked with homeless Christians, we are not exempt nor do we have some divine immunity from facing the consequences of our mistakes.

When you buy some piece of equipment such as a camera, computer or washing machine you are immediately offered a warranty. This is supposed to give you peace of mind if something goes wrong with your new purchase. But, it comes at a cost!

I cannot offer you a warranty that will cover you for mistakes you make! What I can offer if things go wrong is the love and understanding of a patient and loving God. He understands that we make mistakes and is willing to listen and to show us how to put things right. All we have to do is realise our error and be sincere in admitting that mistake.

The cost of this peace of mind has already been paid - at Calvary.

God does walk side by side with us, but when we are in trouble He will take the burden on himself and carry us.

A silver spoon and the apostle Peter

The last week has been really frustrating. The heat at church is still off, engineers who agreed to quote for a new boiler failed to turn up, someone wanted £100 just to pick up and collect a portable heating device (that was on top of fees totalling over £200 for a weeks hire of equipment). It took me most of Saturday to track down some heaters and to finish off Saturday, a group who hired the church for two hours stayed for nearly three.

Arriving at work today (Monday) I plugged a heater in only to find that due to the extra load we had had to use to heat the church on Sunday the sockets had tripped and the fitting had burnt out! No computer, no heat, no hot coffee and the frozen Yorkshire puddings waiting for the luncheon club had defrosted. I was really frustrated and feeling sorry for myself. Cutting my losses, I went to do the afternoon shift at the food bank.

Then, something happened that began to put all my so called woes into perspective. A guy called C is homeless and regularly visits us mostly to talk and to have a hot drink. As he arrived he said that he had a gift for my church. He then presented me with a silver spoon which had Bethlehem written on it. He said it used to belong to his mom and that he wanted us to have it. This simple gesture from someone who had nothing was really touching. What had happened during the last week was nothing compared to what C has gone through and there I was feeling sorry for myself!

As I reflected on this, I was reminded of the message at church yesterday. The theme was loving others as Jesus loves us. It concentrated on Peter and the time he denied knowing Jesus three times. Jesus forgave him. We all know that Jesus has an infinite capacity for forgiving, but the point that Iain (the preacher) brought out and really hit me was that after the betrayal, Peter must have been wondering about his reception when he met the other disciples again, but he was accepted by them and together with them went on to do great things for God. The disciples forgave him and equally important along with the forgiveness went love, a love that could only have been God inspired.

Till next we meet, think on these things!

The heat is off

On the first Sunday of each month, my church (or as many as remember!) gather at 9.15 am for an early breakfast together. I arrived there at 8.30 to begin the preparations and the first thing I do is switch the heating on. The weather was lousy, it was exceedingly cold and not really the time to be out early. But hey, life would be dull if everything was always going well.

The breakfast got undr way and was going well when there was a sudden dip in the temperature. Yes, you've guessed it, the heating had packed up. O.K., the system is old, the boiler is slowly dying and the heat does not really reach the back room, so why does it pack up on the coldest day of the new year even though it is totally useless?

Following the breakfast we shared communion together and then after a short break we gathered for our morning celebration. It was to be a special time as the leadership would be launching the church vision for the next five years. We stood and shivered our way through the praise and worship and then sat as Iain began to launch the vision. Despite the cold, the message was really inspiring (and I knew what was in the vision plan!) It's going to be a time of having our faith stretched, launching new ministries, committing our time and talents to be used by God. There are bound to be a few (I hope) surprises along the way. God is a God of the unexpected!!

A complete change of subject now. During this week I totted up the statistics for the food bank. From when we began on 17/12/07 to Monday 05/01/09 (53 weeks) we have been able to support a total of 632 people, including 172 children.

This would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of our team of volunteers. So, although they may not read this blog I would like to say a sincere thank you to Jill, Pauline, Pat, Brian, James and Rob for all their hard work during this time.

Till the next blog.

Hello 2009

2008 has gone, and 2009 has just begun! How's that for stating the obvious? I was just browsing my blog when I realised it was 14 days since my last post to the world. I see from my profile that I have had 133 hits where people , perhaps out of nosiness have clicked to see who I am. That's not bad for someone known by his two sons as a grumpy old man!

Every new year's day, we go on a ramble at some location with friends from WBCC (West Bromwich Community Church, http://www.westbromchurch.org/ if you are interested in having a look). This year, we decided to change our location from Sandwell Valley to the Clent Hills. This is no slight on the valley, we just fancied a change! We arrived on the car park at 10.30 am pretty much with everyone else, which was a surprise as the church is notorious for not starting on time!! (With apologies to Iain who is very good at starting on time). As we looked for a space to park, the car completely cut out and coasted to a halt. We were grateful for this, as we had come up a fairly hilly narrow road and if it had happened there we could have ended up in a ditch! The same thing happened to us on a mountain road in Southern Ireland where we just coasted again to a halt in someone's front garden. Two seconds earlier or later and we could have been over the mountain! God really looked after us on both occasions.

Everywhere was covered in a thick frost and the scenery at Clent was spectacular. It reminded me of what Narnia must have been like before Aslan arrived. (see the film, The Lion the witch and the wardrobe). The walk lasted for well over an hour. We got back to the car park and tucked into mince pies and coffee. Yes, we were eating the leftovers from Christmas.

Anyway, it was time to go and as the last of our party vacated the car park we found the car would not start. A call to the RAC sorted the problem until we got to the big hill from the car park where it cut out again. The RAC man (whose name was Adrian - more useless info for you!) tried again but to no avail. We then had to be towed back to West Brom, normally a twenty minute drive under normal conditions. It was o.k. for me, as I was in the RAC van which was blasting out heat! Denise had to steer the car which due to no power was very cold! To cut a long story short, the car is now fixed and working!

As I sit at home typing this, my mind has gone to the meeting at church tomorrow. It's our first meeting of the new year and we are due to launch our five year vision plan to members and friends of the church. It's going to be a great meeting. There is loads of good stuff in the plan and what's more important is that we believe it is from God!

Till next time, have a great new year and trust in God.