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!