The People of the Abyss

Russell, one of the regulars down at Fifty-Five, dropped off a couple books for me to read yesterday. He's really into historical sociologies of London. One book he's currently reading is a history of crime in the city. Anyway, he lent me two books: The People of the Abyss by Jack London, and East End, which is a 400 year history of London.
I'm especially intersted in the Jack London book - Russell says it'll be a good intro for me, since it's coming from the perspective of an American investigating London. I'll have to add them to the "reading list" on the sidebar, since it's already out of date, but I'm lazy and that takes more work.

Start of Lent

With the start of Lent comes the beginning of our fast from alcohol (not really much of a "fast" I'll admit). Thursday I went down to Fifty-Five and hung out with regulars Russ and Tina. Ben and Dom were there (two of the bartenders who are doing the Thirst for Life). I had a fruit smoothie and a grapefruit juice. Kinda wish there'd be a campaign to give us cigarettes for lent, as that's the most unpleasant part of going to any bar...but only for another 4 months, as smoking will be banned in all bars and restaurants starting in July.

Pancake Day

Shrove Tuesday (or Pancake day) came and went and I forgot to post about it. Lots of people do pancakes here - though they're a bit different from the American version. Usually they are thinner, more like crepes. The most popular topping seems to be sugar and lemon juice. Sainsbury's sells ready-made pancake batter in a bottle.
Somer made ours the old-fashioned way. You can see the receipe and a picture here.

Starter Packs

As some of you have probably heard, I'm helping coordinate starter packs for a local night shelter. The packs help people who move out of the shelter and into permanent housing by giving them the basic household items they need to make a good start in their new home.
So far we have items for about 3 packs, and I'm picking up more items in the next few days: a guy who's leaving the country and clearing out his house, a reject kitchen store is giving us two shelves of plates and mugs, and the Salvation Army recently closed a charity shop and has a few things to donate.

Thirst for Life

So I've decided to give up alcohol for Lent. Ben, one of the Bartenders at 55, asked me if I'd be willing to do it with him. It's part of this campaign called Thirst for Life, which aims to raise awareness of the problems of binge drinking in the UK. Because it's so unusual for a bartender to give up drinking (and ask one of his customers to do it too!), Ben has been asked to do a weekly update for the BBC about the experience. So starting next week, it'll be fruit smoothies and milkshakes for me at 55 until Easter.

England 1-0 Australia

Just finished watching the first of the three match CB One Day International series final between England and Australia. It was incredibly close...England won in the final over with three balls to spare. Very exciting play. Paul Collingwood was clearly the man of the match, scoring 120 not out, and hitting the winning run. Final tally was England 253-6 to Australia 252.

For those of you who wonder how in the world you can have a close game when teams score upwards of 250 runs, well, you'll just have to watch. But I will say this: Cricket is much more exciting than Baseball. Though the games take longer to play, there's no standing around, waiting for the guy to hit the ball, waiting for a team to score runs. Very rarely do you get an over without any runs scored (an over consists of six balls - how many times in baseball do you get a run scored every couple of pitches?).

And yes, I know my Aussie friend Doug will say that he's not very interested in ODI matches...it's Test Matches that really matter. Fair enough. His boys did destroy England in the Ashes test series. But still, it's nice to see England on top for a change.

Starter Packs Start

We're finally getting off the ground with our starter pack initiative. Last week I met with a board member for the Camden & City Churches Cold Weather Shelter, who gave us the go-ahead to work on the starter packs. We arranged over the weekend to use a basement room that's standing empty in the local Methodist church as our base of operations. We'll be picking up the keys and then collecting the first of our donated items early next week.
What are 'starter packs' you ask? Here's an excerpt from the literature:
Starter packs help people establish a route out of homelessness. Many new tenancies fail in the initial stages because of a lack of financial resources to provide the basic household items that turn a house into a home. By providing these essentials, starter packs can help eliminate the ‘revolving door’ experience of many homeless people.
We are starting with the bare minimums - kitchen items, cleaning supplies, and a few other things. In the future, we hope to follow the model of other groups who provide bedding, small kitchen appliances, drapes, etc.
I'm really excited about all this, but also feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all. If any of you have any experience or ideas for who I should talk to about getting used or donated new items, let me know.

Reading Changes

Thought I'd update you on the changes to my reading list. First, apologies for the lack of update in recent months...I've read many things, forgotten most of them...anyway, here's what's on the horizon for my eyes:
Watership Down was recommended by Jeff, an artist who is all over Camden. In addition to his own stall, Jeff's work is displayed at As Yet Unknown Gallery and helps set the tone for the newly opened RB Cafe. The book played a part in his latest series of works exploring Killer Bunnies.
Mayflower was recommended by one of my readers in response to my lack of knowledge of Thanksgiving. He actually sent me a copy - thanks!
Celtic Way of Evangelism is a combination of historical analysis of the movement of Celtic monks combined with present-day application. Our team is reading it as part of our ongoing exploration of appropriate models for the life of the church in Camden

55 for dinner tomorrow

Update: Dinner with 55 was really fun. The girls were a little shy, but came out of their shells by the end. It was great to spend some time with Shannon as well. She's helping organize a Saturday workshop in March around the concept of missional entrepreneurs (or something like that - sorry if I've totally missed the point, Shannon) - anyway, it sounds really interesting. She's in the process of looking for an apartment, so we had Somer pray for her since she has a special gift of prayer when it comes to those kinds of things.

Original post:
The guys of 55 will be over for dinner before they open the bar tomorrow. They should be over around 4:30. Can't wait.
Then, in what is probably a first for us, we'll be having a second dinner seating at a more normal time. Shannon is coming over. Shannon's been helping to connect various people in London who are exploring new ways of doing church. I'll fill you in on our meal later, if there's anything to report.