Silence

I won't be posting for the next two weeks. Check back after that to see what we've been up to.

Heard on the streets of Camden:

"I gave my life over. Did it about thirty minutes ago."

"To Jesus?"

"Yeah, to Jesus."

I just got home from buying a couple books (see the sidebar for my new reads). On the walk home, I ran into a guy who I haven't seen in quite a while. Last time I saw him was when I preached at Freedom House. He said he had just come from a friend's house, and about thirty minutes ago had decided to take the plunge and follow Jesus!
We chatted for a bit about how hard it's going to be to tell his friends. I prayed for him, and he asked me how it was going with keeping the house clean (I had shared in my sermon that one of the things I need forgiveness for is telling Somer I'll clean up and then not doing it).

And I thought nothing interesting was going to happen today.

Last week of shelter

One more week to go for the cold weather shelter. We've had close to 50 people staying at the shelter for various lengths of time. Some of them only stay for a few days, others for almost a month. Last month, we were able to find housing for almost half of those who stayed with us longer than three nights. Which is pretty exciting.
The response to the appeal for starter-pack items was overwhelming. We should have a good number of things left over to provide seed for packs for next year. Even though the shelter itself is about to finish, the advocacy work of helping find homes for people will continue for another month. So in theory we could use up everything that's been donated. Next year we're going to work on getting some companies and local civic organizations on board at the beginning to provide some of the items we need to buy new, like alarm clocks and electric kettles (for my American friends, an electric kettle is a basic household necessity, used to boil water for tea...people here can't imagine how we cope with having to boil water on the stove-top!!)

Pigeon on the Tube

There's this great scene in You've Got Mail where Kathleen Kelly describes a butterfly who got on the subway at 53rd St. and off again at 59th, "presumably to buy a hat from Bloomingdale's."
Last night I was on my way home from an appointment in North London when I saw a pigeon on the platform for the Northern Line at Euston station. I started thinking how cool it would be if the pigeon got on the train. Well, wouldn't you know it? When my train arrived and the doors opened, the little guy hopped right in front of me and got on the train. I just stood there staring at it with the woman next to me...neither of us were sure what to do. She decided to get on a different carriage; I didn't want to miss any of the action. What would the bird do next? I wondered.
When I got on, it scared the pigeon, who flew franticaly down the length of the carriage. People were scared and held up their arms to fend off the panicked bird. It got to the end of the car, fluttered around for a bit, and then flew out the other door before the driver closed the doors and drove off to the next station.

Football

The past two Saturdays I've been at football training. Yes, after a nearly ten-year absence from the football pitch, I am again breaking out the skills. I'm not sure my body is all that happy about it - it's a lot different playing as a soft 28-year-old than as an 18-year-old. You kind of have to pace yourself a bit more. But it does help that the guys I'm playing with have been even less active than me.
Basically, we've put together a team from guys I know over at 55, and entered into a tournament at the beginning of May. It's a one-day tournament sponsored by my friend Mark's church over in Islington. It should be really interesting. So far, our team looks decent. Plus, it's loads of fun.

Starter Pack Update

We've been overwhelmed with the response to our appeal for items for the starter packs. The Texas group brought lots of bedding items (things we were very low on) and we've had donations from a number of different sources. We've only given away 3 packs so far, but today I'm meeting the project coordinator to get him two more packs, and it looks like the rate of placement into housing from the shelter is on the rise. Also, there are a few people who have resettled into housing who didn't get packs, so it's looking like this week will see a number of packs delivered.

Texas Team

Last week we had a group of Texans come to Camden to pray over our city. We had a fun, encouraging, busy week (hence the silence over the past week). They prayed over the neighborhoods, schools, and shops in Camden Town. A few shopkeepers were eager to have their businesses prayed for and had members of the group pray with them.
We also had them help us with some of the neighborhood research we've been doing. When they weren't busy prayer-walking, they were talking to people on the streets, finding out what they like and dislike about Camden, what kinds of things they think the church ought to be doing here, etc.
For us, it was really nice to have people who were so encouraging and who could understand some of the things we've been experiencing over the past six months. It was also really helpful to have fresh sets of eyes and ears to help us understand Camden in a new way. Thanks for coming!

Waterloo

Yesterday I dropped into the Waterloo homeless center, run by one of my friends with London City Mission. I gave the morning talk and then had breakfast with the men. The talk was based on a conversation I had with one of the guys at 55. We had talked about civil war, and how people are so quick to find reasons to fight with each other. Even when we're really young, we try to pull other people down so that we can look better or feal better about ourselves. But Jesus introduces a different way of living, a way that isn't based on how good we are, how strong we are, who we can beat up, or even how bad we are. It's based on how much we're loved. This frees us from the daily burden of climbing the human ladder, dragging other people down so we can get closer to the top. That's why he could say "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yolk is easy and my burden is light."

Jet Powered Beetle

This is totally random, but I stumbled onto Ron Patrick's site today. My engineer friends ought to enjoy this one, plus anyone who's ever dreamed of sticking a jet engine out the back of their vehicle. Come to think of it, my London teammate Dan B might want to see if this guy can do anything for Lucille.