How many Texans...

How many Texans does it take to fix a mobile phone?

In our case, maybe four. We have four guys from Texas with us for the next week. Their first hour here was spent trying to make their phone work so they could call home. They are part of a church that we connected with a couple of years ago. Since then, they have shown incredible love and care for us. As evidenced by the year's supply of Kraft Mac n Cheese that arrived with them, along with all kinds of other goodies.

We'll be taking them to Speaker's Corner this afternoon, followed by church with metal heads in Camden. Then they'll join us for game night at our house. Next week, they'll be helping with our book table, meeting new people in the market, spending lots of time praying for Camden, and helping run our Green Fair stall. Should be great. We always find we draw lots of energy when these guys visit. If any of their wives read this - Thanks for sending your men for the week!

Gardening

A few weeks ago, I did a short talk at Inspiral Lounge as part of a learning day we helped put on called Deep Ecology. The idea behind the day was that humanity is deeply connected to the world around us. There is the obvious physical dependence, but there's also a spiritual element to that connection. Our role as humans in the world is connected to our relationship to God. We answer to God for our treatment of his world, and he reveals himself to us in creation.
I specifically spoke about why gardens might be good places to meet God - the silence, the reminder of who God made us to be, the markers that point us to God's beauty - among other things. It went pretty well, and the staff at Inspiral were particularly brilliant.
One of the results of the talk is that a few of us have decided to do a bit of gardening, trying to make our part of the world a bit greener. We've been looking for unused and rather ugly patches of ground where we can add a few bits of beauty. We're doing our first dig this afternoon. Will update with how it goes soon.
{update} So, it went fairly well. The first location we had chosen was no good, as it was full of roots and the ground was incredibly hard. We almost gave up, but then someone spotted a tiny little patch, perfect for a few of the plants we had with us. We dropped them in, topped up with some organic compost, and walked away. We'll be watering and dropping by to make sure everything stays alive over the next week.

Last Gasp?

It's been a month since I last posted. I'm giving this blog one more shot at life. I'm going to try doing one post a week for the next month. If I can stick with it, I'll keep the blog going. Otherwise...

I picked up an old book on urban churches recently. I had read it before, and found a note saying 'blog this' next to a bit of Chinese wisdom. I never did. Here it is:

Go to the people,
Live among them.
Learn from them.
Start with what they know.
Build on what they have.
But of the best of leaders,
When their task is accomplished,
Their work is done,
The people all remark
"We have done it ourselves."