Cold Weather Shelter

I just returned from the breakfast shift at the Camden cold weather shelter. The shelter rotates between seven different sites in the borough, one each day of the week, and runs through March. We had a nice breakfast together with the shelter guests and chatted with them for about an hour.
One of the things I like about this shelter is that there is a person dedicated to helping guests sort out housing/job/healthcare needs. The idea is that guests will not use the shelter for more that 28 straight days, but will have found accomodation either in a council flat or in private accomodation shared with friends. It looks like I might be helping to coordinate welcome packs for people moving into more permanent accomodation. Once people move into their new home off the streets, they need things like a pot, a couple of plates, some forks, etc. I think I'll enjoy helping pull that together.

It's true...

I'm the father of a fairy princess.

The Sun rears its head

For a few hours at least...this was the sight out our window at 3:15 yesterday afternoon; and what a glorious sight it was! It's been almost two weeks since we last saw the sun. Low clouds and fog have been our companions this Christmas season. But not yesterday! We even went to the park to celebrate.

Cold Weather Shelter

Looks like I'll be helping out this winter at a rolling cold weather shelter for homeless people in Camden. It runs from January through March, and is "rolling" in that it is hosted at seven different sites throughout the borough - one each night of the week. I think I'm helping at one of the morning sessions, helping to make and serve breakfast to the guests who have spent the night. More details later...I went to a training day yesterday, but still don't really know what my involvement will look like.

Drum Lessons

Andi and Jodie loved the African drum lesson. It wasn't really a lesson, so much as a jam session with one of the women in the shop. She started trying to teach the girls how to hit the drum properly, but they were shy and didn't want to do anything she was telling them. Then she said "I'm going to play, and you improvise when you feel comfortable." That did it. The girls had a really good time playing the instruments and then dancing to the beat while other people drummed. It really fascinates them that the drums are made with animal skins. They keep asking if different kinds of skin would work..."what about Lions, Daddy, do you think they use Lions skin? Or maybe dogs? Or Zebras, what about Zebras Daddy?" Since I have absolutely no idea what kind of skins are actually used, I make it up and say in my authoritative voice "Goats, they use goat skins. And maybe Antelope."

Party Update

Our housewarming party went really well last night. We had a few people from our building who we hadn't met before. Someone brought us flowers, and a guy stopped by to say that he couldn't come to the party, but he wanted to introduce himself. Pretty cool.We all forgot to take pictures during the party (lame, I know) but here's a shot before people got into all the cheese.
After the party, Oli and I went and checked out this new place that has finally opened up across the street. It's a bar called 55. We've been watching them renovate for the past two months, and were interested to see what it's like. It's a really nice cocktail bar owned by a guy about my age. I'll post a few pictures if he lets me. Tomorrow Somer and I are going over to see some of the old tables he's getting rid of to see if anything will work for us as a TV table.

Housewarming Party

Tomorrow night we're having a housewarming party. Somer and Kathy are cooking up a few things , but they left me in charge of the most exciting part: the wine and the cheese! The wine's already taken care of, as we had to buy a whole case for Thanksgiving and only used two bottles, but the cheese required a special trip to Neil's Yard Dairy in Covent Garden. Selections for tomorrow night include Montgomery's Cheddar ('the best cheddar in England'), Childwickbury - a fresh goat's cheese especially for John, Colston Bassett Stilton ('the best stilton in England'), and my favorite: Gorwydd Caerphilly - a traditional cheese that tastes a lot like Camembert, but with a texture more like a smooth cheddar.

In fairness to Somer, the things she's making will be far more interesting to most of you than my cheese obsession...check them out on her blog.

Tomorrow before the party I'm taking the girls to open drum lessons for kids at a stall in the market that sells drums from Ghana. They are VERY excited about it...woke up talking about it this morning. More tomorrow, I hope.

Volunteer, anyone?

So I'm not really a big fan of the advertising that is ubiquitous in the city. Billboards, shop signs, and people handing out leaflets vie for your attention as you walk down the street. The view out our window is dominated by the sign for Viacom Outdoor (which is, ironically, a billboard company) and for Holiday Inn, the lights of which light up our bedroom in the middle of the night.
So it's with some amazement that I tell you that a sign on a bus had the desired effect on me yesterday. I saw an advertisement for the Camden Volunteer Day on the side of the number 134 bus. So yesterday afternoon, I went along with teammate Kathy to see what opportunities for volunteering were available in Camden. There were fewer groups than I expected...mostly smaller, less-well-known groups that probably have a harder time recruiting volunteers than the big-boys like Oxfam and RSPCA do. Still, there was a good variety, including a group called The Gorilla Organization that needs volunteers to put on a Gorilla suit and ask for donations at tube stations. There's also a group that works with HIV/AIDS patients that may be looking for someone to do computer training.
I went hoping there'd be opportunities to volunteer in our neighborhood, and while most of the groups were based in Camden burrough, it's a large burrough and none of them were very close to us.

Spotted in Team Leader's kitchen...

Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree! Friday we were walking back from Camden market when we passed some trees at the Morrison's. Ten minutes later we had picked out the "tallest tree ever" according to Jodie and were walking home with it. Ray is a friend from the States who was visiting and kindly agreed to help carry it. The best part of the tree is that it came with it's own stand...it's been nailed into a slice from a larger tree trunk that serves as the base. It works great, and there were no issues of getting it straight or stable once we got it in the house. I'll admit, it's not quite the same as Ryan, who cut his own tree from a forest, but it still makes it feel like Christmas around here. Which is good, since we're having a housewarming/Christmas party this weekend.

Teacher leaving

We just got a letter from Andi's school, saying that her teacher is leaving at the end of this term. We're really sad about this. I'm sure the new teacher will be great, but we really like her current teacher. Somer has started to get to know her a little, and has been going into the class to help by reading individually with the kids. So a little uncertainty right now for Andi and her class, and a little sadness too.

Glass

I've been here for nearly three months now, and have yet to find any glassblowers working in this area. Now I'll admit, it's a pretty small pool of people - not everyone has a hot shop in their basement. But I've been surprised at how hard it is to find people working in glass here in Camden.
So yesterday I went to the market determined to find someone. I went to a stall that sells small jewelry - rings, necklaces, etc - that are made from fused glass. The attendant was not himself the artist (he said the artists only come on weekends), but he sent me to a little place called Lead and Light.
Lead and Light is off the beaten path, tucked back in an alley behind a row of houses. A cool place with more sheets of glass than I've ever seen in one place. But sadly, only a very small kiln in which to do fusing (layering pieces of glass and melting them together in the furnace). No glassblowing.
There is a glassblower who has a stall in the market, but he does most of his work in Italy because the gas for the furnaces is much cheaper there.

So...I'm still looking. If anyone happens to know anyone doing glassblowing in the Camden area, or know of a school that has a hot shop, let me know.

Oil On Canvas

My friend John plays in like 4 different bands. I recently took my other friend John along to one of his gigs. He was playing with Oil on Canvas at the Purple Turtle in Camden. When we got there it was pretty dead, and the first band to play was some pirate/sailor themed band that drew about 6 people total to watch. But, we got to hang out with John for a good part of the evening and talk about life.

One of the things we talked about was how the church used to be a big supporter/patron of music (and other forms of art as well). I would like to see that practice revived, and we talked a little about how to make that happen. Even though John isn't big on "church" or "religion" himself, he said he'd be very open to having a local church as a sort of patron, as long as they didn't try to control his music.

Any of my readers have any experience or ideas for how to pull off something like church-sponsored patronage for local bands/artists? I'm not just talking like "open band night" for the youth - am I totally ignorant of history, or did musicians used to make their living producing music for the church?

Thanksgiving

Yes, thank you Jeremy. We all know I haven't posted much lately. Let me try to catch you up on our lives.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on the appropriate day last week. John and Kathy hosted the dinner, and we had a number of our British friends over, plus a couple of other Americans. The English/Welsh contingent wanted to know why we celebrate Thanksgiving, and to our shame, non of the Americans knew why, we just knew that we all eat turkey and watch Americann football.

Now I don't know who won the real Thanskgiving day games (and I don't want to...at least not yet). But I can tell you that our Thanksgiving game was won by the Baltimore Ravens, who blocked a Titans field goal at the end of the game to hang on and win by 1.

Anyway, we had a great time. Kathy's turkey was incredible, as was Somer's pumpkin pie. There were 13 of us all crammed around the table, and it was a sweet time of being with friends. Somer's got some good pictures over on Daily Offerings.

More to update about, but that'll come in another post.

Arsenal

60,000: number of supporters chanting the name of Thierry Henry or Robin Van Persie, or screaming insults at Liverpool, or singing the praises of Arsene Wenger.
14: number of rows between us and the field.
3: number of goals Arsenal scored, compared to Liverpool's 0
2: number of hotdogs we ate
1: number of times I've been to see a football match here in England

Thanks to John for taking me, and for the pre- and post-match tea at his apartment. What a way to begin immersing myself in English culture.

Quick Roundup

It's been a full week here. You already know about Monday (see previous post). Yesterday I helped a buddy from the market deliver some furniture. Then Mark and I went rock climbing at The Castle last night. My hands are raw.
I had coffee this morning with a musician from Finsbury park. And by "coffee" I mean fresh squeezed OJ. John and Kathy's stuff has arrived already and was being unpacked (and even put together!) this afternoon when Somer and I stopped in to say 'hi'.
Tomorrow I'm heading out to Ilford to meet up with Stephen, one of the guys I worked with last year, and I'll be going to the youth club and seeing all the kids from last year.
Oh, and Sunday I'm supposed to be going to a certain football match (I'll keep it quiet so I don't jinx it...more to come...)

Monday

UPDATE: It's here! The guys brought a small van that was able to pull into the covered parking under our building. They were done in half an hour. Then about 20 minutes after they left, John and Kathy showed up to help unpack. What a treat. They worked all afternoon, and by the time Somer brought the girls home the boxes were all unpacked and the trash was in the dumpster. Thank you God. Thank you for friends and teammates in London, thank you for small vans and high ceilings in the parking garage. Thank you for whoever cancelled their shipment so we could get ours.

I got a call from our shipping company yesterday, and...Our belongings are supposed to be delivered on Monday!! Yay! There was a cancellation and a slot opened up in the delivery schedule. The only hitch could be that the water company started tearing up the road in front of our house on Friday. Today they broke up the section just opposite where the delivery truck would park, leaving just one lane to get by. Not sure how it's going to work. We were technically supposed to get a permit from the council for the truck to park, but with such short notice we didn't have time. So any parking fine the truck gets, I'll have to pay...but it's worth it.

Teammates Arrive

Our team leaders have arrived today. Jodie and I went to the airport to meet them. They were really tired, but we were so excited to see them. They joined us for pizza/movie night last night before going home to crash. SOOO glad they're here.

Stephen's Baptism

It's 11:11 PM and I have just returned from a house in one of the wealthiest parts of London. Imagine, if you will, the following scenes:
A group of young people in their 20s are loitering outside a train station. They have come from all over the city - Camden Town, Enfield, the Isle of Dogs. A guy in a ski hat with multicolored spikes pulls out a bag and starts to hand out food - wraps and fruit he's salvaged from a store that was throwing them away because they had reached their sell-by date.

At the appointed time, we march 500 yds down the road to a massive house. Inside, they are met with more food - more wraps, in fact - lovingly prepared by the occupant, a young doctor-to-be. More people arrive.

The crowd moves upstairs, cramming into a surprisingly small bathroom. A warm bath has been drawn, and Stephen steps in. After some interesting body contortions and one uncomfortable incident involving the water tap, he manages to lay down. His head is gently pushed under water. The ancient words are spoken: Stephen, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

When I met Stephen, he was living in Camden Town and had already started following Jesus. I had nothing to do with him finding Jesus, or Jesus finding him. But this is why we are here in Camden. We want to see many more like Stephen, welcomed into God's family. We want to see people joining Jesus in his death and resurrection, so that they might leave behind slavery to the elemental spiritual forces, and enter into their inheritance as dearly loved children of God.

Tonight, I was given a gift. The gift of participating in a baptism, of laying my hand on a new brother and praying God's blessing on him. Of helping to welcome him into God's family. God is at work here in Camden Town. Tonight he let me see a glimpse of the road ahead.

Stephen, if you happen to find your way here, thank you so much for inviting me.

Galatians 4

Preached Sunday on the first part of Galatians 4 at Church on the Corner in Islington. Thanks for the warm welcome from everyone at the evening service - it was my first visit (we've been attending the morning service since we came to London in September). I felt like the evening went better than the morning. It's one of those funny things...I can't really explain why. I did make a rather desperate request for prayer after the morning because I was feeling a bit lifeless. I guess the Holy Spirit showed up in response, and I experienced his power at the evening meeting.
One of the most exciting parts of the passage for me was that when Paul says God has made us "heirs" - he means that in Jesus we are heirs of all of God's creation. I connected that to our view of the city, and challenged us to see the church as the rightful inheritor of the city.