The Eye

I'd say my new profile picture is appropriate - seems my eyes are always wide open these days. It's 1:45 AM and I'm still awake. We arrived back in London on Monday, but I can't get seem to shake the time difference. Feeling very tired during the day and wide awake at night. The girls have been staying up really late too. Hope they adjust before school starts.

In the USA

We've been traveling around the States for the last few weeks, telling stories from Camden and spending time with family and friends. I've spoken at six different churches so far, and have one more to go this coming Sunday. I'm totally exhausted.
But, it's been really good for us to be here and reconnect. It's also a good reminder of how far we've come since moving to Camden two years ago. It's hard for us to see it sometimes, because of how close we are to things, but to get the perspective of people who care about what we're doing and are observing from a bit of distance has been very encouraging.
I'm hoping to start blogging a bit more this autumn. I'll try focusing on pictures more, as lots of people have said they appreciate even little snippets from our life in London. We'll see how it goes - I can't promise anything grand.

Gardening in the middle of the road

Just back from a great gardening session. A planter in the middle of an intersection has been transformed from weedy mess to beautiful garden, all in the space of an hour. I got to meet Richard, the guru of London guerrilla gardening, and a couple of other folks who came out to help. The patch was mangled by bindweed, but once we got that out we found some really beautiful plants underneath. Add a couple of Euonymus and Fuschia, and job's done.

Beautiful Day

The weather is amazing today. 27 degrees (that's about 80 F) and bright sun. We met in the market for prayer this morning, finishing with a reading from Mark 1 to give us fuel for the day. Then this afternoon, wanting to make the most of the weather, I met with two other guys in Regents park for a bit of Lectio Divina - which is basically reading a text of Scripture several times through as a means of praying. Again we used Mark 1, this time reading a bit more. For one of the guys, it was the first time he'd used the Bible to pray like that, and for me, it was the first time I'd prayed with others in Regents park. We all really enjoyed it, and definitely met with God. It looks like we might make the afternoon thing a regular occurrence, maybe twice weekly or something like that. It's good. Camden needs it. I need it.

Foreskin's Lament

This past Saturday I went to see Foreskin's Lament. Not being a regular consumer of plays, you might wonder what I was doing there. A friend of mine that I met at our regular Tuesday book table was playing one of the rugby players - a bit of a flippant, no-cares kind of guy who's easy-going approach to the game is confronted by the death of one of his teammates. The play mixes a bit of light-hearted comedy with powerful social commentary to great effect. The first and second acts were extreme contrasts, the first taking place in a locker room and involving jokes and banter between the guys; the second taking place at an after-match party and involving more intense dialogue and an incredibly powerful Maori dance (traditionally done by the New Zealand rugby team before matches). It wasn't a 'feel-good' story, so it's hard to say 'I enjoyed it' - because actually it was more about feeling the intensity of the social issues as felt through the conflict of the main character. But it was good.

Visitors

In addition to everything else going on this week, we have several groups of people from the good 'ol USA visiting us. My team leader has a group of people from his old church back in Virginia coming to Camden for a few days, and then some high-schoolers from our church in Philly are coming on Friday (I think...gotta confirm that, come to think of it). We'll be putting them to good use praying for Camden and hopefully they'll help us see our city in new ways.
I was reading a book called Urban Christian a few weeks ago. It's by a man who was a pastor in Chicago in the 1960s and 70s. All kinds of horrible stuff going on then - race riots, gang warfare, the failure of basic governmental services. He says that people who live in urban settings tend to build up psychological filters to keep themselves from being overwhelmed by all the audio/visual/relational stimulation that comes from city life. But this means that we can fail to see things about our city that are right in front of us. Groups like the ones visiting us bring fresh eyes and ears, unchecked by the filters we've built up. They have their own filters, no doubt, but those filters were designed for somewhere else, so they see things about Camden that we tend to miss.

Euro 2008

We've been keeping up on the Euro 2008 football tournament, but to be honest, there isn't much local interest. The English were put out at the qualifying stage back in the winter, which left us only with the Austrians to root for (one of our close friends is from Vienna). Sadly, the Austrians were unable to overcome Germany in their final group match, which has us clutching at straws to find connections to a team. Turkey has provided some very exciting matches - two unthinkable come from behind victories.
Anyway, tonight we had some friends over, but the Spain/Italy match didn't really hold our attention, and we decided to play Settlers of Catan instead of watching the whole match. Though I did manage to situate myself so that I could still see the screen. I was banker, so in the midst of watching I'd hand out cards and try to remember what move I wanted to make next. Oh yeah, and I still managed to win. Look out Erik, I'm coming for you.

Update on the garden

So last week we discovered that our garden had been trashed by some people. Plants pulled up and trampled on, flower stalks broken off. It was a bit discouraging, but we got back to work again and it's starting to look really good. One more week or so and we'll have all the weeds cleared out and we should have plants growing nicely.

Primate Planting

Can you guess from the title what I did last night? Here's a hint: The title uses a really bad pun on the audible similarity between the words Gorilla and Guerrilla. Still no?
I went Guerrilla Gardening. To be honest, this wasn't my first attempt at sprucing up some of Camden's neglected public spaces, but it was the most successful. I met up with four others that I connected with through a local website, and brought along one of the other guys on the team. We hit a raised planter along the canal near our house. It was overgrown and filled with weeds, with a few nice plants mixed in. We weeded it, turned up the soil, pruned some of the existing bushes, and added a nice mix of flowering plants and herbs.
The police came by at one point, and warned us to be careful of needles because the area was a hang-out for junkies. This was confirmed when we found a needle, which we removed to our improvised 'sharps box'. Other than the warning, though, the officers were encouraging and glad to see us there - I think we pushed the junkies off, at least for the few hours we were there.
At the end of the evening, we celebrated with a drink at the local pub; but not before stopping to water a few herbs and tomato plants that one of our fellow guerrillas had planted last week.

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."

A day in the life of a market trader

Well, not so much a day, as an hour. But it felt like a day.
One of the guys I've gotten to know in the market runs a Japanese animation stall in the Stables Market. He needed to go pick up keys to a flat, and texted to ask if I could cover for him.
So I spent the hour standing around, trying to find a way that I could watch the shop without breathing down the neck of each and every person who walked it. Someone asked about Dragonball-Z, and I had to mumble that it wasn't my shop, so I had no idea. Half-an-hour later I spotted some D-Z keychains, but she was long gone.
After about twenty minutes, the most exciting thing happened: Someone bought something! At the side of his little stall he also sells zipper bags. These aren't just bags with a zipper. They are bags made out of one long zipper; unzip the bag, and you've got a useless zipper, zip it up again, and you have a bag. Anyway, someone wanted to buy one. I was so excited!
They had been looking at the bags for about five minutes. I had to work hard not to stare at them while they browsed - didn't want to make them feel too awkward. But then the questions came. 'Do you have one of the black-and-white ones that shows more white?' I make a show of looking...'No we don't, sorry.' 'Do you take Euros?' What are you nuts? This is England. Well, ok, actually, I'd be happy to take Euros, but I don't know what the exchange rate is...'No, sorry, just Pounds.' So they pick out a blue and brown bag for six Pounds. The girl hands over a ten Pound note, and then her mom gives me a one pound coin. I open the change purse my friend gave me and see that it only has one pound coins in it. So I give the one pound back and start to take out four more for change. 'Don't you have any five pound notes?' Sheesh, I'm looking like a really unhelpful trader. 'No, sorry, just coins. But thanks, and have a great afternoon!' Gotta play up the happy American role...it counteracts the string of negative answers I've given.
The rest of my stint goes pretty well - I ended up selling five more bags, and had someone ask a question about an animé product that I actually knew about! Ok, so the question was 'What's in this box?' And my answer was 'Uh, it's a wallet.' But hey, I got to be helpful.
I learned a few things, though.
First was the absolute terror most of the traders must feel when they come to work every day, knowing that their livelihood depends on the willingness of the mass of shoppers to part with their cash. So many of the people who passed by would idly reach out and brush the merchandise, maybe make a comment to their disinterested partner, and move on. Clearly most people were in the market for the experience, snapping pictures when they could, drinking in the vibrant atmosphere. But that doesn't translate into spending money.
Second is the boredom/exhaustion. It's tiring standing up for long periods of time, and more so when there isn't much to do.
Third, and I think this is most important, is that the market traders are invisible to the average tourist. Except for the crazy-haired, multicolor-clad sales clerks at Cyberdog, nobody was interested in the people who were selling stuff. They just wanted to see the STUFF. Which is part of what has driven us to try to get to know the market traders and care for them. They are the forgotten element in Camden market.

Seder Meal

Last night is the date that Christians remember the 'Last Supper' - the celebration of the Passover by Jesus and his disciples. For some reason I haven't been able to figure out, the western Church Calendar does not coincide with the Jewish date for Passover.
In any case, last night we celebrated a very simple Seder meal. I found an English version here, and my friend read parts of a Hebrew version.
Seven of us sat around the table, and we started the meal by reading God's explanation of the Passover to Moses in Exodus, and then the account of Jesus' celebration from Matthew. Then we sat down to eat the Lamb, because everyone was so hungry, and afterwards walked through the different items on the table and their meaning. We both thought it went really well, though next year we'll probably take a little more time to prepare, as it can get quite elaborate.

Climber's Prayer

David and I decided we need a prayer for when we climb. So he set me the task to find/write one. I admit, I stole the first half from a 2,500 year old poem (aka Psalm 121).

I lift up my eyes to the mountains -
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip -
he who watches over you will not slumber;

Father, thank you for this mountain,
and for the ability we have to climb it.
It is so much bigger than we are,
and reminds us how great you are.
Please keep our rope together, our knots tight,
our harness secure, and our belayer alert.
Through Jesus our Lord.

I got the fear

My friend Dave and I have been rock climbing each week for about 3 months now. We are planning to go up to Wales this spring for a climbing weekend. Outdoor climbing takes a lot of equipment, so we're slowly building up our collection, and our comfort with using it. We bought a rope and some quick-draws (those things you use to clip the rope into the anchors in the wall), and started lead climbing last week.
Lead climbing is different from top-roping, in that if you fall while climbing on a top rope, you don't really fall, you just kind of slip off the wall, because you're tied into the rope at the top of the wall. But in lead climbing, you start with the rope on the ground and clip into anchors as you go up. If you fall off, you fall twice the distance you've climbed above your last anchor. With anchors every five feet or so, you never fall very far, but it feels like a lot when you're clinging onto the wall.
On Tuesday, I didn't realize that I could reach a clip point. Dave thought I was getting ready to clip in, so he gave me some slack in the rope. I slipped off. Result? I fell about 10 feet, and in the process, got my leg caught on one of the quick-draws. I have a nasty bruise and rope burn on the back of my knee. But more importantly, it ruined my night, because after that I was under the control of fear, and I couldn't climb anything.

Off to Brazil

Fr. Nicholas, the priest in charge of the parish that runs the girls' school, left yesterday to be a missionary in Brazil. He is moving into the City of God in Rio de Janeiro. We will miss him very much, as God has used him to care for many people here in Camden Town. The photo is of him serving communion one last time yesterday. It was very moving to receive the bread from him. The girls had found a friend from Andi's class at the service, and she came up with us. Nicholas took it in turn to bless all three of them, and as he did, I got tears in my eyes.

Photos

A few photos I promised to put up earlier. First, two pics from the More Than Dust gig, showing my friend Alex and the bassist. Then a couple of shots taken by a friend with a better camera than mine during the fire.

Shabbat Dinner

Our friends are still with us, and as he is Israeli, he has offered to make us a special Shabbat dinner tonight. I'm looking forward to it, but don't really know what to expect. Will post more later, maybe some pics.

Guests

We've got some friends staying with us for a few days. They were given 3 days eviction notice by their previous landlord, and couldn't find something before she made them leave. So we told them they could sleep at ours until they find a new flat. They may only be here for a few days, but we're hoping to make the most of it.