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We’d a cold and wet day of it in the end; even at he beginning it was not what you’d have wanted. Our pastor likes to get out into the market place and talk to people about Jesus. It seems only right that a few of the elders should get out there too; yesterday was my turn.
We do it via a little bookstall. He stands on the proverbial soapbox (you have no idea how hard it is to get one of them) and he talks. It is interesting to watch the process. As those of us accompanying him (usually a couple of the elders and some of the sunday school children) form a small audience, others join us. He gave a short sermon on ‘God is love’, and we handed out some leaflets and booklets and invited people to talk with us, as we handed out coffee and tea. It was gratifying the number of folk who stopped to talk.
We found a few more destinations for some of the food from the food bank, and one person told us about his worries about a neighbour who we went to visit in the afternoon; a nice old lady, but one who seems to have her doubts about the local NHS. We were able to help with a bit of shopping and spot of cleaning, and she’s being ferried chez Sales tomorrow for Sunday lunch. She’s a lonely old soul.
I had a chat with her about ‘the old days’, and her story’s a familiar one. She’s a couple of adult children, but they’ve moved away and have little contact with her. Her husband died a couple of years ago, and since then she’s become a bit of a recluse. The chapel to which she used to go further up the valley is not reachable without a car, and her husband was the driver. She took to our pastor, and as she lives a short walk from us, we invited her to join us in the morning. She’s a Christian woman, but she has no community any more.
There are many such. As you get older it sometimes gets more difficult to stay in touch. She said that no one from her old chapel had been in touch, and so she’d lost touch. Contact, that seemed to be what she lacked. Well, I hope that she will find one with us – for a while.
So, from an open air mission designed to make contact with the unchurched, we ended up making contact with someone who through no fault of her own had become unchurched. As the pastor and I drove back I commented that neither of us had asked what sort of Christian she was (although we could guess from the name of her old chapel); he smiled and said: ‘do we really care Geoffrey?’ And you know what? We didn’t.
We sometimes wonder whether these Saturday sessions do anything other than scratch the surface; this was a reminder that however small the effort, the reward is in God’s hands. So, we’ll be three for Sunday lunch chez Sales.
This is exciting news Geoffrey. The results are with God. Ours is only to be faithful in the journey with Him.
Absolutely. He gives the increase.
An encouraging story of what might just be found if we’re willing to engage as we have so been instructed.
It is so – and Mrs H is sitting in the lounge now with Mrs S and the sherry is open – it being Sunday.
That is great, some say we have a hunger for God, some say we are only curious, but there is need for someone to answer. What you have done is a blessing. I wish that Catholics would get a card-table and set it up at the supermarket and say, Free questions answered by a real Priest(free stones). People are hungry even if they bring it out as anger, God is a disappointment to them, they know he is perfect but how can he hurt them so badly. Where the hell is he?
My priest goes to the Pub and he will talk theology and the anger he gets is real, the curse words are about Mary, Joesph and Christ and it is hard. When your neighbors come into your country and steal, kill who they want, it merits the question, God, I know him not and I hate him.
Atheists say the natural state of children that they know not God. But the medical studies show a different state, in the brain scans God is seen as real, a person, not an imaginary friend, they see that the scans shows that God is not identified as semi-parent, the child see God as a distinct person error free and distinctly see their parents as not perfect.
I like listening to the theology that comes unexpectedly from my friend’s children. Simple direct and said with a stone hard authority.
I wish we were not so afraid to speak. We are like a bad smell in a crowded elevator to the secular world. thanks for your courage.
You are right friend. If we will speak, some will listen, and then we can act.
The corporal works of mercy are:
To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To harbour the harbourless;
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive;
To bury the dead.
The spiritual works of mercy are:
To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offences willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.
Well it appears that you are doing a number of the things the Catholic Church tells us to do but only a very few actually take time to do: you instructed the ignorant, brought comfort to the afflicted and visited the sick all in one afternoon. Bravo!
Thank you.