Car Boot

Yesterday saw the start of the car boot sales on our side of the river. The plan was that we would have a presence every Sunday offering various things that would be available for people to explore Christian Spirituality in a non confrontational way. The problem we have is that the dates have suddenly changed well after the rotas have been prepared and obviously with having no vicar my availability was planned in so now the dates have changed its  now not possible for me to be there as much as I would have liked.

Anyway, yesterday I was able to go and set up the stall, stay for a few hours and then walk on to preach and baptise a few babies!!!

In my experience last year we found that the first few hours were relatively quiet with the real hard core bargain hunters out and about, and those more casual lookers willing to stop and chat would come later. However yesterday was totally different, by 7.10 am we had already had 4 very deep conversations and they kept on coming, we had a constant flow of people all the way until I left and then up until the fair started to close up.

Despite having to get up ridiculously early and be out the door for 5.45 am, despite trying to fit the fair in with the service also on my mind and despite feeling exhausted from a busy Saturday of Kidschurch and  a Wedding I came home yesterday afternoon absolutely buzzing. Yet again it had been an eye opener, to see so many people want to stop an talk, agnostics, atheists, those not sure what they are but wanting to chat and ask for prayer was awesome. Seeing so many people wonder why we were there offering things for free again was a great opportunity to show our love for the community.

I feel totally gutted that I cant be at the car boot every week but I am blessed that there is an awesome team of people who can see the need and have caught the vision and so will be there week in week out.... whatever I may say I can NEVER say my job is dull or boring.

Summer

As I sit and write this the patio doors are open wide, the flies are buzzing around, the sun is shining through and the hay fever is streaming away! Summer is definitely here…at least for the time being.

This week Dan and I went on a regular afternoon out to Rochester, as we walked past the cathedral we met a group of Buddhist monks  visiting the area. How did I know this…they were dressed in their familiar orange robes. In the hot sun the robes looked wonderful and cooling. As we went on our way we realised the monks were too following us up to Rochester castle and as we went into the castle gardens the reactions of the people there were fascinating, we heard comments such as,

“ wow is that a monk?”, “ A monk, I didn’t know they really existed!”, “What’s a monk doing here?” and “ Gosh that monk is talking on an iphone, should monks have iphones?”

Those comments made me think about how we react to things that are out of the ordinary, things that are not in our usual life experience, how we react when things we may have read about or seen only on the television suddenly meet us face to face; Do we embrace them? Are we embarrassed by them? Or are we just really curious?

When we were recently on holiday visiting relatives in Goa we had the experience of locals constantly wanting to talk to us and take our photos because we were different, the novelty soon wore off but as humans we are intrigued by difference.

So as the sun , hopefully continues to shine as we see visitors coming to our land or as we travel to another land may we truly embrace all things different, and if we are unsure of something be brave enough to ask.  The summer is often a time when we travel or encounter those from other places…enjoy the sun if you have it and the variety it brings out .

Happy summer x