Once upon a time August was a quiet month. I would catch up on all the admin I’d been putting off, use up some days I was owed from working days off, do some forward planning for the Autumn, I’ve even been known to plan Christmas! But this year has been a busy one, whilst at the same time, the heat has made it difficult to concentrate and get some of those tasks done.
It’s been great to welcome Grub Club to the community space for 4 weeks over the school holidays. Grub Club is primarily about ensuring that families who usually receive free school meals can get a good nutritional meal, but it also provided some time to engage in activities and model good ways to play with children. Chris got fully involved with helping in the activities. I made sure I was around most days helping with some activities and talking with families and volunteers, We engaged with 8 families made up of 20 children aged 1-10 and served 238 meals. It was a good time, and yet we know that there are more families that would have benefited. So, in the future we need to be better at advertising and encouraging people to come along. At the same time – I really don’t want to be running Grub Clubs. In a country as wealthy as ours, people should not be needing support to feed their children. But then as Jesus said, “The poor are always with you,” and whilst they are, we need to be part of supporting short and long term solutions.
Of course, all of this happened in stifling heat. Making us reflect on another concern, that of Climate Crisis, this is not a temporary blip that we should just enjoy. This is going to become our reality, year on year and we all need to do something to cut are carbon emissions and change our lifestyle. It doesn’t help that the heat means that people are running electric fans, or air-conditioning systems – all of which create even more heat! But looking ahead, it is going to be a hard winter, many people are not going to be able to pay their fuel bills, or are going to fail to heat their homes so that they can afford meals. We have discussed whether we need to run Grub Club in all the school holidays, some people wander if we could open up some space as “Warming Rooms” especially if we have the heating on anyway. But of course, church heating bills are also going to rise and we may be faced with some hard decisions about our own finances. We live in strange times.
At the same time, there have been some discussions with the Ukrainian community about supporting some people with a space to meet, and to help with their conversational English. We wait with interest to see what develops. Along with Grub Club, and discussions about Warming Rooms, it highlights the need for the sort of space we have available and the need for a church that is open to initiatives like this.
1 Peter 3, says, “All of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. … It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing.” I believe that blessing comes from being a blessing to those we engage with and letting those we work with also bless us. May we do so in love, with generous gentle hearts.
be blessed
Craig