A Canterbury Tale
Okay, well I didn't actually hang out in Canterbury today, but I did drive through it and saw the wall that surrounded the old city. Today, I went on visitation to see a fella who had been part of the community for years and is now living down towards the coast in an assisted living place.
Me and three other guys piled into the minibus (which seats 17 by the way and probably gets 2 miles to the liter so it was a bit silly for us four to take) and headed down to Margate which is on the British Channel. I could almost hock a lugey (sp?) to France.
I was nice to be out of the city for the first time since I have been here, but hanging out with three fellas whos combined age is actually longer than the exsistance of the United States can be a bit taxing.
"Blind Bill", as he is called by his dearest of friends, was the visitee today and I knew that it was going to be an interesting afternoon when we walked into his room at the house that he is living in and he was completly unziped and peeing into a urine container of some sort. No shame. I guess if he can't see us, then we can't see him.
After the obligatory jiggle, we were off to the seaside.
The afternoon consisted of myself and Martin (a Catholic Priest who likes to cuss a fair bit) pushing two wheelchairs around while "Little Richard" struggled to keep up with our maniac pace of 1 sidewalk block per minute. We found a chip shop and I had my first taste of true British Fish and Chips smothered in malt vinegar...."Little Richard" had ice cream and "Blind Bill" stole sugar packets.
I am actually not being fair because it actually wasn't that bad but when you get three old men together for an afternoon and half of their 5 senses don't work correctly it can be a bit tiring. I hate to see older folks being forgotten about though so it was worth it so that Bill knew that people cared enough to drive a few hours to visit him. The free fish and chips were just an extra.
I am still keeping busy doing outreach work, shifts at Simon House and just generally trying to establish myself in the Community. For better or for worse, this may come quicker than I had expected because my boss asked me last week if I would take on the Project Leader position for the house that I am living in. I am excited about that, but I think that in the job description it should mention something about being complained about by people who don't react well to change. The Simon Community is in a very interesting transition point right now as we are moving from an entirely volunteer run organization to one that employs professional management while still heavily utilizing volunteers. I think that this shift is a great thing for so many reasons, but there are a lot of people who are very vocal and opinionated about how the Community has "changed" from what it used to be. Power struggles galore....let me jump into the fray.
Please be in prayer that I would have the ability to be diplomatic and to really hear people's concerns. I would also appreciate your prayers for the ability to lead as this is something that I have been learning over the past few years but is not necessarily a natural ability of mine. Thanks so much for laboring with me in prayer guys, I was remined yesterday of how incredibly important it is while reading the following passage in Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for his Highest" (such a fantastic little book full of God-sized wisdom).
Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray.....There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man's work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint.
I know that the Lord has honored so much already.
Much love, Chris
Me and three other guys piled into the minibus (which seats 17 by the way and probably gets 2 miles to the liter so it was a bit silly for us four to take) and headed down to Margate which is on the British Channel. I could almost hock a lugey (sp?) to France.
I was nice to be out of the city for the first time since I have been here, but hanging out with three fellas whos combined age is actually longer than the exsistance of the United States can be a bit taxing.
"Blind Bill", as he is called by his dearest of friends, was the visitee today and I knew that it was going to be an interesting afternoon when we walked into his room at the house that he is living in and he was completly unziped and peeing into a urine container of some sort. No shame. I guess if he can't see us, then we can't see him.
After the obligatory jiggle, we were off to the seaside.
The afternoon consisted of myself and Martin (a Catholic Priest who likes to cuss a fair bit) pushing two wheelchairs around while "Little Richard" struggled to keep up with our maniac pace of 1 sidewalk block per minute. We found a chip shop and I had my first taste of true British Fish and Chips smothered in malt vinegar...."Little Richard" had ice cream and "Blind Bill" stole sugar packets.
I am actually not being fair because it actually wasn't that bad but when you get three old men together for an afternoon and half of their 5 senses don't work correctly it can be a bit tiring. I hate to see older folks being forgotten about though so it was worth it so that Bill knew that people cared enough to drive a few hours to visit him. The free fish and chips were just an extra.
I am still keeping busy doing outreach work, shifts at Simon House and just generally trying to establish myself in the Community. For better or for worse, this may come quicker than I had expected because my boss asked me last week if I would take on the Project Leader position for the house that I am living in. I am excited about that, but I think that in the job description it should mention something about being complained about by people who don't react well to change. The Simon Community is in a very interesting transition point right now as we are moving from an entirely volunteer run organization to one that employs professional management while still heavily utilizing volunteers. I think that this shift is a great thing for so many reasons, but there are a lot of people who are very vocal and opinionated about how the Community has "changed" from what it used to be. Power struggles galore....let me jump into the fray.
Please be in prayer that I would have the ability to be diplomatic and to really hear people's concerns. I would also appreciate your prayers for the ability to lead as this is something that I have been learning over the past few years but is not necessarily a natural ability of mine. Thanks so much for laboring with me in prayer guys, I was remined yesterday of how incredibly important it is while reading the following passage in Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for his Highest" (such a fantastic little book full of God-sized wisdom).
Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray.....There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man's work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from His standpoint.
I know that the Lord has honored so much already.
Much love, Chris
posted by Chris | 7:08 PM
1 Comments:
Sounded like quite a trip laddie. It's about time you had a try of the local chippie.
Will remember to pass your prayers to the boys.
Post a Comment
<< Home