The Sun shore
These guys served along side Gerard and I last night running SOS Chai.
The sun shone so we enjoyed playing card games, kicking a ball around and having good catch up chats longer into the evening.
It’s so wonderful when the evenings feel more relaxed and we are able to enjoy the time more with the boys. One lad stayed behind to help us pack up and I love it when this happens as it’s sends a message to us that we are welcoming and approachable; and maybe that they understand that this lovely old red ambulance really is as much theirs as ours!
As you know, I have often said how much we desire for the boys to know they matter, but another side to this is that we, as team, gain so much more when we recognise those we serve as new friends to get to know, and our regular SOS Chai community whom we get to hang out with the be involved with.
When they are just those we give to, or help, and they see themselves as those in need and just coming to receive, the relationship stays on the surface (which is sometimes all that’s wanted or needed) but also can become quite dysfunctional at times. Love and kindness go so much deeper when experienced though friendship and community. The challenge is to come along side, to share in, to connect and get involved. Always then there are fears, and it demands more, and can be very sacrificial and sometimes even, tears can flow and the end result be a sleepless night, but these are small prices to pay if what we build is a community that is known for real care and love.
We have been chatting also about how we can further break down the ‘us and them’ and share more in our meals together....maybe we should drink more cuppas with our friends. After all, if you invite a friend round for a drink, it’s unusual to make them one, but not have one yourself with them. It’s that very act of sharing over a cuppa together that becomes something more, a precious moment.
Our challenges are to keep working on the atmospheres we are building, and seek to build something that genuinely heals and blesses individuals who have become used to hostile responses.
One of the couples on our team provided good mattresses for two guys who both live on their own in adjacent redundant warehouses on the Presqu’ile last week. One of those guys is a 48 year old man from the Sudan. I just loved that fact that his smile was even bigger than usual yesterday because it’s sinking in that we care about this life, his plight, and together, because others are giving, we can make a difference.
Thank you so much for your giving. We can give just because you give, and enable us to be in this position of building a community of kindness and love.
And little by little, lives are being blessed and restored, in small ways, and we all are learning so much from each other. Bit by bit, we long to see the Presqu’ile de Caen become a place of joy and peace...driving out pain and loneliness. Tonight I pray for my friends in those warehouses that they know they are not abandoned, but that they belong.
Que le Dieu de l’espérence vous remplisse de toute joie et toute paix dans la foi....
I pray that God, the source of all hope will fill you completely with joy and peace as you trust in him....
