'two-soup service'

An early start this morning as I wanted to get the soups on the go before heading off to have breakfast with a couple of the children from the African Children's Choir.

The choir are here in Edinburgh again for the festival and despite what must be a pretty heavy and tiring programme they are always so appreciative of everything that is done for them and given to them.

It's an absolute joy to share in a brief meal like that with them: humbling, too, to hear them give thanks to the Lord with such genuine and heart-felt gratitude for the gift of sleep, shelter and food - and to hear them asking with such confidence for the Lord's blessing on their hosts and on their ministry.

They return to Uganda within the next 3 weeks after what's been something like 15 months away and it was moving to hear one of the girls speak of looking forward so much to seeing her Mum again. There's so much we take for granted in our well-to-do and very much sophisticated world - so being with the girls this morning was refreshing to the soul and served to kindle gratitude and make my life a 'song' (at least figuratively - I can't sing like them at all!).

How open they are, as well, to embrace and befriend new people. A hug of warmth and welcome coming in - and before too long a readiness to joke and tease, calling me Uncle Jelly and insisting I must snore and pretending that they keep the lovely honey to themselves. God bless them in the ministry they have (far more than just a ministry in song).

Back to the soup. Two different ones today, as week by week we try to offer just a bit of a variety. The basic rule of thumb (I think) is that one of the soups should be safely 'traditional' (a little bit bland, perhaps, but beneficial just the same) while with the other there's scope to be more adventurous.

Last week it was my 'Tarracarrotomango' soup which filled that latter role: this week, a soup that raised the eyebrows of at least one (I think because she hadn't seen that particular combination before) - the 'Long Green Skinnies' soup (I try and come up with some names that are other than bland! It was really based around leeks and courgettes .. and not actually that daring at all!)

I sometimes think that this culinary challenge, meeting the oposite needs or desires of two rather different 'clientelle' (one looking only for something traditional and safe, the other feeling they could get that anywhere and wanting something a bit different), mirrors the challenge of ministry more generally.

I'm conscious of two very different constituencies today, both of whom are hungry for the Lord. The one can't see beyond 'tradition' and can only really cope with church when things are done the way they've always in the past been done. The other for whom that simply doesn't work or wash at all.

I have to remember they're two very separate soups - it doesn't do to mix them! And I find myself being drawn towards, and stretched between, two very different ministries. Can one guy cope with both? In the kitchen, yes. In the church of Jesus Christ? I'm not so sure.

It was the 'second-soup' sort of ministry I found myself involved in this morning. A large bit of time was spent on the phone with the lady who'd got back in touch with a text from abroad at the end of last week. It's not the church she needs, it's the Lord.

Can he work miracles? She doesn't think he can. But I believe he does. And will. And, no mistake, without his intervention this will only spiral down and further down. Traditional 'church' was no real use to the man born blind that Jesus met: he needed something else and something more. This woman's just like him. It's the 'second-soup' she needs!

Tuesdays are usually the day I meet with my fellow minister from the near-by Episcopal Church. We have lunch together, chat together and pray together. It's always time well spent. The chat is never idle and we leave, most times, both challenged and encouraged and aware that in our meeting thus the Lord's been there as well.

Today was just like that. A good two hours and more, which some might think is maybe time I could be better using in some other way. No. This man's become a good and trusted friend - and friendship's built on times like that. The chance to eat and talk, relaxed, and free from any sort of pressure from the clock: and finding Jesus very much a part of it as well.