face-to-face relationship

From time to time our premises here get used by outside 'bodies' for a 'day away'.

Today was a case in point. A group of staff from one of the local schools had time off-site for an in-servicec day.

They sometimes come here. In fact, if they got the chance, I'd think they'd be here really rather often as they find it so refreshing and enjoy the place so much.

We have great premises and a lovely spread of open ground with gardens, grass and trees. All sorts of folk are glad to come and have a seat and get a bit of peace.

These folk from the school are pretty hard pressed. They need that sort of peace. They need this sort of setting where they can, together, just relax. We're glad to afford them the chance. They do a great job. And we love having them around.

It means a bit of catering, though, of course. Bacon rolls and coffee when they start the day. Mid-morning coffee. And then their lunch.

I was helping out with all of that. A bit of preparation and a bit of being around. Acting the part of the waiter. Serving their needs.

It's all good fun. And we have a laugh. And often, I think, a lot of good work gets done in the informal ethos and very relaxed sort of state that just sitting around and having a meal can create.

I think I'm sort of unofficial 'chaplain' to this group of staff as well.

In the midst of it all I managed some time with a guy whom I've known from ages back. He used to be in Edinburgh, and although he's now been way down south in Hull for many years, he still has a burden for all that might yet be done in Edinburgh.

It's always great to see him. He's one of life's enthusiasts. Warm and full of encouragement. Wise without a hint of it ever being 'worldly'.

A few years back he started a thing called '40 Days of Prayer'. We used it here through Lent, the forty days of fasting in the run-up to our Easter celebrations. Two years in a row we used the thing. And I think folk found it helpful.

He's come up with a different thing. 'Try Praying'. A little, easy-to-read booklet, a page a day for a week. Designed to help people pray. To give prayer a try.

It's a really useful thing. A resource that all sorts can use.

He was wanting to know what I thought about how it might better be used. How it might be widely used. In a city-wide sort of way.

I'm never that sure how good this city is when it comes to 'city-wide' things. I'm not even sure it's a 'city' as such: more a massive combination of a series of village communities.

I said I thought that that was maybe how this booklet might be profitably used. Within these much more local communities. Which he agreed. But he added that if all of the local communities all did the same thing at once ... then it would be 'city-wide'!

He was talking about a sequel to 'Try Praying' which they're thinking of in Hull. 'Try Church'. Which they'll maybe push in the autumn. With another, similar sequel, more at Christmas time, called 'Try Jesus'.

I said I thought that would be better maybe at Easter. Since that's what they actually did. Try Jesus!

It was good to see the guy. It always is. And good to plan ahead and see just where God's future maybe lies.

Time with him is always like a 'day-away'. He brings by his very presence a certain 'space', a sort of spacious garden ethos in the place of all the pressure-laden city life we most times live.

There were visits as well to be made today. And though I might have followed through on some of the issues there were by e-mail or by telephone, there really is no substitute for face to face engagement in a home.

We were made for such immediate, face-to-face relationships.

That's what the group of staff from the school were finding again today. The space and the context where face-to-face relationships could blossom and thrive once again.

That is what was happening when this guy from the south looked in. That's what life is meant to be about. Try praying. Face-to-face relationship with God.

And that's what being in people's homes affords, like nothing else.