storms

The weather is deceptive.

Today, like yesterday, has been bright with clear blue skies. Shirt-sleeve sort of stuff, with not a lot of wind.

But it's not what the 'spiritual' weather's been like at all. Anything but.

There are storms already assailing God's work: and the forecast isn't good.

More storms are on their way. And they're likely to be worse and more ferocious than the present ones.

So a lot of my time through today has been spent in relation to storms. A sort of 'battoning down of the hatches'. Trying to make the place secure as it were, in the face of the buffeting winds.

There have been all the usual tasks, of course.

Doing all the chores in the kitchen to comply with all the rules. Temperature checks, that sort of thing. Getting the first lot of dishes and pans all washed. And making the soups first thing, it being a Tuesday.

Then vacuuming up the whole of the eating area to make the place presentable. We try to ensure that everyone coming in is struck right away by how good the place looks and how warm the whole ethos is.

We have loads of folk coming in most days. And the contact we have is really great.

There's a group of older ladies who come in now for their coffee (the ones who used to meet in a pub 'til the pub kind of turfed them out: purely on economic grounds, I hasten to add!). They love it here.

And they love not least the welcome they receive. I generally try and stop and chat with them for a bit. And I think they like that too.

It's how all good relationships are formed. Those short repeated moments when we get to stop and be with folk and have the chance to talk.

The chat is light at first, of course. Light and full of laughter.

But they're soon aware that we're there for them and so it's sometimes not that long before some greater depths are plumbed.

There was a couple in today like that. They popped in first a few months back. Out of the blue. And liked it a lot. The welcome, the food, the atmosphere, the brightness of the place.

They've been back off and on across the months. And, like it's been with the group of older ladies, they feel very much at home and enjoy the warmth of the fun and the friendship they find.

As I say, it's not been heavy or remotely 'deep' or 'spiritual'. Just good and genuine friendship. And a load of fun as well.

A few months back the man had cancer diagnosed. And a few weeks back the extent of the cancer he has was found to be far worse than what he maybe first had feared.

A matter of weeks to live.

He was touched by the fact that, in at the hospital getting some nasty treatment to ease the pain, he'd received a card from someone here.

And touched as well by the fact that I'd been in to see him there a couple of times myself.

The conversation had shifted gear, of course. No longer simply light. Issues of life and death were now the very centre of his day by day existence. Storms have arrived for him as well.

But he knew he had a friend. And that he could talk.

He's an ill, ill man. But he and his wife chose to come here again for their lunch.

The place and the people afford them a sense of the presence and love of the Lord.

And for folk like that there's nothing they need much more than simply that. Meeting and knowing the Lord.

Being assured of his love and his care, through the obvious care that is shown in the way that this place and the people are treated.

Sensing again there's an order behind all the chaos and turmoil they're facing each day in their lives: the sense that the Lord is in charge, the peace that he alone gives.

The place is an outpost of heaven. At least that's what we see it as being and work day by day to create.

And a day like today when a couple like that come for lunch, I find it very moving. Meeting and finding the Lord in the darkness and mist of the last few weeks of life.

It's the Lord who makes it happen. Sure.

But it doesn't happen magically. We have to work at it all the time.

And the 'storms' that I mentioned right at the start, we have to see in the context of all that the Lord is accomplishing here in our midst.

And maybe as well, beyond and around all the storms is the wind of the Spirit of God. At work in ways which thus far can't be seen or understood.

It makes for some pretty long days. And some long and sleepless nights as well from time to time.

Though I started this just after 10, I was soon on the phone from a man up north who called me at half past ten. He'd been trying to get me a couple of times throughout the early evening.

It was nearly 11 by the time we were done on the phone.

The storms are blowing across the land: the wind of the Spirit of God is stirring again.