The Crowded House – Day 2 & 3

The second half of day 2 involved lots of walking, including a visit to one of the really beautiful and amazing parks in Sheffield.  Sheffield’s reputation as a dirty, industrial city, in my experience so far, is largely undeserved.  We were joined on the walk by Alastair, a born and bred “Sheffield lad”, who was converted through the Crowded House.  Got some great insights into Sheffield, the church in Sheffield and his experiences of the Crowded House.

Later that evening I joined Samuel and Fiona, for the Kurdish seeker group that meet in their home.  It really is an amazing group, who get together to eat on the floor (Kurdish style), read a story about Jesus and talk about it.  It was really inspiring to see how passionate and excited they got about the stories, how much they inspired them and how much discussion it provoked. For those of us who have grown up with these stories we often can forget just how incredible and inspiring they are.

When things got really interested it moved over into Kurdish, which was then translated by one person once a concensus of sorts had been reached.

This morning I helped another gospel community clean up their street, in preparation for their street party, which is happening next Sunday – and to which I will also be invited.  Afterwards we had lunch together and a number of neighbours joined with us.  A great time serving and getting to know the people who live in that community.  It also underlined for me what an important role food plays in the life of a gospel community.

And then this evening I attended the Abbey gospel community meeting.  We ate together, listening to John mangle some Xhosa (the click language as they like to call it), prayed together and read a couple of stories about Jesus together.  It was low-key and simple but with high participation.  Interesting thing about this group was that about half the group are teenage girls.  I want to find out more about how teenagers and children are fitting into gospel communities.

After that went for another walk, as Steve took us mushroom picking.  No mushrooms, a nice walk and a good chat with Matt over a beer afterwards.

Going to have lunch with Steve Timmis tomorrow and spend the evening with the 215 Network elders.  Looking forward to getting a look at the other network in TCH.

Time for bed now!

~ by John on July 13, 2009.