When Visions Become Reality

It's nearly always exciting to hear from friends, and that was especially so when I had the chance to chat with an officer from The Salvation Army in Rwanda.

It's almost a year since I arrived in Rwanda - I spent five weeks there working with a team to provide water and sanitation and to see that come to fruition was an amazing buzz. But even more of a buzz was to be part of a community - the people where so warm and inviting, they could have been defensive and wary, (they had every right to be), but instead they invited us strangers in, they shared the little they had - but perhaps most profoundly they shared their stories and their lives.

Whilst there I also had the privilege of investigating the possibility of building houses and a community centre - when I left it was just a dream, a paper vision.

So when the Major told me that the community centre is finished and the houses started, I was thrilled. But despite the thrill of the tangible and essential necessities of life that are being provided you know what excited me most?

The news that today, as a result of the relationships built between local Salvationists and the community there are 19 new senior soldiers and 16 new junior soldiers. We went there to transform lives through the provision of essential material needs - but through mutual friendship, trust and respect lives are being transformed in much deeper ways.

It's the Small Things

It's not unusual for me to be sitting in my office, surrounded by all the things that apparently need attention (not just the reports and returns for HQ) but instead of ploughing through them finding myself staring out the window wondering - does all this really matter? It's not a frequent event, but at times I ask myself whether what I spend my days doing, what I use most of my energy on really matters.

In my mind I know it does. But sometimes that's not enough. (Am I alone in this?)

It was after another one of those days, when I felt like I had been hitting my head against a brick wall; I was tired and just a little frustrated when the man sought me out. He was new to our group, but he told me that he was interested in what I had said, he hadn't heard it put like that before, and could I show him how to find the passages to which I had referred so that he could "check out if what I said was true"?

Encourgaement can come in many forms and from unexpected sources but is almost always a powerful motivator, but the most precious encouragement is that which comes from people who have nothing to gain by being nice!

International Cultural Festival 08

The day started early with a dead truck... with no other way of getting marques, tables and equipment to the site... we took off for the hall, hopeful that a miracle would happen - it did! There waiting for us was one of our members, with a truck - "just in case we needed him".

We were set up and ready to go when an Indian Meditation and Vegetarian Food tent set up next door to us... so we moved our (far from vegetarian) sausage sizzle as far away as we could. The tents (thanks HQ) were great, with visibility from a good distance people came to see what the Sallies were doing at a Festival like this!

The air was soon swirling with the sounds of African drums, Indian, Thai, Pacific Island and American Indian music - and accompanying them on his squeeze box a regular attender of our Corps Drop-In centre provided music in our tent. Our tents provided a place for people to sit and rest with a cup of coffee (or tea) and a muffin or sausage - many took the opportunity and were soon joined by one of our members to share a chat and a few moments.

People from all nations meandered throughout the 200 or so tents sampling the smorgasbord of food and drinks - amongst them were the people of The Meeting House (red shield) shirt, giving out chocolates in the shape of the Army shield and stopping to tell people why the Sallies would be there.

"A lot" of children lined up to have their faces painted, and take ownership of a balloon sculptured pet.

It was a great day - the rain stayed away, mostly: the people of the community were reminded again that The Sallies are in their community: the members of The Meeting House were reminded of the reason and the people for whom they exist.

No Church!

This weekend The Meeting House will not open it's doors for Church. One Sunday each year we shut the doors and head down to the park - where Auckland City Council expect 40,000 people to attend the annual Auckland International Cultural Festval.

So, we take the church down to the Park. With a lot of other groups we will set up a big tent (with a huge red shield on it) and we'll provide tea/coffee and muffins or cup cakes, paint children's faces and provide a sausage sizzle. We'll be a presence in our community.

It's a fun day! But it's also being the church.