This past weekend, I went with most of my team to visit a church in Romiley, part of the Greater Manchester area. We had previously met a guy from Romiley who is involved in a similar ministry to what we're currently working towards in West Bridgford. When he invited us to visit, we thought he was thinking of taking us on a little walk, maybe grab some food, have a chat...but no! This guy (his name is Joe) actually put together an entire 3-day schedule for us to observe and interview all sorts of people involved in the ministry there! It was so exciting to see the energy of the people and to be able to see such a vibrant, growing ministry.
I'm a story junkie. I get easily sucked into TV series like "LOST" because there's such an intricate story line to follow. Sometimes I forget that every person I meet has an interesting story of their own to tell, and the church in Romiley was no exception!
We met a vicar (Tom) who, in my team-mate David's words, is "an Anglican who isn't bothered about being Anglican." He told us the story of how the church he is the vicar of began to look outside itself as it felt the challenge to "do church in new ways." The entire church went through a makeover period, including everything from painting the inside to make it look more joyous to him deciding to not wear his vicar's collar (he said it seemed to reinforce the mindset that ministry was only HIS job, and not the congregation's). He was such a cool guy! One of those types of people you meet and immediately are jealous of his magnetic personality. He even told us a story about how he met a total stranger on the slopes in Switzerland who had become a Christian just 6 weeks before. Tom shared the church's vision to start a community centre, and the stranger decided to give 100,000 pounds towards the cause!
Well, Tom is definitely not the only creative, passionate minister in Romiley. We met with loads of people - some volunteer, some staff - who simply live to love the people of Romiley. There is not a need in the community that is not being met by the church and its community ministries. They give computer courses, family counseling, youth care, school teachers...so much more! The main reason we went was to see the Cherry Tree Community Shop. Cherry Tree is an area of Romiley that used to be known as a lost cause, with loads of troublesome teens, violence, alcohol and drug issues. Our friend Joe and his wife Kat decided to strategically move into a house on the Cherry Tree estate, and to begin loving the Cherry Tree people with the love of Christ. They opened (with the help of the local borough council) a youth and community centre. They not only keep the kids off the streets and out of trouble, but they teach them how to feed themselves properly (most of these kids don't get a nutritional meal at home, if they get one at all), and encourage them to learn life skills that can lead to a successful career. The kids have helped rebuild and put together the centre, and now have such a high respect for what they've done that it has never been vandalized. The youth love and respect Joe and Kat so much that they are the first people they go to with issues and problems. They are always meeting with kids in their home, and are continuing to share life and Christ with them. They have seen lives begin to change, and now the entire community of Cherry Tree has been uplifted! Even while we were visiting, we saw Joe engaging in conversation with the local drug dealer, who was asking Joe to get together with him and talk about how he could get himself out of the terrible life he's made for himself. Wow.
Isn't that so exciting? Well, my team and I were thrilled. It was so encouraging to meet people that we know nothing about really...but since we all had one very important thing in common, it was like meeting family. It was neat to see that a lot of what we're starting to do now is something that can actually work! Similar to Romiley, we work with the local schools, borough council youth clubs, as well as churches, so it was great to see how it can all link together. We learned a lot, received some great advice, and now have contact with a similar ministry that is a couple of years ahead of what is just sparking in our ministry now. Neato!
Also...we got to have a bit of fun time in Liverpool over the weekend. I was beyond excited, being a Beatles fan all my life, and a new Liverpool Football Club fan!! The picture at the top of this post is myself on the left with my teammate Amy at the Cavern Club, which is an ex-bomb raid shelter where the Beatles performed 292 times in one year alone! We also got to see the river Mersey, where I sang the Gerry and the Pacemaker's 1964 hit, "Ferry cross the Mersey" song for a good 15 minutes straight. It was an amazing city, and I'd love to go back. A couple of very exciting, but completely random things happened in Liverpool: we met the Harlem Globetrotters while they were being tourists themselves (they are apparently touring Great Britain right now, who knew?) and we also found A&W Root Beer in Chinatown (root beer is one of the American luxuries that doesn't exist in England, sadly enough). I have pictures of my Liverpool trip (and a recent trip to Sherwood Forest!!) up on my Flickr site - www.Flickr.com/photos/sisterhutch.
All-in-all, a very successful weekend indeed :)
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