In and Out

Moving from planting back to traditional Corps has not been as difficult as I imagined as there is a flexibility and openess here. We love our Corps and although it has taken us time to adjust to moving to a village from a town we do love Pill.

Even so I still rebel a bit about the fact that most of the mission stuff I do at the moment involves people coming to a programme in our building. We have a great building so we should use it and we do. It is an asset not only to us but to the village.

I just miss the extra opporutnity that doing outreach in a secular environment had. The difference is this. If we hold an activity for 5-11 years olds in our hall, that is who comes, athough there is also a limited number of parents and carers with whom we can engage when they pick up their kids. However I am used to going to the local infant school three times a week, sometimes to do our own programmes and sometimes just to support a school project. Even if only a small number of parents and kids turned up to our actual programme, there was always an opportunity to talk to the children who did not come as they wandered through the hall, opportunity to chat with parents as they waited at the school gate or those moments to listen to a member of staff off load. I also spent as much time doing pastoral care and home visits with people who never "went to Church" as I did with the people who came to our meetings on Sunday.

If I went to do Chaplaincy duties at the Prison I met the lads who needed me that day but also worked alongside the staff. This continued outside of the prison as a lot of staff lived locally and we would meet them in shops and cafes around town.

Now of course the ideal is to be able to do both. Use our hall wisely and well but also get out and get into secular establishments. To do that we have to have a holy and mobilised congregation, well functioning pastoral care for the saints, a good discipleship programme and most of all the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

We are not there yet but thank you Lord you are on the move.

God bless

Carol