Facing drama head on

I like to think that I’m pretty calm in a crisis.

I can see members of my family sniggering in the back row right now. I admit, I’m a bit of a drama queen, but I like to imagine that however much I’m screaming with terror inside I can put a brave face on things and get on with it calmly and efficiently.

Being a part of the NightLight team has been great experience for me. We have had to deal with situations, both on the street and off, that I would never have imagined that I would even ever come across, let alone be coordinating.
Dealing with collapsed individuals, giving statements to the police and mopping up minor injuries is par for the course. You expect it because that is why we are there. In a way it’s easier to deal with in that context. We’re out there to do a job and you just work as a team and get on with it.

However, what I still haven’t got used to is that it’s hard for us to turn off from it all. I’ve noticed that off duty care professionals find it difficult not to think about people with a professional mindset and to a certain extent we feel the same way.

I know as Christians we should be looking out for people that need help all the time. I’m not saying that NightLight is the only way that I am willing to serve people and that any other time is my day off…it’s just that I’m more used to what to look out for now. We can now spot the drug users and the trouble makers. It’s easier to sense when people are just having fun and when things are going to kick off. We know the ‘regulars’ and see them around town all the time.

And that’s why when a drunk guy started a fight last Thursday in the early evening in the middle of town, Josh was the only one to step in. Stepping in to break up a fight is always a debatable move, but as the guy calmed down it turned out okay in the end.

But when the drunk man then jumped on top of a moving car and kicked in the windshield, still it was only Josh that actually did anything to help.

The lady in the car was really shaken up, but everything was sorted out and the police were really grateful to Josh for helping out. But why didn’t anyone else do anything?

I’m not suggesting that we should always wade into any situation that should be left for the police. I’ve had the training and I know that would do more harm than good. But since we’ve started NightLight Josh and I seem to have come in contact with more and more dramas that we’ve spotted just walking around town.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not that Aberystwyth has suddenly turned into a pit of debauchery, brawling and despair, but just that we didn’t actually have our eyes open before. Over the last year or so God has been opening our eyes and giving us bigger hearts to love and help people, and so now it’s much harder to walk on by on the other side of the road.

So, I’m challenging you today to walk around your neighbourhood with your eyes open. I’m not just talking about sorting out major emergencies; I’m talking about stopping to speak to the lonely old woman who live three doors up, or offering to do a bit of shopping for a sick neighbour.
Hey, if that’s too difficult why not just try giving a stranger in the street a huge smile.

They might think you’re a complete weirdo…or it might just be the only smile they receive that day.

Get Back to Work

Our holiday is over and we are back in Aberystwyth and back at work. I can’t quite decide whether it’s a good thing or not. I love visiting friends and family, and I hate the fact that we are too far away from them to just visit for a day here and there, but I do tend to get a little restless when I’m not doing anything constructive.

Lent!

So, as per usual I am about 3 days behind the rest of the world and as a result have only started thinking about the fact that it’s Lent right now. Last year I wrote about Lent Sacrifices and how good I thought Christian Aid’s count your blessings scheme was, and then promptly didn’t do anything for Lent again.

 

I have really been challenged on my thinking about people over the last few months. I long to be able love people like Jesus did, not to take people on face value but to be more laid back, give people the benefit of the doubt and to carry of loving them even when they throw it back in my face. I’ve also come to the conclusion recently that I get annoyed with people who have an issue with something and don’t do anything about it (there I am, judging people again!), so I figured that I should do something about that too. If I have an issue with something, however big, I am going to do whatever I can to improve the situation.

 

So, how does this relate to Lent?  Well, I figured for Lent this year I could simply and consciously make more steps to be like Jesus. To be honest this isn’t really a Lent thing – I should be doing this all the time, but roll with me here… Apparently it takes three weeks to create a habit, so if over the next six weeks I challenge myself about how I treat people every day, and try and take practical steps to improve my relationships then I should be able to work patterns into my life which will stay with me long after Lent has finished.

 

There are plenty of ideas for Lent on the web. Tearfund’s carbon fast can be found here. I have also found generous.org really helpful and inspiring too. We’ll see how it goes!

This week and beyond

 

Normal blogging will resume this week after a slightly crazy seven days.

Things are really tough at the moment. As I mentioned in a previous post there was/is a family crisis on Josh’s side last week which I won’t go into here. Needless to say we are left feeling drained, exhausted and ratty with each other. All of this came at a very difficult time.

 

Proposal

Our office is probably the best example of a non-ecofriendly work space around. Although it’s a small space we leave both our copiers, all three computers, two printers and a scanner on all the time, even when they aren’t in use.

We are paper eaters too– I don’t even want to think how many trees we consume each year. If the church congregation need to know something, why just tell them once? Instead we could print it out on several different leaflets and drum it in that way. Lights and heaters are left on everywhere too.

 

NightLight

Thanks to all those that have spoken to us about NightLight and also sent us encouraging messages via Facebook.

 

It was our first time out on Saturday and from our point of view it went really well. A few of the door staff seemed a bit wary, but on the whole everyone was very friendly and we were able to help out CCTV and doorstaff a few times.

We were also able to give out some flip flops and make sure a few people got their taxis home safely. Everyone seemed very interested in what we were doing!

Well worth it and I can’t wait to do it again!

What is Poverty?

What flashes into your mind when you hear the word poverty? Dirty children scrabbling through rubbish heaps, poor Africans living in mud shelters? I have a friend who is currently living and working in Zambia, and I know that she could sum up poverty perfectly, because she sees it every day. People who are devastated by AIDs and who just have absolutely nothing to their name (except beaming smiles and a great sense of humour – it’s funny how the poorest people are often the happiest isn’t it?).

 

Anyway, I was reading the Guardian yesterday and apparently we live under the poverty threshold for the UK, which frankly I find crazy, and set me thinking, what is poverty?

I couldn’t remember the figure that the Guardian stated, but according to ‘The Poverty Site’ (2005/06 figures) the poverty threshold for a couple with no dependant children is £182 a week. Josh and I currently live on around £120 a week (or £96 in a 5 week month) which puts us quite a long way under the threshold. However, I would not consider us to live in poverty on any level. We can afford to eat local organic food, we have more possessions than we need, a car, a lovely flat and we live in one of the most beautiful places in Wales.

Fair enough a lot of the ‘stuff’ we have were gifts, like wedding presents, and I do believe that God has provided us with money when we’ve really needed it and prayed about it (like the time we got £200 anonymously through the post when we were worried because we couldn’t afford to get Christmas presents – awesome!) but that doesn’t really mean that we haven’t been able to afford to live on what we earn.

Food and fuel costs are rising and we are having to make more cutbacks, but I still wouldn’t count myself living in poverty because I have to cut down on my car useage, stop going to the cinema so often, or stop eating luxury snacks or whatever.

 

Now, Josh is a Student and I am a volunteer, we have a few savings, and unless God decides he wants us to go on working for a church, or sends us to Peru or something, we pretty much know that in the future our earnings will rise. I can understand that for people that constantly earn less than the poverty threshold, the future must look bleak and the prospect of buying a house, for example would seem out of reach. But perhaps we should still try and get it all into perspective. The world poverty threshold is something like a $1 a day – these people have nothing. Maybe we can’t afford the latest gadgets, or the best clothes but compared to them we are millionaires, I think we need to get our priorities right.

 

Or am I totally wrong and do I just have my middle-class head up in the clouds? What do you think?

Thirst

I won’t be blogging next week because Josh and I are off to Nottingham on ‘Thirst’ tomorrow. Thirst is a week of practical social action in connection to the Hope ’08 movement. We are teaming up with a church in Hyson Green called The Family Church to do random acts of kindness in order to reach out to their community.

I have been so busy I’ve hardly had time to think about the fact that we’re going but I guess I’m excited and scared all at the same time. I love how practical the project is going to be – we’re going to be involved in everything from prison visits to spring cleaning – but it’s going to be eye opening being so involved in such an urban, multicultural community.
The good thing about being out of your depth is that you give it all to God. We’ve just got relax and enjoy!

 P.S I’m driving – and yes I am very nervous about it! We also got through our car service unscathed on Wednesday, even if we did have to get four new tyres – ouch