What do you want to see?

Today was the church AGM (social highlight of the year obvs). Maybe not the easiest of things of follow (accounts completely baffle me) but important all the same. During the Q & A section a friend turned to me and said “What do you want to see Rach?”

I gave my standard answer when my head is empty but full of wondering what exactly the implications are of  the restricted and unrestricted funds section of the accounts – “Good question. I’m not sure, haven't thought about it that much.” Which to be honest isn't the whole truth. I know what I want to see in the Church as a whole, but I’d never really thought about what I wanted to see in my local church. 

Which is kinda lazy and crazy (check tha’ rhymes) given that one of the reasons I chose to attend St Peter’s was because I believe in the vision of the church. But I guess part of that was me signing on to someone else’s vision. Which is strange because I have a million and five opinions on what I think the Church should look like, and yes, some of these opinions definitely contradict (keeping track of a million and five opinions is hard work).

So what do I want to see?

It’s simple really - Love. 

I want to see a community of people who Love.

Love God, love each other & love those in our community.

Love that is patient and kind. Love that is not jealous, or boastful or proud or rude. Love that does not demand its own way. Love that is not irritable or counts when it has been wronged. Love that rejoices in truth and justice. Love that never gives up or loses faith. Love that endures through every circumstance.  

An all encompassing love that is good news to the poor, comforts the broken hearted and sets captives free. 

I want to see a people who give freely, serve joyfully and worship faithfully.

A family where all are welcomed and no-one is left out. 

A family who rejoices with you in times of celebration. 

A family who helps carry you when you’re in a valley and all is dark.

A family who is right beside you through all seasons of life.

In other words I want to see a church that looks more like Jesus and less like the rest of us. 

So the challenge to myself is am I one of those people? Am I contributing to the Church I want to see?

Not always.

But the great thing is that there’s always an opportunity to start.

Shoutout to one of the YWAM crew for the photo.

How Tearfund cured me of wanting an iphone but got me to join twitter

So a couple of weeks ago I spent the day down at Tearfund HQ in deepest darkest South West London (Teddington) with the Tearfund communications team and a bunch of other people who love Jesus and write and blog and draw things.

It was a really interesting day despite a bad start (getting up late, running for the train, getting off two stops too early, waiting half an hour for the next train and then walking in the completely wrong direction from the train station – a good sense of direction is not my spiritual gift).

We spent the day talking with various Tearfund staff about their work and about digital communication. To which I concluded:

1.   Tearfund are doing a great job
2.   I should probs join twitter (follow me @rachsherlyh)

One of the things I learned was that Tearfund is all about resourcing the local church. The majority of their work is carried out in conjunction with local partners and churches. As someone who works for a charity that resources churches to start and run foodbanks, and as someone who believes that local community is more important and powerful than we realise, quite why I have never thought about church and community and international development is beyond me. But now that I have thought about it, I realise it's probs the way forward.

So for the last few months I’ve been saying that I need to get a new phone (the one I have is slowly falling apart) but haven’t been able to work out what phone I wanted, until recently...

It seems like everyone has an iphone. Everywhere I go I see people elegantly and silently typing out text messages on their touch screen while I’m still having to press the ‘9’ key four times just to write the letter z, and don’t get me started on having to be patient when using a word with too many m, n or o’s in it (first world problem or what?!). “There’s an App for that” is a phrase I’m beginning to hear all too often. It began to seem that all my problems would be fixed if I had an iphone. Now, I’ve never been concerned about having the latest technology (I got an ipod for Christmas a few years ago and had to be told what it was) and tend to avoid anything with a ridiculous amount of buttons or settings, but for some reason I decided that an iphone was the way to go.

So over lunch at Tearfund we were chatting about various things when the conversation landed on technology. I tried to keep up, I really did, but I didn’t understand half of what was said. My confusion must have been obvious because one of the guys turned to me and asked if I was a techie (I presumed he meant was I into technology not was I a Star Trek fan – but maybe that’s trekkie instead? Anyone know?). To which I replied “No, I only use what I have to and avoid the rest.” 

And just like that I realised that I didn’t need an iphone. I think I had begun to believe the lie that because nearly everyone (it seems) has one I probably needed one too or that it would make my life easier (because my life is so hard as it is!). And that realisation completely cured me of wanting an iphone. I am now content to use my current phone until it completely gives up on me. Thank you Tearfund. 

What Rachel Did Next

So, it’s been an interesting year. The first six/seven months –Fun Times. The last five months – less of the fun and less of the sun (did we even have summer this year?).

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been great to be home and see everyone that I missed while I was away. But since then it’s been fairly average. I’ve spent most of the so-called summer filling in job applications and receiving emails telling me I’m not qualified/experienced enough to do whatever job it was I applied to.

Ever been unemployed? Then you’ll understand my pain – trying to find motivation to fill in another form, being too lazy to read the Job Description and skipping straight to the Person Spec, feeling guilty for any time not spent job hunting, finding inventive ways of avoiding answering the dreaded question of “don’t you have a job yet?” (My favourites – jumping out of a window, or [if you’re not on a ground floor] pretending you haven’t heard and start asking them if that’s their car being towed), wondering if you should abandon your values and apply for a job as a manager of a Nike store, wondering if you should have sent in the application to be London Met Commissioner as you don’t think the current candidates will be any better than the previous ones and wondering why the media keep finding new statistics about high rates of graduate unemployment.

But back to my main point – it’s been an interesting year:

•  September 26^th 2010 -  the official start of DTS lecture phase (if you wanna know what I’m talking about and have a serious amount of time on your hands then read this: www.rachelgoestonz.blogspot.com)
• September 26^th 2011 – the official start of my working life as an intern for the Foodbank Network. (Farewell unemployment, hello having to set an alarm to wake up before the sun)
• September 26^th 2012 – the official start of my reign as world CEO? Intern to world domination in one year? Easily achievable

Interesting times. And its about to get even more interesting. As of next week I start a programme called Mission Year (www.missionyear.org.uk).

Mission Year (MY) is a framework equipping Christians to live in community with others, to serve the local church and to reach their neighbourhood. MY participants work with a number of ministries tackling social exclusion in areas of high social deprivation.

And so, in a few weeks I’ll be moving to Bethnal Green, East London, to live with three other MY participants. I am super excited about being part of an inner-city community where there is such a desperate need for Jesus. As part of MY I will be working, as an intern, with the Foodbank Network four days a week.

The Foodbank Network is a Christian charity that provides emergency three-day supplies of food to those in the UK who due to some kind of crisis, such as benefit delay, unexpected bills, illness etc, are without any food, or the means of getting any food for the next few days.

Clients are identified by frontline care professionals, such as social workers and Doctors, and given a voucher which they take to their local Foodbank and exchange for a three-day supply of nutritionally balanced, non-perishable food. They are not just given the food but tea/coffee, sometimes a meal and someone to talk/pray with. All food is donated by the public and sorted by volunteers. Last year the Foodbank Network fed over 60,000 people experiencing food poverty in the UK.

London currently has 14 Foodbanks up and running, with another 12 planning to open in the next few months. I will be working with the Regional Director for London in supporting current Foodbanks and establishing new ones. I am super excited to be working with an organisation tackling food poverty right on our doorstep. See www.trusselltrust.org for more info. 

Now the mathematically minded among you will have noted that I will only be working with Foodbank for four days. Fear not. On the fifth day I'll be working with the church I’ll attend in Bethnal Green. I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing but I do know it will involve working for and with the local community. Possibly: kids work, youth work, teaching English to refugees or volunteering at my local Foodbank.

However, as an intern I don’t get paid, instead I get expenses. And although my expenses will be pretty generous for an intern (not quite parliamentary stylee though) it won’t quite cover my contribution to the house living expenses. I am short by £100 a month. This is where you come in...

If 10 people gave me £10 a month for one year I would be able to cover rent, food, bills and if I’m careful I might even have enough left over for some chocolate biscuits. Or, if 12 people gave me £100 I’d be covered for the year. You see where this is going?

Would you partner with me by donating a monthly sum/one-off donation of £5/10/15/30/45/60/75/100/whatever you find down the back of the sofa so that I don’t starve/freeze/become homeless over the next year? (Although that would be ironic). Anything and everything will be much appreciated. If this is something you could do then simply hit the Donate button on the right or send me a message/email/letter/leave a comment and I can send you my details.

Thanks guys.

With love from Rachel

P.S. If you happen to know any super rich people who might like to help me out then by all means, pass the message along. Thanks people.

P.P.S. This new blog  will chart my adventures in London.