A busy weekend: Friday evening - a get-together in Coventry with the rising generation who've been on Multiply recent trips; then travel to Leicester for their Saturday and Sunday events; finally, on Monday, Coventry Jesus Centre's quarterly Management Meeting.
It was Jen who tipped me off that some of our younger folks, who had been to Romania for last September's Multiply EU conference, were wondering how to take forward what had affected them. "How would it be if we all got together for a de-briefing, one evening?" I'd proposed to Huw. We chose Tree of Life in Coventry because it's near the rail station, and is probably the community house that most accessible for public transport. Everyone was keen, and Jonny took bookings for Helen to cook up some tea.
As it turned out, travelling be train was best for me too; which is where Narborough comes in. I use the transportdirect site http://www.transportdirect.info/web2/Default.aspx?repeatingloop=Y to plan anything that involves public transport. Saturday's journey, from Coventry to Narrow Way, was fastest if I caught a train to Narborough and then the X44 bus in towards Leicester centre. I booked my tickets.
Friday teatime brought a good buzz, and folks soon got into sharing their experiences. Joe and Simeon (and Iain) were in Sierra Leone just over a month ago. Their feedback was vivid and engaging: I didn't know they'd nearly run out of money! Their carpentry project was the most ambitious we've conceived. It nearly didn't work because - totally unforeseen -they were spending six hours a day travelling between their accommodation and the project site.
Helen and Jenny expressed their disappointment that the church and school they'd gone to in Lagos had been unprepared for their visit. However, the team gave the local folks a to-do list with a promise of more help, and things are moving forward well.
Next we heard about Romania. Emmaline has a vision for community to get rooted there, and sparked some good exchanges about our intern scheme. Aidan and Blaze chipped in their thoughts, too.
Jason, who with Jonny joined me in Kenya two years ago, got more fired up as the evening progressed. Like several of the others, he'd love to pay a return visit. James and Hannah, who are part of next month's team to East Africa, listened carefully.
Finally Nathan and Sam talked about the recent India visit, which has a slightly different focus because we intentional introduced some special ministry activities for younger folks. This would be great to repeat by getting a band of personal contact over of the MILC conference in May.
Huw seemed pleased with the evening. We hope it will spin off into more initiative and faith for things in here the UK, including getting other local churches/groups into the Multiply family. We also threw out a challenge for who'd be up to lead a team of four to go for a month or so. Andy and Eva seem keen.
As folks stayed around for supper, I had a long chat with Jonny and Naomi about where they'd best like to live after they marry later this year. The guys had sorted me out a bed perilously sitting atop a high bunk, and Steve mocked me for wrapping myself up tightly in a pink blanket lest I slipped over the edge.
Coventry and Leicester sit on different north-south mainline rail routes, so it's a humble local train that thread its way across via Bedworth, Nuneaton, and Hinckley. The arrival into and departure from Nuneaton was suspiciously late. There seemed to be some problem with the doors, and both the driver and guard were involved. The reason because obvious at Hinckley. They'd 'kettled' a bunch of guys who'd tried to ride without tickets - and seemingly were refusing to pay, too. I was glad I'd grabbed a coffee in the previous wait.
And so to Narborough, over half an our late. We getting-off passengers had to make our way down to the guards cab, and wriggle past the chairs and levers to jump off. That was definitely a 'first' for me, but I'd missed my bus. So, in the pale sunlight and cold wind I waited for a lift from the Narrow Way saints. It all wasn't meant to turn out this way, but that's exactly the joy of these trips that the folks had been extolling last night!
It was Jen who tipped me off that some of our younger folks, who had been to Romania for last September's Multiply EU conference, were wondering how to take forward what had affected them. "How would it be if we all got together for a de-briefing, one evening?" I'd proposed to Huw. We chose Tree of Life in Coventry because it's near the rail station, and is probably the community house that most accessible for public transport. Everyone was keen, and Jonny took bookings for Helen to cook up some tea.
Friday teatime brought a good buzz, and folks soon got into sharing their experiences. Joe and Simeon (and Iain) were in Sierra Leone just over a month ago. Their feedback was vivid and engaging: I didn't know they'd nearly run out of money! Their carpentry project was the most ambitious we've conceived. It nearly didn't work because - totally unforeseen -they were spending six hours a day travelling between their accommodation and the project site.
Helen and Jenny expressed their disappointment that the church and school they'd gone to in Lagos had been unprepared for their visit. However, the team gave the local folks a to-do list with a promise of more help, and things are moving forward well.
Next we heard about Romania. Emmaline has a vision for community to get rooted there, and sparked some good exchanges about our intern scheme. Aidan and Blaze chipped in their thoughts, too.
Jason, who with Jonny joined me in Kenya two years ago, got more fired up as the evening progressed. Like several of the others, he'd love to pay a return visit. James and Hannah, who are part of next month's team to East Africa, listened carefully.
Finally Nathan and Sam talked about the recent India visit, which has a slightly different focus because we intentional introduced some special ministry activities for younger folks. This would be great to repeat by getting a band of personal contact over of the MILC conference in May.
Huw seemed pleased with the evening. We hope it will spin off into more initiative and faith for things in here the UK, including getting other local churches/groups into the Multiply family. We also threw out a challenge for who'd be up to lead a team of four to go for a month or so. Andy and Eva seem keen.
As folks stayed around for supper, I had a long chat with Jonny and Naomi about where they'd best like to live after they marry later this year. The guys had sorted me out a bed perilously sitting atop a high bunk, and Steve mocked me for wrapping myself up tightly in a pink blanket lest I slipped over the edge.
Coventry and Leicester sit on different north-south mainline rail routes, so it's a humble local train that thread its way across via Bedworth, Nuneaton, and Hinckley. The arrival into and departure from Nuneaton was suspiciously late. There seemed to be some problem with the doors, and both the driver and guard were involved. The reason because obvious at Hinckley. They'd 'kettled' a bunch of guys who'd tried to ride without tickets - and seemingly were refusing to pay, too. I was glad I'd grabbed a coffee in the previous wait.
And so to Narborough, over half an our late. We getting-off passengers had to make our way down to the guards cab, and wriggle past the chairs and levers to jump off. That was definitely a 'first' for me, but I'd missed my bus. So, in the pale sunlight and cold wind I waited for a lift from the Narrow Way saints. It all wasn't meant to turn out this way, but that's exactly the joy of these trips that the folks had been extolling last night!
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