10.00pm … it’s a clear, starry night in central Coventry - and cold. It is January, after all. Thea and Helen have decided to fill hot water bottles at the Jesus Centre three times a week for rough sleepers to collect until the end of February. Yes, and tonight Carry Ann and I decide to support this new adventure. Spreading the bottles (bearing Thea’s wonderful blue homemade covers) on a table in the Jesus Centre, we enthusiastically pray over them all: ‘God, come to the people we give these bottles to! Meet their practical needs and lead them to find and serve the true God.’
Leaving Helen to man the hot water filling station at the Jesus Centre, Carry Ann, Thea and I all stuff a steaming hot water bottle under our coats (mmm…. like this kind of outreach …. nearly as good as outdoor central heating.) What do we ask God to do? ‘Help us find three suitable candidates to give these bottles to.’
We roam a deserted car park, unlit back alleys and sheltered doorways in our search until we reach the old part of the town. It’s quiet tonight; town feels hollow and echoe-y. Is our search in vain? – Surely not, we’ve asked God, after all. No! Hurray! There, bedded in the porch of Holy Trinity church we spot them, three unshaven men, already tucked into their sleeping bags for the night.
Perfect - one each .. ‘Here you are!’ we tell them. Propping themselves up on the concrete, the men gratefully reach out for the bottles and quickly stow them in their bags.
Later that night, in bed myself now, I can’t help but think of the three pleased smiles and three hearty ‘thanks yous.’ Three men, three bottles – not the ones they’re probably used to – but bottles of a different kind. Good to think the men are warm, for a few hours at least. Warm bodies, warm hearts … must go and do it again sometime. Yes, and really hope to bump into those three grateful guys again.
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