Life At Coventry Jesus Centre: When Tears Lead To Action

A couple of weeks ago the press issued prime-feature images of Labour leader, Ed Miliband, giving money to a 16-year-Romanian beggar girl in Manchester. The rights and wrongs of Ed’s gesture were discussed. How much did he give? And what did it do for his tarnished public image? I don’t know – but who is asking, ‘but what about the girl?’

Now it’s Monday, the centre is shut and Centre Manager, Ann, is about to go home.

The phone rings. A mother is on the phone. Her 10 year old daughter has come home from school in tears and mother is wondering what to do.

 So, why is daughter in tears?  She’s just been on a school trip and encountered a street beggar.  Her teacher told her she mustn’t give her pocket money to him. She really wanted to so ... there are tears.

Mother is asking Ann: “We both really want to do something to help homeless beggars. We live in an out-of-town suburb and we don’t see them round here. What can we do?”

Who is to be commended the most? Mother? Daughter? I don’t know - but all I know is there is a wealth of hugely good-hearted people out there! Someone is asking, actually someone very young, ‘What about the destitute men and women out there? They’re on our streets” - and, what's more, is posing the poignant question, “What can I do?”

Exploitation, Racism, Economic Hardship and Eastern European migrants (Life at Coventry Jesus Centre)

Sometimes one gets a feel here of the underworld of exploitation, anti-feeling and racism that immigrants from Eastern Europe sometimes face on coming to the UK.

Recently, I listened to an Eastern European young woman sharing her angst after finding work in the UK: she spoke of, “negative attitude towards me, bullying, misunderstanding at work which has left me worried and stressed. People hate you because you are not English. They want you pushed out of the job, out of the country. This experience has been very difficult for me.”

Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Estonia all joined the EU in 2004 – giving them unrestricted access to the UK’s labour market. Citizens from Romania and Bulgarian, also members of the EU, now have unlimited access to the UK labour market too (from January 2014). Net migration to the UK from Eastern Europe EU states was almost 400,000 between 2004-2011.

Keeping an ear to the ground, there is a recurrent story: the promise of a job back home by an unscrupulous agent, arriving in the UK and finding it doesn’t exist or, if it does, wages are minimal and falling into the hands of or becoming indebted to exploiters. 

In September 2013 the BBC reported that Eastern European migrants employed in the Fens for leek picking were trapped in a widespread network of exploitation.  A four-month investigation found migrants were being forced to pay fellow countrymen bribes to get a few days' work in the field - and some were left to live on less than £1 a week.

Catalin, Vlad and Mihaela at Bright Flame

A while ago, two Romanian young men, Vlad and Catalin, turned up at Coventry Jesus Centre on a Sunday morning. They had been promised accommodation in the UK but, on arriving, found nothing; they had been conned and were facing the prospect of no income, no home. 

Fortunately, unlike so many, their story has a favourable ending; both were offered a temporary home at ‘Bright Flame,’ a Christian community house in Coventry. Both found work, decided Christian community was ‘for them’ and stayed. Vlad has since married Mihaela and ‘Bright Flame’ are finding them a brilliant addition to the community family.

Twin Sisters: Love Obedient and Love Unoticed

I was hoping for a relatively quiet morning in the Bridge (Coventry Jesus Centre’s drop-in for homeless and vulnerable people) this morning but, as it goes, the team is down one member and you know what that means?  Me, in the kitchen, on the baked bean trail again: 35 breakfasts AND the washing up is piling up and up and UP.
Read previous blog: destitute, homeless, the baked bean trail
 
As it happens *** (she won’t like me mentioning her name) was in the bathroom early this morning and she felt one of those inward nudges to come down to the Jesus Centre. No, she’s not on the rota today, she’s got a morning off, but a nudge is a nudge (I call it the Holy Spirit’s whispering) and she has come. 

Yes, she came, unasked for. And there was I, struggling. And there she was, hands deep in the washing up – and there was a lot of it. O no, here we go again: another call at the hatch from the guys, “We’ve run out of knives ...”,  and another, “We’ve run out of forks ...  more cups please...” Yes, yes; can’t you see? I’m, I’m drowning in demands.  But she was there.

Now, if dear Holy Spirit, You had given me one of Your nudges today, I think I may have said, “No, it’s my day off, I’m not on the rota the today.” But she heard You and she came. 

One hour later, we’re in our Sunday morning meeting and we sing those priceless truths from the book of Lamentations: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22,23).

Yes, I thought, God is very faithful but often He shows that faithful character of His through others. And God’s faithfulness is often displayed in a very practical way – in this case, help with the ever-increasing pile of washing up. 

You can have all the great preachers you can think of and the gifted and the great in your church but, if I had my way as to who I could build the church with, hands down, I’d choose a group of people ready to choose a path of love obedient and love unnoticed. 

When Jesus said, ‘If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me (Matthew 16: 24),’ I’m sure He was talking about the possibilities of martyrdom.  But He was talking about Sunday early morning risings too, going to places when you aren’t asked or even expected because you love Him ...

One of our church mottos is, ‘Love, power and sacrifice.” I’m not sure if I like it. Why? Because we don’t always own it.  But this morning it was apparent alright; I saw love and sacrifice and within it the faithfulness of God. And whenever love and sacrifice are present, the power of God is wedged between the two, abundant, bursting out, filled with unexpected anointing.

And those nudges ... they don’t have to have great ‘spiritual’ contents. I’ve learned for sure, God is interested in the practical things of life - even washing up. 

Destitute, Homeless, The Baked Bean Trail

It all began last night actually ... slicing bread. Two black bin liners full of leftover unsliced bread - kindly donated by a sympathetic bakery. I thought we’d finished till my friend, Ann, announced there was still another bag to slice!

Our drop-in at Coventry Jesus Centre is called the Bridge; here lonely and destitute people, mostly men, come for free breakfasts; that includes asylum seekers whose application has failed and who, for very good reasons, cannot return to their own country; they have no access to housing or benefits and no right to work. But the destitute does not just include asylum seekers. What about the penniless young woman from France looking for work, whose application for benefits has, for the moment, been turned down?

I’m on, you see, today: the baked bean trail: baked beans on toast for 20-30-40? Not sure how many. 

Now, let’s open the first tin but, alas, me and anything but the simplest gadgets don’t usually get on. And yes, this is no exception. Can I work out how this new super-design tin opener works? No. How on earth ...?  I’d better pop through into Bev’s kitchen and borrow the good old-fashioned sort. I can manage those.

“Are you ready?” team-leader Connor calls through the hatch. “It’s 9.00am.” And in they come ...

I soon realise I’ve not heated NEARLY enough beans. I mean, NOT NEARLY enough. Quick, open another three tins.
 
The first customer prefers white toast.  Well I’ve only toasted last night’s brown cut-ups so - I’m sorry - you’ll have to wait.

 “On the toast, please.” 

“On the side of the toast, please.”

 “I prefer unburned toast, please."

Well, this is when I discover that what I call ‘burned’ isn’t the same as someone else’s!  I turn the toaster’s heat settings down and the next visitor says he really likes toast properly done. Well, can I win? But, no hard feelings. Would you ever think there could be so many VARIATIONS on beans on toast?

I hear raised voices: the visitor waiting for the white toast is getting involved in heated debate. Distraction is the answer so I call him over to collect his breakfast. He comes eventually ... sorry, my friend, your beans on toast are a bit cold now. 

“More coffee needed, more sugar please  ...” comes the cry at the hatch. Yes, yes, I’ll be as quick as I can. 

And yes, help! We’re running out again. .. I really did not heat ENOUGH beans.

Meanwhile, the washing up is piling up in the hatch as the guys bring their empty plates and cups. Sheka comes to my rescue. He’s a good sort. Multi-tasking on this scale, at this speed, is not my sort of thing. Remember, I’m a teacher, not a multi-handed chef. And you need at least three pairs of hands for this job anyway!

10.00am. I’m the proud presenter of 30 breakfasts (I have to thank Sheka for this great accomplishment).

11.00am. My penniless friend from France arrives. She’s managed to acquire two tins of baked beans; she pulls them out of her bag with a cheerful smile and we place them at the front of our church, along with other tins people have bought for the drop-in, to see us through another day.

Does it remind you of another story? A poor widow, 2000 years ago?

Later, I spot my Nigerian friend Alice; she’s all dressed in her African attire and looks beautiful today. She’s tells me she did 42 breakfast, single-handed, last week with no help. Easy? Not for me.
 
Who knows how many are destitute, living on the fringes of our society? You can’t count them, so many have gone ‘underground’. And how many have been left in poverty and without a home in these tough financial times? The huge rise in people using food banks in the last few months tells some of this story.

But a few beans, from a poor, penniless French woman, can make a difference.

For an article on homelessness:
www.jesus.org.uk/blog/theology-and-social-comment/life-streets

Three rough sleepers and three bottles - of a different kind

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.

Sock it to us, Isaiah – even after all these years (Isaiah 58)

 I’m reading my friend Isaiah again. He loathes false religion, even if it’s seemingly self-denying, God-seeking prayerful stuff. He hates empty talk but loves action. ‘How do you expect God to listen to you when you don’t care a damn about your neighbour?’ He says.

This is what you should be doing Isaiah tells us (list not exhaustive):

loosen the chains of injustice …

set the oppressed free ......

share your food with hungry people

provide homeless people with shelter

supply clothes for those who haven’t got enough

Reminds me of the Good old Samaritan …. practical love … Jesus really believed in it..  But, there’s blessing in it too …'your light will break forth like the dawn …your healing will quickly appear.. then your righteousness  will go before you ……and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard….. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer ….you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. ‘  … and that’s a promise!