Make contact

I guess when you’ve been fasting for a month, it is all about the food. Food and friendship, laughter and chatter. 

Of course most of it was in Arabic; after the two or three words we know we are a bit stuck. But the smiles and the welcome and the hospitality of these refugee folks who have lost everything was lovely.

It was pouring rain yesterday when we arrived for the Eid celebration. The hall had been double booked so everyone was traipsing up the street to the town hall carrying their trays of special food, pushing buggies and holding umbrellas and dodging puddles. Nothing quite like a Scottish summer. It must be so different from Iraq and Syria. 

But there were no complaints, nothing but happy smiles, children playing with balloons, and the food, which was different and delicious. The motto of our church’s youth fellowship is ‘make contact, make friends, make disciples’. 

We have made contact, and will press on to make friends. It is a privilege.

New experiences

New experiences. We are getting ready to go share Eid with some of the refugees newly settled in our area. No idea what to expect, or who to expect.

So I’m still here in my jeans, not ready in my dress or appearance (though not too sure exactly what is expected). But I spent twenty minutes in my prayer window getting ready.

Jesus is the light of the world. Praying his light emanates from my eyes, my lips, my attitudes. God is love. Praying his love is tangible through the work of the Holy Spirit. 

Going to meet people just like us, but not. People who have grown up under other value systems and who have experienced traumas I hope never to experience. 

Praying that the Prince of Peace is powerful in that place today, in us, through us, in others, through others. That traumatised and weary people will be drawn to the one who can really give them rest.