Last year we hand wind and rain, and so retired to the Meths (Methodist church). I was part of the band made up from (mostly) one of the 2 anglican churches. This year I was playing again, but it seemed to be a 'last minute arrangement' with just the 2 of us from BCC. The songs were all a bit stately, as the people from the 'other' anglican church had complained about last year's music being a bit too lively.
When we got there, some of the local kids had set up a ghetto blaster using the power supply in the bandstand. They were turfed off quite firmly by the park keeper, but hung around, and when he'd gone, tried to get permission from us to plug back in. They accepted refusal for a little while, then took things into their own hands and attempted reconnection. Life got a little interesting.
What's the point of this post?
The kids were what my children would call 'townies' also known as chavs. These are the disadvantaged disciples of the Beckhams, all white tracksuits and bling, although I don't think these kids had the money for much bling. They were also quite seriously drunk and Ben thought they'd been having a quick spliff or 2 as well.
One of the lads climbed back on the stage, and I ended up having a 'conversation' with him. Actually calling it a conversation is an exaggeration. He was barely intelligible, speaking a curious patois - almost jive talk - made up of words from rap records strung together with the odd bit of 'english', all repeated quickly and drunkenly, punctuated with demands to let him speak. Through the drunkeness I could feel there were spiritual overtones coming through. Eventually some of the other guys came to my aid and gently talked him off the stage. Later he told them about how he was treated at home (NOT well) and they prayed for him - he broke down in tears, then laid down and appeared to 'go to sleep'. A girl that had also been rather abusive came back and apologised.
Yesterday something in me was touched. I felt a real desire to get involved with them and do something. I felt like I could actually make a contribution.
Today I've got memories instead of conviction.
We (the church) ran a major youth work in Bicester around one of the poorer estates. The guy that ran that eventually moved on, and there was no-one else in the church to run it. I don't really have the gifting for that kind of thing, and I don't have the time ad I don't like chavs. But yesterday on the way home that didn't seem to matter.
Today is different, and I'm back to normal. I don't want to run a youth work. I don't want to initiate outreach (another area I feel poked on). These aren't my gifting. I'm not sure I have faith for a new gifting. I'm no hero, just a lazy guy that likes his guitars and dreams.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Play nice - I will delete anything I don't want associated with this blog and I will delete anonymous comments.