The place to be

Sunday was a food day!

Our morning communion service finished with the church being invited to join in with Jesus’ last supper, eating bread and drinking wine together as we remembered His supreme sacrifice for us.

Following the service some people went on to eat cake at a celebration hosted by a family whose child had just been dedicated

Others joined the Street Team taking the church onto the main high road where we gave people free hot drinks and cakes ... food again! All accompanied with live music- it was a party in the street!

After popping home for lunch, a large crowd turned up for tea and cakes and to raise support for our friends working with the Street Children of Mexico.

And then we turned our evening service into a ‘mission focused’ service concentrating on our friends who live and serve God in North Africa.   In order to create the right ambience we had tables festooned with North African themed food; pitas, hummus, olives, halva, dates, sweets. It was colourful and delicious and a great way to focus our minds on a part of the world that needs prayer and support.

Yesterday Upton Vale really was the place to be if you like food.

It was also a great day to think about people that are in specific places for specific purposes, people that are in the right place at the right time.

We are all aware of the political turbulence and civil unrest in so many North African countries at the moment, such as Libya, Egypt and Tunisia.  When our friends moved into that area they had no idea that these disturbances would break out so dramatically and violently.  Yet our friends stay in this area of potential risk, danger and uncertainty because they believe they are in the right place at a very strategic time for the gospel and the church.

Our friends from Mexico will return home in early June. Their vocation is with Street Children and abandoned people whom many would shy away from. Yet they know they are in the right place at a significant time to help these overlooked and victimised people.

Moving to a different setting and context, the Street Team prayed with many people yesterday, and for that hour we were clearly in the right place at the right time

There’s a link to be made of people realising that they are often in a significant place at a significant time, or for a significant reason but it doesn’t have to be somewhere dramatic like Mexico, North Africa or outside Primark, Torquay!  Another way to look at it is to think of God using you for something good wherever you are.

In the Old Testament there’s a great story about a nameless servant girl, kidnapped/abducted in a village raid, she ends up working as a servant in a military commander’s house. This powerful leader suffers with a terrible skin condition to which he can’t find a cure.

On one occasion this servant girl speaks up and suggests that her boss should go and see the local prophet Elijah who could cure him. The commander finds Elijah, follows his instructions and is healed.  But pivotal to the whole story is the slave girl who was in the right place at the right time.

I reckon if we’re bold and brave enough to think about it, we might begin to see that God can use us wherever we are. And if God can use us wherever we are, then where we are really is the place to be.