I remember a Friday night many years ago when friends going away for a weekend left without me simply because I couldn’t get off work till 6pm. I’ve since recovered from that slight (even had a good weekend without them!) but it was no fun at the time to be forgotten. You likely have a story of being forgotten. It may be a profound story that has shaped your life or an easily forgiven oversight
Recently on a Monday night, one of regular friends at Next Door, Renee,[1] invited someone to join us for dinner. Renee, who has experienced profound pain in her life, had met this other woman the day before, when she found her distraught outside the local McDonald’s. Renee approached this stranger, told her she looked like she needed a hug, and then hugged her and listed to her painful story. She then followed up with her
To Trust and be trusted. These are good things. Recently, I was feeling encouraged and thankful for the level of trust that we have established with our guests at Next Door. In particular, the subject of trust came to me as I was thinking about Chris*, the coming winter and Chris’ home – a tent in the woods on the outskirts of Aldershot. As I was thinking about him I wondered, how would I know
New habits are difficult to form. Things can start out well but it’s tough to keep it up. Thus, when I publicly committed myself to weekly prayer walking in the Next Door neighbourhood I knew that I was in for a battle. I am two weeks into my new commitment and things are going well, but come September my schedule will fill up and, come winter and shorter days, motivation will wane to make it
I went to church today. Saturday. It was a multi-site service. I arrived for the "9 am service" at the FV warehouse where there were about 10 of us loading a U-Haul to help move furniture to the new Next Door storefront. Another one of us was attending to a malfunctioning air conditioning unit and a couple others were helping with the move while also sticking around to do bike repair for Rolling Horse. A
