Sheffield

Well here I am. I have safely arrived into Sheffield to begin work as the Pastoral Assistant at St Mary's Church, Handsworth. Already work has begun and is underway.

Last night I joined the bell ringing team, which I have loved and missed so much over the past year or so! St Mary's has eight bells in the tower, the heaviest I think is 14cwt.

I will be preaching next week at a wedding as well as helping at an assembly and then preaching at the Candlemas service on the 31st Jan. There is lots of be getting on with here, of course, I will update this blog with all the activities that go on!

Last night, I watched Slumdog Millionaire. I have to say how good it was! It was quite painful to watch it as it took me back to Africa. The children in the film went through so much, of course in the film that is how he knows the answers. His poverty makes him rich, quite literally. On a more sacred and spiritual level, it is the same for the children on India and Africa and all the poor across the world. They may not see riches physically, but they have it spiritually - the film portrayed this joy and happiness through a physical gain. One of today's Bible readings tell us just the same - that God promises to transform our sorrow into joy, our mourning into dancing and our sadness into happiness. This comes at a cost - the cost of Jesus - the cost of poverty. The children searching for something on the rubbish tip took me back to scenes in Africa. The violence against the youth and them begging for something to eat put me back on the streets of Zimbabwe. It hurt I guess, but I know that something, one day, shall flow from them places - the streets of poverty and disease. They will be transformed.

I am wondering if the things, the valuable lessons, that I learnt in Africa, will be played and lived out in this place in the middle of England?! God has a wonderful, cruel but wonderful, way of bringing it all back to you, of making us realise the harshness, but also the joy of his love for us.