Christmas
It’s been over a month since I last posted on my blog. However, this has to be one of the busiest Decembers ever. The beginning of the month saw our wedding anniversary and we had reached the grand figure of 25 years. We couldn’t let this achievement pass without a celebration so our family and friends joined us at the Phoenix City restaurant, Stalybridge. It was really important to me to celebrate as, according to statistics, one in three marriages end in divorce. We now have a generation of young people that believe that long term relationships don’t work. I’m not having a go, relationships break up for many reasons and some are just not worth saving. I would never ever encourage someone to remain in an abusive relationship, but there has been a shift in attitude, people are now walking away from fundamentally good relationships instead of working things out. Believe me my marriage is not been perfect, there have been bad times as well as good. There was one time when it would have been far easier for me to have walked away than it was to stay and mend it. I’m not going into details as that’s between me and my husband but suffice it to say I’m glad I stayed. I don’t know what the future holds but we made a commitment before God to remain married until death parts us.
I belong to a lively church and we endeavor to be a relevant part of our community. We have a thriving Mums & Tots group but the members rarely come to church although they regularly seek advice from the leaders and are given a strong but caring Biblical message. We have one opportunity a year to speak to these ladies who do turn out for our Christmas service. The Christmas service is like no other, normally sane people make complete fools of themselves in our pantomime after which, our long suffering pastor, preaches the most important message some of these families will ever hear. What you have to understand is that to Christians, this is life or death!
This year we performed our very own version of Chicken Licken aptly named “We’re Stuffed”. I played the part of one of the farm yard hens so didn’t have too many lines to learn but along with making costumes and face painting it was more than enough.
Street Pastors have been really quiet over the last couple of weeks, the students have returned home for the holidays, and most of the Christmas celebrations take place in the city centre. There are also lots of schemes providing food and shelter at this time of year so we don’t tend to see begging on the streets. We are taking a break over the Christmas period and will return to the streets on 5th January 2013.
I love Christmas and all that it stands for. We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ with our family; both our sons joined us for Christmas day. Since they were very young we’ve always ensured that they had loads of presents to open. Not expensive stuff (although they always get 1 major item) but loads of daft toys and games. This year my husband and I also bought each other a “joke” present: imagine our faces when we both opened the same gift. How weird is that?
But it’s not about the gifts; Christmas is about the son of God being born on earth. He had the most humble of births but His legacy goes on forever.
I’ve now been working as a street pastor for 9 months and for me it has been life changing. I found it easy to sit in church week on week. I still do that but now I challenge my faith on a regular basis and I truly take the church out onto the street with me. The result is that my faith has been strengthened beyond recognition. And what have I learnt? I’ve learnt that no amount of money, no government, not the NHS nor the welfare state will resolve the problems of man.
For every person we feed someone will remain hungry.
For every battered person we attend another will be alone and hurting.
The problems of man will never be solved by man. But I have a message that is as relevant today as it was over 2000 years ago;
John 3:16 New International Version (NIV)
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Luke 4:17-19 New International Version (NIV)
17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.