Networking Saturday! ( couldn't think of a rhyme!)

Today I had to take public transport cos hubbie had the car. I heard a landed gentry type guy once say cruelly and rudely that  buses were " scumwagons."
I tend to think folks who go in big fancy cars with chaffeurs all the time everywhere, are missing out on life !
All of human life, interesting human life I met today.
A lady at a bus stop on Alexandra Parade was glad we had had a faith conversation since she was thinking about God at the moment anyway! She said she  hadn't forced her children to go to her Christian tradition because it was based on fear! I asked her what she meant and she outlined what I knew only vaguely from my Glasgow Uni days, that "there are so many sins that can trip us up." I shared how my Heavenly Father is a loving God ( yes to be feared in the sense of awe at His wonderful holiness), but that He sent Jesus to show what God was like and to bring us to God- something we could never earn. Were people in awe of Jesus? Yes!  Were they afraid of Him? No! God is not sin centred looking for ways to blame and shame us...He is all for us! ( though we do need transforming,,,,,,)
Second lady at  going home bus stop was a sight to behold- rather wild in her appearance I would say! She had a rich heritage of working in a church but ranted to me about how bad mankind was, especially to animals- poachers of ivory ( I agreed) and how in the 50's the world was a better place but now  that the population had risen so much, how doomed was the planet...I agreed too, but said how Jesus was coming back again to sort out right from wrong. She said, "do you really believe that?" She shook her weary head and wild hair......Hope we meet again!
In between departing and returning home, I enjoyed chatting to Sale of Workers who had and set up, baked, sold Christmas wrappings and cards and bric- a -brac for church funds...lovely atmosphere. met some family members of church folks, chatted some more, enjoyed a " guid plate o soup." "Ready, on your Marks, get Set, BAKE!" as they used to say on BBC's"Great British Bake Off."
Also met the local  central east SNP councillor at Sale of Work.
Home again by means of two "scum wagons"...bus AND train.
Some daft folks are missing out on a wonderful world of people....let them eat cake and keep themselves to themselves !!!??

Just Another Marvellous Monday!

So privileged today... set off to Riddrie about 10. 15 am to visit one or two elderly folks. First Care Home, and J is  out at her club again, manager tells me. "Ye'll need to come back a Tuesday or a Thirsday. J's here then" Note to diary. Now off to visit a very deaf lady in her home. Told to knock on far away window, which I do, as well as pressing the bell hard! She hears, and comes to open her front door. Success! ( tried last week and "no cigar".) It's good to see B. She had a bad fall and gashed her right eye as well as staving her hand- all in trying to put out her bin and not taking her stick...she's nearing the end of her 4 score and 10 but still bright as a button! We had a super chat and prayer and sing.
Then decided  to go to another Care Home down in the east end- very short visit this time since the lady was head down and asleep, so left a card.
Lunch in Alexander Park with my sandwich... did a couple of texts to family of elderly folks to see how they were. Got out of the car cos the Autumn trees and golden  rusty leaves were calling me to sniff the fresh air!
On way back, two dog walkers and myself saw a man fall hard onto a bench, after swaying in the breeze.
Spoke to him and his boxer dog ( Buddy) as we walked back to the park gates. J was able to hold a conversation, only just. Wondered if he was on something- not sure- no smell of alcohol but I know some addictions do not have much of an odour. J told me he had his bike stolen recently in this park at night time, but that he'd picked out one of the perpetrators at the police station. Misses his bike. We stopped. I told him my first name and where I worked. J told me he used to be in the BB's at the same church. Then felt I ought to ask him if he wanted me to pray for him? He said "yes" so I did. AND he took off his hat as we did so. I was amazed that this man still had a respect for God, or some Higher Power than himself... said bye bye..
drove round to local school to do a half hour lesson on Luke 5 about the paralysed man. Good response from the children. As I was leaving, a member of staff motioned to me, relating that he was in the middle of some kind of complaint procedure, so his holiday had "not really been a holiday; spent a lot of time at the kitchen table filling in forms!"
Just another reminder of the culture we live in, when a small error ( or not) can bring out legal guns from a family that may have an axe or twenty to grind, and this person happened to be in chopping
rang!? We in the Church of Scotland have to be very circumspect these days too.

Chicago No more !

Next summer 2017, several Scottish Deacons are going to the Diakonia World Conference which happens every three years or so. This year it's in Chicago USA ( city of Calamity Jane ( the incomparable Doris Day who had a horrific domestic scene but positively glowed on film) )She called it Shicaggie!
Anyway, decided not to go now, though my name was down to go. Not just the cost, but USA has never been a country I'm dying to go to. Canada, where David and I went for our 25th Wedding Anniversary, now that was brilliant!
Today, I visited a top notch Care Home where there was a noticeboard with daily activities, and while I was there, a young volunteer was doing crafty things with some of the residents, and everything smelt fragrant.
Like some of you reading this, you will have been into Homes with varying degrees of cleanliness and atmosphere. My visitee, I could see, was well looked after.
Praise God for the Care Commission who inspect and grade Care Homes now.
Also popped in to see a retired Deacon while I was passing. it was good to catch up with her.

Visiting !

Today, despite the rain and heavy showers, my spirits are high.
Enjoyed visiting a lady in a Care Home and one in her own home!
Got no answer from a third lady.
Maybe should've phoned first cos it can take elderly folks a wee while to get down a stair, or get up off a chair if they are on their "ownsome" with no-one else that day to open the door to visitors.
Good to remember that and be patient.
Some elderly folks put us to shame with their positive attitude, and I just love praying with and for them as well as singing a hymn of their choice. It's true that "in the giving there is a receiving."

Sat Oct 15th

Woke up feeling a bit tearful...not usual for me. Think it may have something to do with the  flu jab I had  two days ago. It's said you can get flu symptoms of up to 72 hrs afterwards. Might be more complex when you are a "woman of a certain age"....soon to be another  half year (B)OLDER ( as Helen Mirren says!)
Anyway, to help cheer myself up, I asked hubbie and  daughter to give me a long hug! Makes a difference...hug your loved ones!
That helped, tho it made me even more teary-     SO I went out for a walk in the drizzle after listening to God on "pray as you go". Got to my fave coffee shop ( Bean and Berry in Bothwell Rd), counted my blessings
 ( after counting my change at self service check out for sunflower margarine) Enjoyed a decaf coffee, glass of water, and the top of a lemon and poppy seed muffin. (You can't take the "I feel bad" feeling from an ex yo-yo dieter when she eats something "naughty but nice" but feeling better cos she only had the top bit !!??)
SO Have just had a wee nap after treating myself to an OK magazine,grazing the fab pics and reading about one of my favourite actresses, Susan Sarandon. Then I plan to keep being lifted up by God, as I shop online for Christmas, using as many vouchers/tokens for money off that I can! That should do the trick...then collect carry out main meal ( has to be a curry!) while making rice at home to save pennies.
 Hubbie on late shift, Daughter No 1 away for w/e, and Daughter No 2 returns about 7pm.
 Let's hope I've left her enough of that curry to watch with "Strictly" or "ma heid will be in ma hans" as my Mum would say.! Thanks you God that tomorrow is Sunday and I will be with Your people, Your Word and Spirit and singing Your praise!

Do you pop??

Yesterday I was over in Glasgow's west end for a Macmillan Coffee Morning, organised by a friend,M, and held in her Dad's comfy top floor flat, carpeted all the way up, with cleaners on the ground floor cleaning with hoovers and brasso!. ( love the smell of brasso and also lavender polish...brings back childhood memories)
Anyway, I am used to red sandstone tenements, having lived in two in Partick, and  done many visits to folks in tenements during the length of my Diakonate ministry.
Imagine my surprise then, when I was chatting to a neighbour of M's Dad from floor 2, and asked her if she enjoyed popping in to see M's dad and others in the flats.
She replied, " oh I don't pop. We don't pop!"
 I felt like Margo addressing Barbara snootily in "The Good Life" TV show, "No Gerry,we  certainly do not pop!" What a shame that folks can isolate themselves, for whatever reason, by not befriending neighbours- wherever we live. Because of fear, or tradition, or upbringing (I'm guessing) we maybe feel we can't ask help from another who lives nearby, or we fear dropping in unannounced, not by appointment ( royal ??)We prefer our own company in case we are perhaps rejected in some way.

But it was a funny story... " We don't pop !"

Parish Grouping

Have spent today thinking about Church of Scotland Parish Grouping St Enoch's is part of, which is working well. St Paul's Provanmill, St Enoch's Riddrie, and St Andrews in the East, Dennistoun.
We are meeting next Thursday and will be together at an All Saints Day themed service on Sunday Nov 6th.
Busy three months coming up, Carntyne Primary School Harvest Assembly then their  Remembrance Service as well as St Enoch's own.
Then of course Advent begins at end of November...so looking out character studies in advance.

Meanwhile our cat Lucy is going a bit crazy on her scratching post just now...wish we humans had an equivalent... maybe a whole room with multi coloured scratching posts so we could do our Baloo back wriggling moves from the Jungle Book !!

Amazing!

Amazing that after my last post saying "will catch up with Shettleston New folks before long" AND yesterday I spotted two of those special friends in the congregation @ St Enoch's. It was such a joy to see "a weil kent face" and to catch up with news after the service over coffee. Thank you God!

This week I have chosen not to go to an evening meeting, since a colleague reminded me that it's the Interim Moderator's role to oversee such things as LCR's ( local church reviews, which occur every five years, and used to have the awful title of "quinquennials."   (Why does the C of S still have a legal Latin type profile in some of its language? An example of this is Benediction.  It's, what I call, Blessing.

Another meeting this month has the leader of Glasgow Presbytery's Strategy Committee ( of which I was a member a few years back) This Group deals with congregations, often in Vacancy, without a current minister They prayerfully  try to sort out which would benefit from being linked with another nearby congregation. That's the positive spin. Sadly, these visits often put folks on the defensive, thinking it's something that
"will be done TO them" -rather than thinking through for themselves what are the sensible practical economic options. It's such a bad witness  to Christ I always think, when churches refuse to link up and learn to love and unite in His Name.

However, that said...a fellow Deacon once wisely said to me. "You know Dot, technology, media, everything is moving so fast these days, that for some people, particularly the elderly, the ONLY THING, that has stayed the same and where they feel they have a link with the past, is their church and church building. That's why they find it so difficult to lose a building. It's often elderly folks who have HAD to deal with change all their lives, and value their weekly worship and its stability above all.....

Makes you see both sides...