Big Lunch and Benefits Street

I totally didn't go on the bouncy castle after church this morning, well not until I'd intimidated the little kids off of it first; I was only thinking of them I wouldn't have wanted to land on them.

Our church hosted a Big Lunch where we invited the families from the toddler group and coffee shop to join us, and after the service we had face painting, pool tournament, balloon modelling, loom bands and the aforementioned bouncy castle!

The idea behind it is to build community and for neighbours to get together with each other in their streets and share lunch together and bond I guess!  It's true not many neighbourhoods do this, I know in our street we had a shindig for the Queens jubilee as did most of the country, but aside from that I can probably count on one hand the times since then I've had a conversation with any of my neighbours.

This was highlighted to me last week as I watched the final episode of Benefits Street, seen by some as 'poverty porn', to me I saw people who cared about each other and looked out for one another and actually knew their neighbours and their needs.  None more so than Julie's friend Sue, who went door to door collecting loose change from the residents to pay for Santa and his reindeer to visit Kingston Road, and in particular Julie's severely disabled son Regan. Remember, this is Benefits Street, most of the people featured were unemployed, scraping money together to feed metres, but they were more than happy to donate to see Regan's dream realised, because they knew him and they cared.

It may be because they aren't rushing off to work each morning that they are able to forge these bonds, but I started to feel sad that in my street would I be aware of someone genuinely in need, and if I was would I do something about it?

It's somewhat easy to offer hospitality to the community from the security of our church and that's definitely a good thing to do, but how can we, if we live in a street where most head off to work daily, build a rapport with our neighbours in which we can understand their needs and offer that hospitality where needed?

Diamond Jubilee Weekend

The balloons are up, the bunting is out, no I haven't opened a 'pound store', it's Jubilee weekend. I'm no royalist, but I was beginning to feel like a Jew at Christmas; looking out of my window at everyone else celebrating but not taking part myself, so I have jumped on the band wagon & a mighty fine wagon it is too!


I have two parties to attend over the weekend all in honour of her maj, well actually, one is in honour of 'we've all lived in this street for donkey's years and have no idea who each other is, so let's take this opportunity to introduce ourselves', and the other is my friend's, in honour of 'we've got nothing planned for the bank holiday, who fancies a bar-b?' I don't want to let her maj down so will be attending all and everything in her honour over the weekend.

Anyway this has made me come over all red, white & blue and I was particularly impressed with my Union Flag pasta salad - although glancing out now at our neighbour's house I realise I have omitted the diagonal red stripe - will have to rectify that before it makes a public appearance.




Whatever you think of the Queen, it's a good excuse for a knees up, meeting up with friends or making friends with the people you live next door to, and perhaps a it's a time to look back on what she said at Christmas:

"Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves - from our recklessness or our greed."

"God sent into the world a unique person - neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a saviour, with the power to forgive."

"Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God's love."

God Save The Queen!

How are you celebrating Jubilee weekend?