London 2016 Day 4 – LCM Summer School including Mile End

On this morning I felt well again, so I was looking forward to another day of summer school :)

On our way from the flat to Walthamstow Central station we saw this funeral carriage at the corner of Hoe Street and Albert Road.

The summer school morning started with David Ng teaching us about 1 Corinthians 9 which includes the famous passage on cross-cultural mission.

Later we learned from Imtiaz Khan and Tim Spring about the many aspects of cultural diversity and what impact it can have in a multi-cultural society.

Afterwards we had lunch which was as excellent as on the days before. It’s also time to mention Laura Bol (photo above on the left) who had organised all of the summer school. She was very helpful and caring when it came to individual issues. I had been in contact with her in advance about my body’s whims regarding food and she sent me links of all the food she had ordered, so I could check the ingredients. For Hermann who needed his lunchtime nap because of fatigue she arranged that he could use the library where he slept on the carpet floor after lunch. Big thanks to you, Laura!

In the afternoon we travelled to Limehouse station with DLR. Close to it was Husk Coffee, one of LCM’s projects, in front of which we met with our guide for this afternoon Henk van der Meer. We didn’t enter, but started out tour instead. The sun was shining and it was quite warm, so whenever we stopped and Henk explained something I tried to find some shade which wasn’t always easy.

Of course this wasn’t a tour to see the beautiful parts of the area, but to get an idea about the kinds of people living there – many of them immigrants, but we also walked along a road where many British flags were to be seen on the balconies to celebrate the Queen’s (official) 90th birthday. On one fence we saw this:

After a short coffee / tea break at ELT Baptist Church we set off by bus for a visit to the East London Mosque. I had been to Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and to a mosque in Eastern Turkey, but this building was much bigger than both (at least I think so). They kept expanding and had also bought a neighbouring synagogue – once a large Jewish community had lived in the area.

The summer school day ended with this visit and Hermann and I went down the road to Aldgate station to take the tube back to Walthamstow.

You can read more on this day on the LCM Blog!

London Day 3 - LCM Summer School including Webber Street

This day was one of those which I call my 2 Corinthians 12:9 days – days I’m feeling very unwell, but unable to give in to it, because I have got something important to do and hoping that God gives me enough strength to cope. And this was going to be a particularly long day…

Of course it started with summer school again. Robert Prendergast of the LCM training team managed to lead us through 1 Corinthians 5-7 in one hour. He put it all under the title “Sex & The City”, but his sermon was much more interesting than the first episode of the series of the same title (the only episode of it I ever watched) ;)

After the break we split up and while Helen Thorne (also of the training team) talked to the other group about sexual abuse, our group learned about mental illness from missionary Martin Street. Hermann and I chose this topic, because we were able to relate to it much more. It was not just a lecture, but the participants were asked to contribute to it. Of course mental illness is a broad topic, but we still learned how to reach out to people with any kind of mental health issue.

In the afternoon we visited Webber Street, LCM’s day centre for homeless people. We heard about what they were offering to the homeless people, like breakfast, showers, clean clothes and someone to talk to. We also heard about the kinds of people coming to the centre. What I found most interesting was that there are people from Eastern Europe who are working in London, but deliberately living on the streets to save more money which they can send or take home. Later we took a tour in the house and were shown the different facilities.

After the official part was over, we met with Petra Zimmermann who works for LCM at Webber Street and in the Covent Garden area. She showed us into the staff rooms where we sat for hours drinking tea and talking about all kinds of topics. Two years ago we had briefly met her in the (now closed) Café Eterno at Covent Garden and she and I were in contact via Facebook. It was great to finally “really” meet her :)

In the evening Hermann and I had to go to Paddington Station again where we finally got a replacement for the defective mobile wifi device. We were back in our Walthamstow flat about 9:30 p.m. and I was grateful that God had helped me “survive” and I had even been able to enjoy most of it, despite my body acting up in different kinds of ways during the day.

More on this third day of summer school can be found on the LCM blog.

London Day 2 - LCM Summer School including Vauxhall

To be at LCM HQ in time for the start of the summer school day at 9:30 a.m. we had to take a tube train from Walthamstow Central at about 8:15 a.m. What astonished us was that it was still rush hour, so we had been wrong to think that we were getting through smoothly. Instead we had to sit (from Walthamstow Central to King’s Cross St Pancras) and stand (from KCSP to London Bridge) in overcrowded trains. For me, this brought back memories of the time when I studied at Pitman College almost 30 years ago – then I had to do this five days a week, if I didn’t choose to take the bus which was just as overcrowded (I will write about that particular bus route in my post for day 9).

After Alan Black had introduced us to 1 Corinthians 4, LCM worker Charlotte Mayhew talked about shame and what it means in the context of a shame-honour culture. In such cultures the family or wider community is worth more than the individual and an individual has to take care not to bring “shame” to their community by non-acceptable behaviour.

In the afternoon we travelled to Vauxhall to visit the local Christian Centre. On our way from the station to the centre it started to rain heavily, so we all got very wet. Unfortunately because of the weather the planned walk in the area had to be cancelled and we were served coffee and tea instead and worked on some tasks.

Trying to get the shoes dry.

Please also read about this day on the LCM blog!

London 2016 Day 1 – Paddington, Tower Hill and LCM Summer School

For the Muslims it was the first day of Ramadan – as this bus in Walthamstow reminded us – and for us it was the first day in our beloved London.

 

At first we went to Paddington Station to pick up our rented wifi device.

 

Our second destination was Tower Hill where we wanted to spend some leisure time before walking to the London City Mission HQ where the summer school would start on that day. Unfortunately the wifi device didn’t work, so while Hermann took photos I sat on a bench in Trinity Square Gardens with my BlackBerry trying to sort things out (in vain for the time being). 

Summer school started with lunch. Afterwards we had an introduction on 1 Corinthians by Alan Black, LCM’s Director of Training and Mentoring. He compared the city of Corinth to London. Although a considerable difference in size, Corinth also was a multi-cultural city where all kinds of people from different parts of the Roman Empire and from outside settled or visited. In this city was the church to which the Apostle Paul addressed his two letters to the Corinthians.

 

Later in the afternoon Graham Miller, CEO of LCM, introduced us to the history of the organisation and to London as a hyper-diverse city. All participants had been provided with a bag which among other items contained “Streets paved with Gold”, a very interesting book about the LCM history. 

Photo: @Windy_London

You can read more on this first day on the LCM blog (mentioning me *blush*;) ). Btw, at LCM they had free wifi for guests, so I didn’t miss the faulty device :)

 

Afterwards Hermann and I took our time returning to Tower Hill Station. We stopped in one of the souvenir shops, as I desperately needed another London mug ;)

How Do You Recognise A Christian?

Recently I heard about two Christians, one from Jordan and one from Iran. Both had to flee their countries, because they had converted from Islam, and had asked for asylum in Germany. Even though our asylum laws include people like them and even though Christians in Germany spoke in their favour, they had trouble being granted asylum – simply because the people involved in the decisions didn’t know whether to believe they had really become Christians or not. They had conversations with them on how they converted, their beliefs etc., but couldn’t really tell if they were telling the truth or just faking to reach their aim of a life in Germany. About the man from Jordan the authorities said he wasn’t telling his story credible enough.

These two cases – two of many, I suppose – gave me much food for thought. First I wondered what I would do if I had to decide on their asylum applications. Would I, being a Christian myself, be able to distinguish real from fake Christians? I’m not sure, but then I could always pray about it and trust that God would show me what to do. However, how is it possible for non-Christians or nominal Christians to distinguish? They are almost unable to decide properly, I guess. After all, it is possible to fake faith – at least for a while. Many oppressive governments send their spies into “illegal” churches in their countries and these spies are obviously able to disguise as Christians, deceiving even genuine believers. So how is it possible to distinguish the true from the false ones?

The other question I asked myself was – if I was in the situation of these asylum seekers, meaning if I had to ask for asylum in a foreign country because of my faith – would I be “credible” enough for the authorities? How could I prove to them that I was a genuine Christian and not someone who just had practised the right words and behaviour? I thought a lot about that, but haven’t found an answer yet.