Cavedwellers - Church and Trains

In a land far away in a place called long-ago there were a number of men who continually complained that all they did was the daily grind.

home - train - work - train - home

It was obvious that train was a large communal part of our daily living.

We'd walk to the train, Wait for the train (thank you WAGN), get on the train, sit on the train (most days), get off the train and then, at the close of the day, repeat (in reverse) the whole process again.

At first it was two or three of us gathered together chatting about Sunday's service and engaging in a bit of (sometimes noisy - you have to meet me to understand) banter! 

Then we got into talking about God and God-stuff.

Then the 'proper' Christians left the carriage and went down the train until they were safe from any fall-out!

AND

ordinary people came and sat with us.

And listened

And joined in a bit

And shared

And became part of the family.

On Fridays we started the habit of bringing sweets and sometimes even doughnuts in and handing them around.

On (Good) Fridays (or near to) we passed around Creme Eggs.

people either loved or loathed us - but we were a very real presence of Church on that journey and friendships, support and the odd oasis of God's love and presence was found in the midst of it.

Christmas came and the local Indian Restaurant was booked for what was to be the first of many 'Not the Christmas Dinner' meals and we pretty much filled the place with men.

Christmas the second saw us fill the place again, this time with the late and much lamented Pete McCahon who entertained us with magic.

  Over the years the group has found itself continuing with the Christmas Dinner (not always an Indian though), golf ranges, go-karts, clay pigeon shooting and even getting the dads to take the Kids somewhere for the day to let Mum have a well-deserved break (There was this air show see . . . ),  the annual barbecue in Tim's garden and, of course, making the pilgrimage to :

All in all, what started off with some gobby IT bloke and a couple of other believers has managed to show people that we Christians are probably as bad as they feared but weirdly nice (and attractive) with it!

And the pastoral opportunities (more on that later).

Pax