Buckled bikes and alleyways

So yesterday I went down to Wingfield Close to check out some potential project sites and I lock my bike up against a metal fence and off I go. I clamber up this overgrown, litter strewn dump of an alleyway that has been a dumping ground for years and ruined the back of people's gardens.

Then I have a conversation with a local man who shows me his garden (very nice) and he tells me how he no longer knows his neighbours, how the community spirit has disappeared and he's afraid to even ask people their name any more.

By the time I get back to my bike I understand a little of what he meant, the chain has been cut and my bike dumped over a fence buckling the back wheel. No point to it, just bored, meaningless vandalism, although I guess the lads that did it found it funny briefly.

I move on and visit some more residents who for a variety of reasons are struggling with the upkeep of their properties and gardens. You get a sense of how poverty (in its many varied forms) undermines people's ability and capacity to manage. There seems little point.

Well I'm not accepting that - not in my town. I don't accept that there should be families in one of England's prosperous county towns should be left to feel helpless and hopeless, if they do then the church is failing in its mission. Soul Purpose can make a difference in those homes and families lives and through a practical demonstration perhaps people can sense or feel just even for a moment that God loves them. Let's hope so.