On A Frozen Sauchiehall Street

Many thanks to the team who braved the freezing conditions to assist with our Christmas invitation and battery giveaway on Sauchiehall Street this afternoon. It was another thrilling example of taking the church to the streets. More than a thousand invitations were distributed.

The highlights? The young Asian man who commented, "Why would you give something to someone who is not of the same faith?"  The young woman who said she'd take some batteries so long as I didn't pray for her. After listening to her heartbreaking story, I offered to pray with her, and she accepted. Nick chatted to someone who didn't need batteries because he is an atheist. His XBOX controller must be powered differently from everyone else's.

At the end, two young men appeared, looking for some batteries. Sadly, by this time we had run out. We gave them some soup, bread and cookies. They are homeless and hungry. We pointed them towards Glasgow City Mission for further help. I hope we see them again. Their stories moved me to tears.

All-in-all, this afternoon was a humbling experience, and a powerful encouragement to reach out with God's love this Christmas.

Comments

[ryan]

And, I gather, these batteries were proferred outside Ann Summers! Impressively broad-minded evangelising. Hope Clone Zone is next ;-).

[GadgetVicar]

We were further down the street from Ms Summers.

We missed your presence, btw!

[Jimmy]

Long ago in a place far away - also known as John O'Groats.

My nephew who was about 12 at the time went to the shop to buy batteries for his cassette. The shopkeeper didn't have them in stock so he locked up his shop drove him to another shop to get batteries then back to our caravan.

That was 30-odd years ago so some batteries have longer life in them than others, some even go on to eternity.

[m0ok]

You mention Clone Zone a fair bit in your posts, Ryan. Do you have a google-like 1p-per-mention advertising deal? ;)

[ryan]

I wish!. Although it's far from being my favourite shop. That would be Forbidden Planet (that I maintain would SO be a better place to have a Wedding List from than John Lewis) ;-). And you can't beat rhyming shops, bars etc. Can't believe there's not more of 'em.

[ryan]

I've had it confirmed that you were DEFINITELY outside Ann Summers! At least you can be sure that people who frequent said locale will need batteries. I was planning to make an appearance, but missed you all! Saw Avatar - tremendous (especially in 3-D)! Parts of it are like a Cameron best-of (replete with many a stupid/genius/both moment) but the sheer spectacle is unsurpassed (it's much better than the rubbish matrix movies, or similar grist-for-the-simplistic-Christian-analogy-mill sci-fi). The political parallels might seem clumsy (and , of course, the great George Lucas already did politically imbued otherworldy CGI spectacle with the destruction of the Jedi temple/ "so this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause" moments of Revenge of the Sith) but they're never the main point of what's happening anyway. Not as good as obvious-influence Dances with Wolves, but much better than Braveheart(not hard etc) and with a surprising amount of heart. Do you never go to the cinema much these days? Your musical adventures can be a bit proggy/trendy for my tastes, but I enjoyed your take on the latest cinema releases.

Where the Wild Things Are is also well worth seeing.

[GadgetVicar]

Saw Avatar 3D this morning. Effects are amazing, thought the storyline is derivative and the eco-warrior/get one with nature/gaia earth mother stuff whilst topical with Copenhagen going on, felt a bit heavy-handed. I did enjoy it though.

On the music front, just been to see Ian McNabb in Largs tonight. He's on again at King Tut's tomorrow night. An amazing singer, great songs and an engaging scally presence. He also covered some George Harrison's "Something" and Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams". 25 punters made for an intimate gig and when he got a lady in the audience called Gaynor to sing solo and later to duet with him,it all got a wee bit mental, but in a really good way.

[ryan]

Cool beans. Talking of 3D, is it just me, or would in not be fab if the Consecration of the next Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway was broadcast in LIVE 3D in other pisky churches? I used to have (now sadly lost, alas) the video of +Idris' Consecration, and am hoping that -for the next Big Bish Inish - they release a DVD. Or maybe a Blu-Ray with extra features and enchanced special effects! o{]:-D

Incidently - as regards the X-Box situation - I feel I must offer a defence of said atheist's possible thinking (of course I'm not an atheist, but I think there' many a time when a person's objection to some part of an evangelising tactic is inappropriately assumed to be demonstrative of them having a 'hard heart' being an 'enemy of God' etc RATHER than indicating a flaw in the evangelising tactic or - as with Alpha - a dodgy argument. Not sure it's good to right off people in that way. The Gospel is God-given but, I hope you'll agree, apologetics and evangelising tactics/philosophies are the products of fallible humans. )

So : perhaps the atheist doesn't NEED (as distinct from 'want' ) batteries because, having rejected the supernatural, he doesn't really on external forces to keep his X-Box in batteries and, being morally consistent, doesn't want to accept a useful free gift if it suggests accepting religious ideology and its potential 'How can you say that Christianity leads to immoral behaviour or that people don't need God?! Have you ever seen *atheists* handing out free batteries?" implications.

Cool you mentioned X-Box! I really don't get the appeal of that Wii stuff. Making gaming into exercise is like a pub selling stuff that's good for you, or turning something fun like a cinema into a glumly worthy charity shop.

[NJC]

In which case, Ryan, you DEFINITELY need to get your sources confirmed!

[ryan]

Ah, you mean that one shouldn't just trust the word of evangelicals? How shockingly cynical! ;-)

[Billy]

"Nick chatted to someone who didn't need batteries because he is an atheist. His XBOX controller must be powered differently from everyone else's."

I would suspect that he saw this as the wolk in sheeps clothing that it actually is - an attempt to evangelise or place the ground work to make people more accepting in the future.

You were trying to bring the church to the streets after all. At least he had the integrity to refuse.

[ryan]

Plus, what's the dealio with the initials schtick that you and Beat are suddenly such fans of? Is it an attempt at JFK style gravitas? What about us non-posh types with NO middle name?! And it could also set a dangerous precedent. What if a fellow called ,say, Francis Theodore Papadopoulos, or Grayson Aloysius Yosemite Leopold Oliver Randolph-Dolorous started commenting on this fine blog?! ;-)