It’s been a busy bank holiday weekend for the folks from West View. Our Filling Station on Friday was well attended with some of our regulars although we did have to break out the towels for some of our guests courtesy of a rather heavy and unexpected rain shower.
We had a lovely compliment paid to the team. One of our Filling Station friends described the conversation he has with members of our team as been uplifting and helping him with his confidence and finding ways to sort out his problems. He described talking to the people from our church team as “speaking to the ears of God”. What a fantastic way to describe our simple offer of a community meal and friendship.
Our Sunday service was a little different this week. We had a café style to the service, with a break for coffee and 
cakes in the middle rather than at the end. Ian and Amanda led with the 
music for us and Esther led on the scriptures and activities for our children centred service. Our focus today was on the table of hospitality and the invitation to share the feast that is what God invites us to share. Esther took us through Romans 12 v 1 – 2 and v 9- 21.
We also looked at Psal
m 23. V 5 -6 and Isaiah 25 v 6-8. We encouraged all to do something different by inviting them to draw 0n their tablecloths and share their ideas on what they would like to see as part of a feast. Esther shared a number of photos showing family and church family celebrations and the street party held for the recent royal wedding. She also shared her own recent experience of finding herself almost looking for excuses when she was asked to provide hospitality and accommodation for a visitor. This is a danger we all face either in responding to an invite or indeed in offering an invitation or hospitality ourselves.
We also played the parable of the Great Banquet to help our young and young at heart to think about the message here. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BZwdwpE7_9c
We also had a short service at Sheraton Court on the afternoon. As our pastor was away on holiday we used a collection of videos on a laptop in order to lead the service. We continued the theme from the morning. We had so many residents and family members we ran out of chairs and song sheets. I’m always amazing at the lengths that the staff in Sheraton Court go to in order to provide stimulation and memory prompts. Their mining area gives an example of the thought they put into things for the residents.
