I had an illuminating experience today! For some time I have been trying to curb my coffee and tea (caffeine) intake. This isn’t the easiest thing for a Salvation Army Officer to do as everywhere you go you are offered either tea or coffee!
If you work at the hall (as I do most of the time) then well meaning soldiers bring you mug after mug of either one of these devilish brews! It's hard to explain why you don't want it without coming across as self righteous.
Just around the corner from the quarters is a quaint sandwich bar, run by a Turkish Cypriot name ‘Tony’. Tony serves the best espresso in Dartford (possibly Kent) and also does a mean mustard, cheese and ham toasted sandwich.
I’ve tried to limit my visits to Tony’s to no more than once a week. However, today, I popped in. Tuesdays is an early start for me and I am usually out of the house by 5:30am – today I had one task after another and didn’t get any chance to have a break until 2pm when I found myself (by sheer coincidence) close to Tony’s. Under the circumstances I felt no guilt at all in popping in for a quick coffee and a sandwich.
Imagine my surprise when Tony said to me “I want to volunteer to help The Salvation Army, I want to go to bed at night knowing that I have done something for God’ – well you could have knocked me down with a feather. I promised Tony that I would pray about his offer and try and come up with something useful that he could do.
I always thought that people who said they were going to Starbucks to ‘network’ were simply using a euphemism for ‘idling’ but maybe there is something in it after all? Maybe being in these places (in uniform) once a week, far from being a sin, is actually part and parcel of incarnational ministry.
Answers on a postcard please…
Love and prayers A
