Tonights service at Thames View Lodge was entitled 'Heartbeat'. I asked if they could remember their 1st love - well that produced some interesting stories and quite a few laughs plus some aaahhhh moments especially from Tom. Tom and his wife married when they were 19 and up until her death two years ago they had been married for 61 years.
We talked about the TV programme 'Heartbeat' which is set in the 1960's and, as the blurb says on the internet, was so called because the English bobby, in the 1960's, was always out on his beat and because of that he had his finger on the 'pulse' of the community.
The Bible reading was a passage I read at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's wedding in 1982 taken from JB Phillips translation - Philippians 2:1-4
Now if you have known anything of Christ's encouragement and of his reasurring love; if you have known something of the fellowship of his Spirit, and of compassion and deep sympathy, do make my joy complete - live together in harmony, live together in love, as though you had only one mind and one spirit between you. Never act from motives of rivalry or personal vanity, but in humility think more of each other than you do of yourselves. None of you should think only of his own affairs, but consider other people's interests also.
I showed some old photo's of Barking which many of the residents recognized and could give me a full description of who lived where etc etc and what happened next etc etc - so we linked that it being in tune with the 'pulse' of the community (community being the community they now find themselves in within a sheltered housing complex) and praying for our neighbours. We referred to the bible reading and talked about 'live together in harmony, live together in love' recognized that although I read this at a wedding - it relates to any kind of relationship.
I read a poem written by a fellow-blogger which has the line ..'You saw the best there was in me' and we talked about our relationships past and present and how a 'true' friend brought out the best in us. We also prayed for the person who wrote the poem. We mentioned that Jesus loves us for who are and what we can be through Him.
Finally, I closed with a song by Jim Reeves "I love you because.." which can be seen on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPi4GXsolr0
Tea is always important on these occasions because it gives me, and my wonderful ladies from Christ Church who support me on a Thursday evening, the opportunity to wander around and chat to each person individually and, if needs be, to share a word of prayer.