No Cups

I love it when prayers are answered so specifically.

In the last week or two there's been a bit of friction between the Firgrove guys and the Macassar crowd at The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen and this has been heightened by the length of the queue and the fear of missing out.

Whilst this has never led to anything untoward it has at times soured the atmosphere a little and we've had to speak in to the situation once or twice.

So we've been praying for a restoration of the calm and the relaxed vibe that normally accompanies Soup Kitchen.

Last night was such a calm Soup Kitchen with no animosity between folks and the key protagonist in the recent bad feeling sought me out to apologise for his behaviour. What a brilliant and direct answer to prayer. Thank you LORD!

Yesterday I was approached by our landlord who expressed some frustration with the alleged behaviour of some of our Soup Kitchen regulars, especially their attitude towards the shopkeeper at the supermarket next door. Sadly we had to agree to disagree, because my view on it is that the shopkeeper is rude to pretty much everyone and his staff don't treat their customers with much respect. As such, people respond according to how they're treated.

The other issue was that people are throwing the soup around, throwing their empty cups on to a neighbours property and we're leaving the place in a shambles when we leave. None of this is true but it still needed addressing, which I did gracefully.

We later resolved our differences on the issues when it was acknowledged that the main problem is one of the local gangs of teenagers who hang around the shop causing problems. They are nothing to do with the Soup Kitchen and yet funnily enough are always very respectful of me, but I treat them well.