Last night

So last night our cell group had a refresher course on helping out at the night shelter. It was good to see that Arion, the superintendent has a couple of new people eager to help him out. He told us that he had not slept the last two days, and with a test coming up this morning, he wouldn't be sleeping tonight either. So, regardless of any help he may already have, Arion could do with more help at the night shelter. Between that, his theology studies and his family, he is a very busy and exhausted man, and although he puts up a brave front, anyone who can help out will be greatly appreciated. If you want to get hold of him, contact me, and I'll get you in touch.

In general, the two biggest needs are (a) for people to help between 5pm and 7pm - letting people in at the gates, and arranging that everyone gets food for the evening, usually by heating up donated food that has been frozen; and (b) people who are willing to handle the overnight duty at the shelter. This is in case any issues arise overnight, and to arrange breakfast in the morning and let the inhabitants out in the morning. There is a bed provided for the person staying over, and I believe there is a nominal payment for someone helping out in this way.

After that, our cell group met at Jocelyn's flat, and tackled some more of C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters" - we discussed 3 chapters (19-21), with some more commentary on Chapter 18 also popping up. However, before we could start, everyone first had to meet Frikkie, Jocelyn and Elzette's new ringneck parrot, who wandered from person to person drinking tea out of their cups. At about a year old, he's just starting to talk a little, and has just got to "Hello, hello" and "Hello, Frikkie".

One of the most interesting chapters last night was that which claimed that nothing is really ours: although society makes us want to reduce everything to ownership, actually in the final analysis, everything belongs to God, although (according to Lewis) Satan is trying to conquer it all. We are effectively just people looking after God's stuff. One of the biggest issues here is that our time is not our own. As he says, we get it all the time, but as a gift - the sun and moon are just as much ours as our time. Changing your perspective on this has great parallels with what Johan talked about on Sunday about success.