Wycombe was not a great place to be last night, especially if you were a motorist. It started snowing soon after 2:00pm and was still snowing heavily four hours later.
And so it was that we were asked to open our Church as an Emergency Rest Centre for people stranded by the snowy roads and icy hills. Roads normally busy with traffic had only pedestrians struggling between cars and vans abandoned at the roadside. Read about it here.
Through to 2:00 am people arrived. Some walked in as though they were arriving for a meeting, some arrived as though they had trekked from the Arctic, one or two looked as though they had been mistakenly delivered by emergency ambulance to us instead of the hospital.
Thirty five people slept for the night at 'Hotel Union'! About 20 others came through the doors and were fortified and warmed for the next stage of their epic journey home. Never has the town or Church witnessed the need to be a Town Centre Snow Shelter before!
God, on the other hand, seemed less surprised and to be working to a nicely visible plan (his plans are often invisible of course).
My colleague Pastor Tim has just recently taken on a role as Police Chaplain, and this gave us goodwill and communication from the outset.
Our Church Administrator has been a Hotel Manager and so Calvin might be described as the perfect Staff Member in the circumstances! He's also a great cook, so the motley collection of material available for Breakfast was transformed into good stuff on the plate.
Our Youth Worker Matt, shortly to depart for New Zealand, was still present, and able to give us confidence with the teens who arrived. Two of them stayed overnight with us, away from their families.
One of our members, having been inspired to do Street Pastor work, responded immediately and came in to help at this opportunity.
When I was sliding down the hill to help, I heard the familiar voice of one of my Elders in the sea of darkly clad walkers struggling up the hill in the opposite direction. When we met, he immediately joined me and ended up staying and working with us through the night (moral of story, beware of passing Pastors!)
As our premises host the Wycombe Winter Night Shelter we had a good supply of air beds and a magnificent supply of blankets and sheets.
We thank God for His planning, which appears to have greatly exceeded that of others. He even planned it in his instructions to the first Christian Churches - Share with God's people who are in need. Practise hospitality. And he'd said it previously to his ancient covenant people too - The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh, your God. (Leviticus 19:33,34).
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