Saturday, July 20, 2013
Back in action
The blog has been on hiatus for a couple of months and
most of you will know why! Our son Shane
David was born on 22 May, he weighed in at 7lbs 8oz. So much of our story for the past month has
revolved around readjusting our lives to welcome in this precious boy into our
family.
The problem with trying to update this after two months
is that there is too much to write about and it becomes difficult to know where
to start... but I'll do my best to give
an update about what has been happening with
the Wilsons for since I last posted on here.
It's a boy! Shane David Wilson
It's hard to believe that Shane is almost 2 months old! He is unbelievably strong and is constantly
trying to lift his head, something his sister didn't do for twelve weeks! As most of you know from our e-mail and
facebook updates, he was born with a cleft palate. It is only his soft palate, the reason it
didn't show up on any scans. He will
have an operation to correct this when he is 6 to 12 months old. The support from the team at the Yorkhill
Children's Hospital have been brilliant and a great source of support, have
really helped to put our minds at ease.
Friends at our church here have been brilliant as well, cooking meals
for us and taking Niamh out so we can get a few extra things done.
 |
| Shane meets some friends! |
If you're interested in Shane's condition, I don't
recommend googling the words 'cleft palate'
as this can bring up some information that isn't reliable and present
images of cases much more serious than Shane's.
The best thing to do is have a look at the CLAPA (Cleft Lip and Palate
Association) website -- http://www.clapa.com/
-- the leading charity in the UK working on cleft.
A Funeral
A well loved Palestinian volunteer at St Rollox died as
the result of a heart attack a month ago.
She left behind her husband and three sons. It was a shock to everybody as she was only
in her early 50s. She was involved in
creating a Women's Group for minority women and often held things together in
the St Rollox nearly-new shop. She was a
community leader and will be missed by many.
I (Paul) was able to attend her funeral at the
mosque. It was encouraging to see how
many people showed up. One of her sons
came up to me and expressed how humbled he was that so many of his mother's
friends from the church attended to pay their respects.
Please pray for this family as they experience the grief of losing a wife and mother.
Football -- Endings and Changes
I've handed over my leadership of the football team I
coordinated for two years, the Bishopbriggs International AFC who played the
churches league. As much as I enjoyed
this ministry, it was starting to take more time than what I had available, and
I believe the team came to a point where leadership could be handed over. I also think that the team would be better
served by somebody who was more of a 'football person' than I am. Currently, the coach John is taking over full
leadership of the team and many of the players have stepped up and are taking
responsibility for organising matches and team finances. It was an exciting ministry and I learned a
lot in the process of organising a team.
Football in Glasgow can be the source of a lot of stupidity, thuggery,
and sectarian nonsense. And while there
were many challenges during my time as team rep, I believe that football can be
a great tool to build bridges and foster community where it doesn't exist. I also offers many opportunities to share
faith naturally and relationally. Not
only in what is explicitly said to the team, but in how the coaches and players
who are believers respond to the situations that organised sport throws up:
humility when things are going well, grace and wisdom when there are discipline
issues, and trying to be peacemakers when the team turns in on itself after
tough losses.
Handing over Bishopbriggs International isn't the end of
my relationship with football in Glasgow though. I am keeping the more casual Friday programme
going. I've written about this ministry
a lot in the past, so won't bore you here.
But it remains an ideal way to meet refugee men: particularly guys who
are newly arrived, a lonely, and lacking social outlets. Men from Muslim backgrounds are still
learning about language specific outreaches as a result of football and getting
plugged into local churches. Many of the
African Christians are being encouraged in their faith and use Friday Football
to engage with their friends who are not following Christ.
 |
| Our new 5-a-side park for Friday. A strange mix of things going on: massive church in the background, and an advert for beer... and most of the guys who play football on Friday come from Muslim countries. |
Here is a video of Niamh who begged to come along to
football a couple weeks ago. She loved
it and has some pretty impressive skills, I think you'll all agree!
A St Rollox Summer
For the first time, St Rollox is remaining open for the
summer -- though some services have been scaled back. The Destitution Support Programme is still
running, as is the drop in cafe and Citizens Advice Bureau outreach. The 'nearly new' shop, English and computer
classes are off for the time being. It's
brilliant to have enough volunteers to stay open, which we haven't had in
previous years. It also means that we
have more continuity with the community staying open all year and there will be
less of a 'lag' when the mainstream services resume in September.
So, watch this space again for more news about what is
happening with the Wilsons, should be able to update this more regularly as
some feeling of a regular pattern comes back into our lives!
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