Fire in our hearts - Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
CITY ON A HILL
We walked into the crammed Octagon. Jim chuckled at the
posh decor we had inherited. (I assured him that even with
our ‘mansions’, we were poorer than the average Englishman.)
Pete Matt, our family spokesman and holiday-school
headmaster, was holding forth and soon the questions turned
to discipline. Carol smiled sweetly as one of the children
tugged at her hair.
‘Yes, we do train our kids quite carefully,’ she said. ‘Pete
and I find that our children need the security of being under
our authority. They need a lot of love and care and we try to
spend as much time with them as we can. Of course, love
means that we sometimes have to discipline them.’
‘Yes, said Pete: ‘Proverbs 29:15 says, “A child left to himself
disgraces his mother.” I think society is quite blind in
this area, and we see the fruit of it on the streets.’
‘What about toys?’ asked another.
‘Ugh!’ said Pete, ‘Consumerism gone mad!’ We like simple
creative things like Lego and Meccano... and word games.’
‘And pots and pans!’ added Carol.
‘So why don’t you have your own school?’ asked one person
perched precariously on the window seat.
‘Too expensive and too much hassle!’ said matter-of-fact
Pete with a twinkle in his eyes. ‘Apart from which they need
to handle the world. We’re not a desert island, you know!’
‘Look!’ whispered Jim, ‘I’ve got some questions for the admin
group.’
‘Hang on,’ I said, ‘they all change soon.’
Afterwards, we moved next door to one of the old bars where
Ian ‘Insight’ answered Jim’s questions about joining.
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