I'm back...

Just over 24 hours since I returned from Kolkata, India.

As soon as I stepped off the plane, memories were fading.
I slip into normality so easily here.

I don't want to forget what I've learnt out there. Or what I've been challenged on. God's heart for the whole person. Every ministry we were involved in out there was always about, "Jesus loves you - have some medicine," or "Jesus loves you - let me give you some food and an education."

I LOVE THAT.

I love that for them, the idea that Jesus loves everyone is not just restricted to a box labelled 'spiritual stuff'. Spiritual, physical, emotional - they're all connected. In Matthew 5 before Jesus began teaching the crowds from God's word, He saw they were hungry, had compassion on them and fed them.

I know that in England, the poverty is different. We don't have the same amount of children living on the streets, or the kind of begging we saw in India. But we do have poverty. We have families who can't afford to feed their children properly. We have adults who are living on the streets. We have girls of all ages forced into the sex trade. We have young and old abused by those they love.

Mother Teresa said that the greatest poverty is to be unwanted, uncared for and unloved. We definitely suffer from that here in England. In India, families look after the elderly. They are seen as important, wise and valued members. Here in England, we ship off the grandparents to homes, leaving them to cope with loneliness by themselves.

We visited Mother House, where Mother Teresa's ministry all started. Her tomb is there also. What an incredible woman she was. I don't think I even realised it until going there. She tells a story of seeing a homeless man in the street and going over to shake his hand. As he takes her hand, he says, "I've forgotten how amazing it is to feel the warmth of another's hand."