Shocked? Well maybe your perspective would change if I told you T.J. was only sixteen months old!

How many of you, however, began wondering 'is this someone I know?' and began perusing imaginary pews to try and guess which member of the congregation I was about to expose? Or maybe you thought: 'does he mean me?' and began trying to figure out how I even knew.

More and more God seems to speak individually to individual situations. The bumper sticker 'what would Jesus do' has left us with a powerful legacy.

The miracle of the Gospel is that we don't have to go looking for God because he came looking for us. He's the great lover and fixer of humanity. There's a scene in the controversial movie, 'The Last Temptation of Christ', where the Jesus character is sat in a waiting room with half- a-dozen other men, and at the other end of the room is a veil, and each man in turn goes through; and behind this veil is a young woman called Mary, who hasn't, it seems, fallen too far to be saved. Your first impression may be that Jesus can't be Messiah, because God wouldn't go in there! But the Jesus of the gospels goes to the people where they're at, and then he waits.

Someone once said that there is nothing anyone can do that will make God love us any less. Maybe someone you know is stuck in some mini-backslide of some form; maybe you've lost that first love and gone looking for it elsewhere; maybe someone you know hasn't met Jesus yet. Maybe you find yourself relating to the story in some weird way; maybe you're in the queue; maybe you're at the wrong end of the queue; or maybe you're that friend, that parent, or that spouse who is back at the other end, praying, watching, and waiting.

The bible has a better example - in John 4, Jesus meets a woman at a well; her family background is pretty dysfunctional, but Jesus waits to meet her where she is at; right in the heart of her situation.

The Welcome sometimes feels a bit like being at that well. There are times when it feels like you're waiting for something to happen, and then suddenly a situation comes walking in through the door, often quite literally, and we suddenly find ourselves asking the immortal question, 'What would Jesus do?'

Well, we have had our fair share of stories pass through. There are people with extraordinary life-situations; both among the staff and the customers - everyone seems to have a story to tell. We're now in the lull after the summer scheme, and we are gradually gearing up for the chaos of Christmas.

Our biggest prayer is for fresh volunteers, as many have begun to move on, and gaps are beginning to show - time is our most important commodity, and anyone who can offer any is most welcome to share in our adventure.

May you, wherever you are, find Jesus waiting for you, and may you emulate his life through your own ministry.