Moving into the neighbourhood

Yesterday (Oct 26) I visited firstly the grave of the founders, William & Catherine Booth, then to where it all began - the East End of London, the place where William 'found his destiny', joining the Whitechapel Mission which he was soon to lead and rename The Christian Mission in 1865, before changing the name to The Salvation Army in 1878.

We visited the corner on Mile End Waste where he first met the missioners and stepped forward to 'have a word', the site of the Mission's tent meeting on a disused Quaker burial ground where he was invited to preach, the Blind Beggar pub where he took his 12 year old son Bramwell to show him the sin and degradation, proclaiming "these are our people", and the early buildings that the Mission used for their meetings, the first being a Burlesque Theatre!

Astonishingly to me, all of these places were within a very short walking distance of each other. It was some years before the Mission grew large enough to begin expanding out of what was essentially a small neighbourhood. It was in every sense of the word a local mission.

It was a reminder to me that God has placed us in a neighbourhood, and we too can achieve great things for God in our neighbourhoods if we possess the zeal for the Gospel that WIlliam Booth had. We don't need to cover huge goegraphical areas to see great results - we just need to start right where we are.