by the Rev Roberta Topham

Minister at Christchurch URC/Methodist partnership church, The Grove, Ilkley

AT the end of August, my sister and I were desperately trying to find a (badly) signposted cafe in the middle of some mountains in Northern Ireland and having almost given up, we stopped the car, and I went to speak to an approaching cyclist.

The man on the bike not only accepted the interruption on his journey, he got off his bike, parked it, and walked a little way with me along the right road as he gave me details of how to get there. While thanking him I also asked if he lived locally and in reply he told me a quite a few things about himself, his family and importantly his bike (electric and very useful for getting him up the hills now he was older).

The same open friendliness was there in the cafe, when we finally found it. In fact, shortly after we settled ourselves at a table, a woman with a notebook came over and instead of standing hovering as waitresses often do, she sat down at the table with us! I was so surprised by this I felt I had to ask if she had come to take our order just in case she was just another customer. She had indeed come to take our order but she had also come to welcome us and find out about us. And so the chat began and when the food came it tasted all the better for the friendliness of the people serving it.

Now it is September many of us are about to start new years at work, school, or any clubs or societies to which we might belong. No doubt we will meet new people.

Perhaps sharing our stories and taking some more time to talk with each other will make this a very much better year. In the Christian Church when we read the Gospel accounts about Jesus, time and time again he stops to talk and to share stories. Perhaps bringing him into our conversations would make life and work even better still.

Wishing you happy chatting.