Commitment-Phobe: Who is my neighbour? - Reform Magazine
Who is my neighbour?
Last year, we had an opportunity which seemed to be a gift from God. We heard through church of a landlord looking for Christians to rent his flat. The rent, though higher than ours, was extremely reasonable for a three-bedroom flat in London, so I checked it out. It was just minutes from my church on a lovely, tree-lined street. It needed some work but in its spaciousness we could see the potential for our daughter to grow with sleepovers and homework clubs. We could see friends and family coming to stay. We could see ourselves hosting small groups, people in need, little gatherings. But the cost was a bit too much for us. The landlord, having done his research, was keen for us to live there, and offered us an amazing deal on the rent, which left us speechless. It seemed a sign.
We decorated our daughter’s new room while packing up our old place. We moved in, and spent all day cleaning, carrying, going up and down stairs. Some lovely people from church cooked for us, baked for us, put curtains up for us. We were overwhelmed by their generosity.
At 7pm on that first day, we were exhausted. The online food delivery man had just rung the bell, crashed and banged in the shared hallway and departed, slamming the door, when our downstairs neighbour came to talk to us…
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This is an extract from an article that was published in the September 2018 edition of Reform
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