For the second successive time, taxi drviers have taken me to the wrong care home ... thankfully not too far from the correct one, so no real problems.  But, as it was a gorgeous day, and as I can do with some exercise, I walked home.  Quite what the ensemble of clerical shirt, sunglasses and a straw fedora looks like, I'm not too sure, but it was a lovely hour's walk home.  The way the sun was, I almost have a halo in this photo!!

The nature of the care home I visit is that there is a fairly rapid changeover of residents, which makes building any relationships tricky. Nonetheless, the chats are valuable in their own right and, hopefully, bring a little brightness into the days of those I see.

Three highlights this morning:

A person who has been there as long as I've been visiting (3 times now) and who has always said 'go away' was watching tennis on television as I popped into their room.  We had a three minute conversation, and they gave me the most amazing smile.  That felt very positive.

A person who doesn't 'do God' was us for quite a long chat about family and frineds then told the carer, with a twinkle in their eye, "she's trying to convert me".  That made me chuckle.  A lot of 'no thanks' to offers of prayer this time, which is fine.

A person whose room was adorned with schedules for the Football World Cup and other football stuff who, when asked if they were enjoying the football said, 'well not last night'.  When asked why that was, without missing a beat, they said, 'because England won'.  Given my decidedly obvious English accent, that made me smile inwardly - I guess it's a sign of acceptance.

Lastly, I learned that someone I'd been called in to visit who was very upset had been able to return to their own home... that felt like good  news, and was certainly the answer to their prayers.

So, all in all, a good morning of gently missional visiting.