Yesterday afternoon was one of those times when I am reminded how much I love what I do. Although I've given up my job in London I am still working two days a week at the chaplaincy at Queen Mary college in Mile End. The cake-related injury was the result of much 'creaming' (using a metal spoon to squish vanilla essence and sugar into butter, for those of you who don't bake). It takes a good ten minutes of strenous creaming to make a decent batch of butter icing, at the end of which a blister had formed on the second finger of my right hand. But oh, the cakes tasted good... It's the university exam period right now and the students appreciate sugary treats when they come into the chaplaincy between exams. Actually, they appreciate them so much that I have to hide batches away in order to ration everyone's sugar intake.
Anyway, yesterday afternoon while I was sitting nursing my blister and some of the students were sitting around trying to summon up the energy to go and do some more revision, we covered a whole host of conversation topics. Caffeine addiction and dehydration (this was uncomfortable for me as I suffer from migraines brought on by dehydration), the doctrine of the trinity, belief in God, evolution (briefly), the Tamil Tigers, the situation in Gaza, the state of Israel, the BNP, Buddhism, veganism, my own brand of vegetarianism (which was derided - but I'm used to that), my testimony (the 30-second version), blind faith, inquiring faith, the Old Testament, the apostle Paul's comments on celibacy, Christian love, finishing up with three of us getting little Gideon New Testaments out (not at my suggestion, incidentally) and reading 1 Corinthians 13.
Blisters aside, being paid to have discussions like this, with young adults who are mostly sceptical about Christianity, is heavenly.
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