This Sunday Morning Thought aired on Rutland and Stamford Sound on Sunday 16th July 2023.

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On Friday I left at 5.30am to get to the Indian visa office in London. We’ve been sorting out our visas for a family trip to India later this year. Through my Indian parents, I have applied for a lifetime visa, which I am trying to organise for my wife. The visa office, however, said that I could not apply for my wife’s lifetime visa without her with me, which was not what they said when we sorted out my lifetime visa. So, my wife drove down to London from Rutland separately, only for us to be told in the afternoon that they weren’t satisfied with some of the paperwork, the same paperwork that they saw in the morning. Why didn’t they tell us that in the morning and save my wife the 6 hour round trip? What a devasting day for both of us to drive to London separately without any reward except some instructions on what to do for our next application for my wife. 

So we set off home in the peak Friday evening London traffic and the heavy rain. We stopped at a petrol station where we came across a man sitting outside in the rain. The man’s name was Paddy. His girlfriend had broken up with him and he found himself homeless. He had been applying for universal credit but the process took several weeks, so he was left on the streets in the meantime. Paddy told me that whilst on the streets, he had caught pneumonia, then spent two weeks in hospital recovering, only to go back out onto the same streets afterwards. It made us see that for all the stress and difficulty we had that day, it was nothing compared to Paddy sitting in the drenching rain. We lost a day and some petrol money; Paddy had lost everything through no choice of his own. 

It reminded me of the great work of the Rutland Foodbank as they support people who have lost so much. The food bank, alongside other projects, helps love and care for the most vulnerable in society. When we think we have it bad, we can remember that there are those who have it much worse. Jesus always said to his friends to love your neighbour and to feed and clothe the hungry. There are people in real need around us, including in Rutland. It is our responsibility to ask how can we love and care for our neighbour in need? Who needs food? Or shelter? Or a friend? How can you help someone in need today?