( Pollok House, Glasgow)"I woke one morning recently with a strange goal. I set out with a desire to beautify the world as best I can, whether through cleaning my house, having an inspiring conversation with someone, or serving in a way that makes another feel loved. These are all ways in which I can beautify the world around me."
- Rebecca St. James
She talks about how the church should awaken its hunger for beauty at every level.
I love it when people see something that most see as a derelict and hopeless place, but they see it is worth salvaging and restore it to even better glory than it's been. Here in the UK it's a business and a passion for many people to buy houses and re-do them. I love that. It requires a lot of effort and engaging but they love (must love) to do it. I admire that.
This place used to be a factory and then I think unused (?) for many years. But it's a beautiful building. Well, some visionaries and entrepreneurs caught on it, and now it's a lively centre where there's many businesses (it's not a mall though), artists, events, there's even a church (Free Church of Finland) that has a Chapel/resides there! It's from my hometown, where I grew up in Finland. I think it is simply awesome what they have done. As many caught on it and stepped onboard, and now it is a lively centre and livened up the place. I'm sure it is a blessing to the whole town and provides vitality and brings people together. Well done, Kehräämö! I raise my glass for the two or three business men who started it all. I have such joy over this one.
I think the same way God sees us. He sees the potential in us. He sees us worthy of salvaging. He restores and beautifies us. He is into restoration! No hopeless cases.
2 comments:
Really nice church, I must say. :)
Yeah :) It's not actually church the whole building, but they have a chapel in there among all the businesses that reside there. So the church is where the people are! I think it is so cool..
Orimattila is about 90km north of Helsinki, just before Lahti, I recommend a visit there! You can buy all sorts of crafts etc.. If you guys fancy doing a little summer trip =)
Also another similar one can be found in Lahti, Wanha Walimo: www.wanhawalimo.fi - I was going to add it in this post, but the website was completely in Finnish and no photos to describe it so well as Kehräämö.. so I thought one example at this point was enough.. Wanha Walimo is also a church project, Kääntöpiiri Church behind it to benefit the whole community of Lahti. =) Pastor Markku Tenhunen got the vision of this centre and then they found this building, comes out that the building resembles Solomon's Temple quite a lot..Ain't that cool..
I will probably post about it sometime in the future when I am in Lahti myself again and going there! But it is definitely worth a visit too!
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