Have I said I love my job?

Well… err I love my job … today!

It’s been great getting out and about and meeting with people, and hearing more about their stories. A lot of the people I have met over the last couple of years are all linked in their stories, even though they may never actually meet each other face to face. They are all linked because they are part of what God is doing in this country amongst young people.

Tuesday morning I met with Patrick from XLP. I found a great guy with a real commitment to serve young people in the south east of London. Some of the stuff XLP are involved in is amazing, and God is certainly blessing what they are doing. Patrick has a real desire to see young people resourced and supported in their mission.

I must have had the biggest cup of black coffee I have ever seen in Starbucks in Peckham with Patrick – I think it looked like a pint of the stuff! – and I was buzzing around for the rest of the day.

From Patrick I moved on to have lunch with Hugh from Greenwich YFC and we had a really interesting chat about stuff that really matters to him. Hugh has an exciting vision to mobilise Christian young people and particularly to resource young leaders.

This was refreshing to hear as sometimes we can be so excited by the work we are doing that we forget to think about the bigger picture and how we can achieve more. Hugh has kind of taken a step back and asked that long term question – and his part of the vision from God is mobilising and supporting young people. As this starts to happen I can only imagine with lots of excitement what those indigenous young people, properly resourced and encouraged will be able to achieve in their communities.

After meeting with Hugh I then walked up the road to meet with Nick, a good and long standing friend of previous YFC lives. Nick is currently working on some research of how young people develop their own faith. I love Nick because I always feel I come away either learning something new or thinking about something differently. Yesterday it was the latter and I came away thinking lots of stuff … which I was about to write down, but I think it’s best left for Nick to put in his paper, as all the questions and thoughts are his!!! While I won’t write here his ideas (that would be plagiarism!)there is a common theme – the reason Nick is doing this is that he wants to ultimately resource young people and so help them in their journey of faith development.

Nick is a really good friend … and it was a great bonus to be able to say ‘Hi’ to Bridget and finally meet Evie, their gorgeous baby daughter.

Today I traveled to Swindon YFC to meet with Simon who is Director there. This was another exciting time, just to hear about what God is doing in someone’s life. Simon has been Director in Swindon for 3 years and is developing some exciting stuff in schools and with events outside.

Again … there was a repeating pattern, even on the other side of the country. As Simon and I were talking he mentioned that he was being asked by young people to run some more clubs in a school. His response was they (Swindon YFC) could, but would far rather support and resource the young people so that they could do it themselves. That is what is happening now.

As I was driving home both yesterday and today, it became clear to me that each of these people was in this mission at great personal cost, with no personal agenda to push – just a great and genuine desire of seeing young people released, resourced and supported to be able to pursue their God given destiny.

In their individual locations theses people are having an impact. That impact is due to a high level of commitment that has no personal agenda. That commitment is also one of partial blindness, as each of these people only kind of know where they are going, but in reality they are not totally sure of where God is taking them or how. They do not let that worry the – they just get on with what they re called to do.

On my travels I have heard it mentioned a number of times that Soul in the City worked so well as people involved in projects cut across church politics and ‘just got on with it!’

If that is the reality of the situation, how come we don’t do that more often?