I have just returned from an excellent time in Newham. I don’t know what it is about the East End of London but the three times I have visited I have returned full of enthusiasm and a desire to see YFC working in partnership with the local church to reach the thousands of young people that are outside the touch of any of the churches.

I while ago I blogged about Transform Newham and the way that the church leaders had been praying for transformation of the borough for 20 years. That still strikes me as amazing. It would seem that a lot of groundwork has been done through this prayer and I think it’s a good idea of what Kester Brewin means when he talks of waiting on advent rather than rushing into things.

Today I went to the River Church which is an amalgamation and used to be the Mayflower Centre which was set up by David Shepherd many years ago and the Elim Way Fellowship. I even know people in Medway in their 50’s who talk fondly of David Shepherd and the Mayflower centre as a place they used to regularly go when they lived their as kids.

I met with Mercedes who is an incredibly enthusiastic but switched on youth worker in the borough. She sees the need for some partnership work to reach out to the kids of the area. As in many inner city areas the kids have been let down by successive workers (apparently the average post expectancy of church workers has been 12 months!) leaving as she has a desire to both stay and see some rooting of good quality long term youth mission outreach.

One of the church leaders has called together a meeting of youth workers in the borough sometime in January when we can talk about dreams and possibilities of what stuff might be able to happen.

I’m really quite excited. I think this has been my best week yet in this new role. In one week I have spent 2 days in London and we are at least TALKING about how churches can ‘do mission’ with young people. I really hope this one in Newham takes off as the needs are so obviously there – as I drove into the estate I could sense the desire for love in kids faces. These are the sorts of areas that I want to be working and where YFC and the local church could develop innovative forms of mission that see young people being saved!

When I left Newham I was able to pop in on my good friend Nick Shepherd and have a chat. Such a cool guy and great to spend time with him chatting about the issue of YFC and London, and pulling him away for a little while from his PhD writup. He may even have given be a workable idea for inner city boroughs which, if it comes off, will be fully attributed to its ‘birther’!