Another email from the Burma Campaign:

Great news. DHL have just announced that they will end their joint venture with Burma’s military dictatorship. DHL has been in partnership in Burma with regime-owned enterprise, Myanma Post and Telecomms.

Thank you very much for your support on this campaign.

The move by DHL now increases pressure on French oil giant TOTAL Oil to pull out of Burma. To coincide with TOTAL Oil’s AGM, we are holding a demonstration outside their headquarters in London, tomorrow Friday 12th May.

Please come along and let TOTAL know what you think:

Friday 12th May 2006

12.30-1.30pm.

33 Cavendish Square
London
W1G OPW

Nearest tube: Oxford Circus

I can’t get to this due to other things later today – but if you are in the area why not go give a shout for democracy.

If you have no clue about the atrocities occuring to the people of Burma then click here.

I got back from Wareham in the early hours of the morning, deciding that traveling along the M3 and M25 at 11/12 at night was going to be better and give me the whole day to work rather than just half a day. I also decided to drive as I had a load of energy after the meeting and new it would take m hours to get to sleep.

The enthusiasm shown by the 20 or so people last night was mindblowing. Many of them were old, most had no clue about reaching young people, most were scared at the thought of approaching young people in the park/streets/school, all told me their churches would not be suitable for young people when they became Christians; but all, every single one of them had an obvious passion for the young people of their town.

They understood they did not have the skills, the knowhow, or probably even the energy; but they know as well that God is telling them they have to do something for the teenage generation of their town. The level of faith, the expectation and the desire to follow God’s will was outstanding. It reminded me that my personal ‘myth’of ‘all the exciting stuff happens in the urban centres’is so badly wrong!

The leader of one of the churches was a guy called Paul Shepherd and the name rang a bell. He used to live in Gillingham when he worked for Medway YFC and also did some work in Gilingham Baptist Church. An amazingly small world; it always surprises me how God brings people together who share both passions and interests.

I’m fairly sure that I will me traveling to Wareham again in the not too distant future as things move forward. If you know people in churches in this little town, or have other connections, get in touch as these people are going to see some exciting transformation happen in their town.

Off to God’s own county, my home county, in a few hours to meet up with people from the churches in Wareham who are thinking of setting up a YFC centre. This is a part of my role that I really enjoy!

Dorset is the county I mainly grew up in, and it’s quite a pain to think I will be an hour away from my home town of Weymouth and not be able to get there – another time. I will however, be able to enjoy the delights of the county as I drive along the A35!

I’m looking forward tonight to hearing about the vision of these churches in Wareham which sounds like quite a nice country place with very few young people. We have camped on a site at the edge of Wareham a few times and when there I was struck by the numbers of young people that were there, milling around and looking lost. It is a nice holiday place, but very little for young people to do or relate to. Being thoroughly converted to urban-ness I quite often forget about the (many same) issues that young people face in rural locations.

I pray tonight will be the start of showing some of those young people the way home to their creator. I pray tonight we can start to transform young lives

The morning at the Tate Modern worked well, and it was exciting to hear reports back from people after quite a short time of wandering around galleries with the task of seeing of we could hear God through the displays.

My YFC friends returned quite enthused and surprised. One particular piece a number spoke of was ‘Towards the Corner‘ a sculpture by Juan Menoz. People were struck by the infectious laughter on the faces and how it totally disguised the greyness of the characters. I particularly wondered why Menoz had chosen 7 men. Out of all the numbers he could have chosen, why the Biblically perfect number 7? Others thought God was saying though this quite simply that we needed to have fun more; that we needed to take ourselves less seriously, stop getting so stressed by work and actually enjoying being in God’s presence.

This struck a particular cord as we asked ‘when did we last actually just enjoy God’s presence for no other reason than just that enjoyment? Why do we alsways feel we have to be doing something, achieving something?

I was also struck by Some Roses and their Phantoms by Dorothea Tanning. A work suggesting that behind the normal everyday life we lead there are indescribable forces at work and that the membrane between those forces and us is exceedingly thin. That kind of fits with my belief of God in the community, thinly, if at all, veiled.

We all felt God was speaking through different pieces. One particular quote by a Matisse piece challenged me:

‘I have attained a form filtered to it’s essentials’

Reflecting on my life, that is a challenge. I would like to attain such a form,I like the simplicity of life that it hints at; but I enjoy my possessions, the games I play, the un-essential stuff that I have a lot of fun being part of. It is still something to think on though.

This is an excellent view.

Today we saw loads of people walking across the bridge, away from St. Paul’s and towards the Tate. It was like sitting in a modern day cathedral and watching the people respond to some call. A prophetic statement maybe? If so, bridges are 2 way and people to cross back and forward with regularity.

I was left with an odd feeling of sadness, though, of realising that people could walk into the Tate for free, and yet they need to pay £8 to set foot inside St. Paul’s.

Last week was not my best week ever, probably goes down as the worst in a long time for a number of painful reasons, and so I am particularly looking forward to meeting up with the rest of the London YFC directors in a few hours at the Tate Modern, which is one of my favourite places to hide out in London.

Later today we are going to try and step out of our comfort zones. It strikes me that quite often as Christian youth workers we challenge young people (and others!) to do this – step out of the comfort zone. It’s a cliche I know, but I wonder how often as workers we follow that advice.

Today we re going to try something that could go horribly wrong, but if it does we are amongst friends so does it matter? After the business art of the meeting, we have a task of wandering around the gallery looking for God; or more specifically for how God is talking.

We all know God talks through nature, through visions,and so on; I also believe God speaks through culture, through media, through arts. John Sentamu said the other day ‘Christ is present in all cultures, and at home in none’. Today we are going to see if we can identify God speaking through the art on display in the Tate Modern.

I’m looking forward to this morning – hopefully I will have stuff to tell you about later!

Found this from Henri Nouwen on Quotes for Today which makes a lot of sense and answers the ‘how/why do you write?’ questions:

Writing is not just jotting down ideas. Often we say: “I don’t know what to write. I have no thoughts worth writing down.” But much good writing emerges from the process of writing itself. As we simply sit down in front of a sheet of paper and start to express in words what is on our minds or in our hearts, new ideas emerge, ideas that can surprise us and lead us to inner places we hardly knew were there. One of the most satisfying aspects of writing is that it can open in us deep wells of hidden treasures that are beautiful for us as well as for others to see.

In other words, the actual activity of writing can aid our thinking, can surprise us with what we come up with.

This blog, for me, is essentially thinking aloud in a journal type way. I throw things around and hope to come up with something more rounded than when I started. The 20 or so regular readers (do you need to get a life?!) know as fact that a lot of my thinking aloud should actually stay in silence in my head! The end result cab be so much better, however, when others comment.

I am reading quite a lot for my course at the moment and one of the sad things is that it is not possible to speak to the author, to ask questions, to challenge, to ask for clarification with the ‘yes, but what about …’ type question. Everything is so frustratingly one sided, which I actually quite dislike.

I love it when people comment here, particularly when we are coming from opposite ends of the spectrum with our ideas. To many, this method of dialogue may be alien, through fear of offending or worry over what others may think of your comments. This, though, is a great way to think, to reflect, and to ponder, and to develop ideas. I love being challenged and made to think, so don’t hold back there – rather than just reading, why not start to write either here or on your own blog?

Received today fro, The Burma Campaign:

Dear friends
Last week we wrote to you with the very disturbing news about a new military offensive the regime has launched against civilians in Karen state. With the violence escalating, we are calling on the UN Security Council to act. If you are able, please join us at a demonstration outside the Burmese embassy on 16 May.

Thank you.

UN SECURITY COUNCIL MUST ACT TO STOP ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS IN EASTERN BURMA Over the past week more than 11,000 people in Karen State have been forced to flee their villages, and the number is rising every day in the the worst offensive by Burma’s junta since 1997. According to the Thai authorities, almost 2,000 have fled to the Thai border where they are living under plastic sheets in a temporary camp. But thousands more are being hunted in the jungle, without basic food, medicine or shelter. As the Burma Army seeks out ethnic armed resistance groups in the areas East of the new Burmese capital, Pyinmana, they have been pushing innocent villagers into forced relocation camps, turning villages into ‘free-fire’ zones, kidnapping people for forced labour, burning and stealing food stocks, shooting and killing indiscriminately, raping, torturing, and laying landmines.

We cannot allow this to continue. It is time for the UN Security Council to take action to stop these attacks.

There will be a global day of action on May 16th to stop the violence in eastern Burma and demand UN Security Council action.

In the UK we will be holding a demonstration outside the Burmese Embassy on 16 May from 12.30pm to 2pm:
19A Charles Street
Berkeley Square
London W1J 5DX

Nearest tube: Green Park

To find out if there is a protest in your country visit and click on the link for the campaign in your country click here.

I met with the YFC people co-ordinating Mission in London today. We achieved a lot and are ready to move on into our next year – so if you know anyone who wants to give time to mission urge them to have a look at the website.

We want to be helping people to grow and reflect, so all people involved in MiL will be assigned a mentor whose role will be to help the person reflect on what they are doing, how they are doing it, and so on.

A few meetings ago I think it was Hugh who came up with

‘ 12 years experience; is that 1 year repeated 12 times, or 12 different years : 12×1 or 1×12?’

One year repeated over and over again, making the same mistakes each time, doing the same thing each year; or 12 years, the experience from each building on what has been learned previously.

We want people to reflect, to learn and so gain year after year of good reflective experience: if we can achieve that we can see this fantastic city of London transformed.

Tonight I met with the 14-18 peer cell leaders. This is always a highlight of my youth work with Sarah as these young people are excellent and really such a joy to be with. It’s always quite sad when they leave the house at the end of the session as the discussions are always thoughtful and real.

Tonight we were looking at questions as one person in particular was struggling to find answers for questions. We came to the conclusion that many in church seem to have stopped asking questions and that they just accept certain things about their faith because ‘they just do’.

Could it be that people have stopped asking because they are afraid of what they might find? Does this indicate that people do not have real trust in who God is? This was a possible conclusion we came up with. We felt there was some evidence too.

The church has failed to make a significant impact on this nation. We wondered if that indicated a lack of trust in our message by those in church? If so, does that lack of trust come from a failure to question? When we question, when we analyse, when we turn to the Bible we look afresh at what we believe, we question whether what we read is backed up in experience, we search for new ways to assimilate ancient truths into our everyday lives, we look to re-interpret for ourselves and our culture.

A failure to question is to take on old truths in old packaging that we do not really understand. We take these on because we trust the person that taught us years ago the truths that he (and only very possibly she)had based their lives on. In effect we are living on that persons faith. Because we have not had to test this, to question this, to analyse this, it is difficult to trust our lives to it.

Tonight these young people decided that they needed to question more, that they needed to take on these ancient truths, but in a new way, in a way that will have meaning for them, and in a way that will have meaning for their peers.

Tonight was exciting, and I am really looking forward to taking up this discussion again with these people in a few weeks.

Today has been a horrible day in the main. I can’t say why, but without a surprise visit from a wonderful sister in law today the day might just be unbearable. All jobs have parts to them that no one likes, today was my day to be involved in stuff like that.

I got a great card today reminding me, and laughing about, living your dreams. To receive such a card as you are off to a school to hear a grievance is a great reminder that we are part of something far bigger than we can ever imagine.

Today I did not get to live my dreams, but I guess part of the living dreams territory must, inevitably, be tough. I guess it is not possible to live dreams without nightmares cropping up.

Today I started the day thinking about major big things and how I was going to get through the day, the little thing of a card was so profound and timely and it may seem strange – but that little thing sustained me today. It gave me hope and reminder that God, not me or peoples decisions, control destinies – even destinies of others.

The little things we do make such a massive difference – so I’m thinking that I must go and do something little for someone as today I have experienced first hand the massive effect it can have.