It was a pleasure today to catch up with Luella who is the new director of Basingstoke YFC. The drive was good, and the conversation was excellent. Hearing what Luella has achieved in such a short space of time is amazing and her faith and trust of God is both exciting to see and infectious.
I’m really excited about what we may see God doing here.
I always love my London days.
Today it was good to meet up with Richard from Oxygen – such a creative and deep guy who it is always great to chat with (and not only said because he reads the blog!). It was just excellent to be able to share what we have been reading, ideas on mission, ensuring we keep a ‘vertical and horizontal connection’ (Rich’s quote) in all we do. I love the imagery of the phrase!
I was then able to meet up with good friend Jeremy for lunch where we were able to chat about SEITE and training and all that kind of stuff.
I then zipped across London to have a coffee near London Bridge before meeting up with Lincoln for my tutorial where we looked at what I should be thinking about in the lst few months of my training which seemed to go well.
Ended the day with SEITE lectures and chat on the train home with Justine.
Busy, active but great day.
Today I led the prayer meeting for the Waltham Forest YFC team. I always enjoy meeting up with this team and it is a privilege to join them each term to pray. Over the last year I have been conscious how the team has changed and been under pressure as well as experiencing the agony of seeing young people involved in gun and knife crime. It’s been a tough year, but in places like Waltham, every year is a tough year.
I felt strongly that I wanted to encourage this team and remind them of the hope that they have in God, and the hope that we can breathe into the lives of those that we work with ‘who do not know where to go and are like sheep without a shepherd’ (Matthew 9: 35-38).
I used an idea from Ben Edson at the OPM day recently who told the story of Pandora’s Box. After opening and shutting the box (which let out all the evils into the world) the only thing left in the box was hope. In the box that hope was symbolised by bread and wine which I brought out for us to share. We also joined in this liturgy which I wrote for the occasion:
In their reality of broken and hurting families
Lord; help us bring your hope.
In their fear of being an individual
Lord; help us bring your hope.
In their experience of violence and gang culture
Lord; help us bring your hope.
In their feelings of hopelessness
Lord; help us bring your hope.
In our conflicting pressures at home and work
Lord; give us your hope.
In our frustrations of being misunderstood
Lord; give us your hope.
In our tears over lack of care and resources
Lord; give us your hope.
In our fear of stepping out and being rejected
Lord; give us your hope.
This week
May we be agents of hope
Breathing in your hope for our lives
And breathing out your hope for the lives of others
Amen.
I paid my first visit to Norwich YFC today to meet up with Mark Tuma, the director.
It was a great journey and it was a privilege to sit in the centre of Norwich and listen to Mark as he shared his vision fir the centre. It was just great to sit and experience some of the excitement he feels for the place in which God has called him. There was passion, desire and a strong commitment to take the centre where God is leading.
Another great example of YFC supporting a young person with a dream and seeing it become an exciting reality.
Today I have been able to catch up with Hugh and Lyndsay, the directors of Greenwich YFC and Chislehurst YFC. Amazing to think they are only a few miles apart and yet their respective areas, the the young people they work with, are vastly different in so many ways. This is reflected in the differences in their respective ministries which are unique to them and has come from reflection with God.
The many places I go and speak with church and youth leaders always seems to lead to the same question which is shrouded in many different ways but is the same nonetheless – ‘what is the secret?’ or ‘what one thing do I need to do?’
I have long thought there no such thing as youth culture. Over 3 years ago we used to have this discussion as a Gillingham YFC team. Rather than one ‘youth culture’ there are many sub-cultures within cultures. This gives us the challenge of not being able to use a tried and tested system that has worked elsewhere. This means there is no blueprint.
Not strictly true I guess – there is a blueprint of principles, such as respect, love, time … and it is from these that what we do needs to be developed.
The secret must have something to do with observing our young people and creating space to listen and reflect with God. As we watch, notice, reflect and listen maybe we can then we can start to think about how we may join with God in reaching his young people.
What do you think?
Yesterday I spent the day chatting Berni from Camberley YFC and then moved onto Portsmouth to meet with Simon and Joe who are trustees of Solent YFC.
Listening to Berni’s stories of innovative work was exciting. Hearing of things like ‘Giggles’ which is a comedy club held as an outreach to young people in the 18-30 age group just amazes me at the creativity of some of our workers. Berni has also developed a great pack to make an impact on the funding of his centre which I shall be sharing with others.
IN the evening I met up with Simon and Joe. People like them are the hidden part of YFC, but the important backbone upon which much of the local scene of YFC is based. They have full time jobs but volunteer as trustees to run the centre and be responsible for how it runs. Currently they are looking to be innovative in increasing their funding as they have a new director starting in January. If you are in the area and wish to be involved in supporting Solent YFC as it relaunches please get in touch.
Whether I’m chatting to the front line workers, or the people behind the scenes the story is the same – sacrifice for God, listening to God, stepping out with God, and I think in that order.
Last night was an excellent evening.
I drove to Basingstoke to join around 300 people from the local churches to worship and take part in the commissioning of Luella Moody as the director.
It was particularly excellent for two reasons.
One was the diversity of the turnout. There were young people approaching their early teens squashed together fighting to get to the front where the action was and their grandparents sitting further back.
The second was Luella’s story. She told how she has been changed by responding to God’s call on her life and how when asked what her dream job would be that she responded with ‘to set up a YFC centre in somewhere like Basingstoke.’ The person asking apparently sat ‘mouth open’ as she was aware of the talks YFC had been having with the Basingstoke churches and how we were just about to advertise for the role.
It’s incredibly exciting when you see how things are knitting together as part of God’s plan.
Please pray for Luella as she starts this exciting ministry.
It been a great few days catching up with my YFC friends in the south west of the country.
Every year the Leadership Team of YFC meet up with the centre teams to listen to what is happening and share ideas that they are having. This is always a great time. I left the house at 5.30 am on Thursday morning to get to Weston Super Mare for the LT Tour so that I could combine the time with having brief conversations with these great people who are all over the south west.
It’s just such a privilege to meet with these people who are incredibly humble, often in very challenging circumstances, who do outstanding work in such a graceful way while counting it a privilege to be involved with God in his mission. It’s really cool to spend a day in a room with a lot of other people sold out on reaching young people with the gospel.
I left Weston to drive to Weymouth and send the evening with my mum and brother. On my journey I prayed and asked God that I will never lose the grace that I saw my friends displaying today; that I will always remember the privilege it is to work with a missional God.
It was great to be able to preach at and be involved in the commissioning of Lyndsay as the director of Chislehurst YFC and of Rachel and Coz as co-workers with CYFC.
Lyndsay has only been in post 7 months and yet she has recruited a team of people and doing some amazing work – please hold her, Rachel and Coz in your prayers.
There is going to be some exciting stuff happening in Chislehurst!
Yesterday I had the great pleasure of meeting up with a couple of people, Ray and Dione, from a church in Wandsworth. These people were full of passion to see the young people of their neighbourhood challenged with the rdical love of Jesus. They also understand the reality of urban ministry and Ray tells of some of their experiences in his article ‘Postcode Apartheid‘.
I really hope we will be able to work together and see some great stuff happening in this part of London. If you live in the Wandsworth borough and want to know more or feel you ay like to get involved why not get in touch?
The Shiny Headed Prophet 