Saturday afternoon, I finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I want book 6 now! I won’t say too much as I know there are a number of people that do not know the ending, or more shockingly who dies!

The book has been left on a cliffhanger with the prospect of a massive ending in book 6. C’mon JK put us out of our misery!!

I failed (or deferred success) this morning as a church goer but succeeded as dad. I woke,open my eyes, and Tom asked if I could take the boys to see Madagascar as there was noting appropriate for them in church.

The cinema on a Sunday morning makes a cool change. The children loved the film, although I can’t recommend it as a ‘must see’!

Wednesday was a long day, which was not then helped with an early start yesterday to get into London. As you will of herd there were more attacks in London today; thankfully no-one was killed. The clear aim was to scare, but I suspect tomorrow people will be traveling around the city as normal. In fact, in the bar where I was having lunch in Westminster, people were far more interested I the cricket than they were in the news flash. Strange how quickly we seem to adapt.

Yesterday I was in Devizes in the evening – its so far away from Gillingham and even at midnight the M25 can manage to develop 20 minute traffic jams. It was bizarre! One minute there were 2 cars on the road, the next there are a thousand of us queuing! I’m convinced it was an alien strike! Or … as I’m reading Harry Potter still, an elve strike! Do you know the elves I mean? Those like the elves who run around with bags of diced carrots looking for people who are going to be sick. They puke, the little elve quickly chucks in the carrots and runs! It is the only explanation – I never eat diced carrot – yet when I am sick ….

Ok … back to Devizes! Last night was amazing. There were about 60 people who had come together to hear what YFC might look like in the Devizes area. There was a good cross range os ages and a clear commitment. The meeting had a buzz and people were obviously excited about seeing the reality of their vision. It was seriously worth the 3 hour drive back along the A303 in the darkness.

‘It’s everywhere’; my title today refers to interest in reaching out, evangelism, mission – whatever we wish to call it.

After meeting Richard this morning I had lunch with Yvonne Criddle, one of the national youth officers for the Church of England. I mentioned that at the moment YFC has over 60 centres and we have around 20 further interested locations which is the most we have ever had. I stated ‘interest … It’s everywhere’. Yvonne asked the question ‘Why?’

It’s a good question. Why? Why now? Why so much interest? Why towns, rural areas and cities? What is different about now that means local church wish to engage seriously with the concept of youth mission. Why is it now that there is raised interest in what may happen?

I do not know the answer. I guess it is a combination of a lot of factors. I wonder whether some are:
the church wants to act but does not know how to, and has found new courage to ask
young people are increasingly portrayed negatively in the press, which may be forcing the ‘we must do something’ issue
maybe YFC is developing a good reputation ‘out there’
our centres are doing some innovative good stuff – so some interest could be word of mouth
Is good moving amongst the church, calling it to mission to the young?

It could well be a combination of some of the above with many others that I am too tired or lazy now to think about. I do know one thing though … whatever it is, it’s everywhere!!!

I have just finished writing my (long overdue) prayer letter. If you’d like a copy and don’t normally get it I can email you the publisher file. I am working at getting it online but I only think about it when I am writing it and so nothing happens.

On the subject or prayer I could do with a few for today. I am due at Head Office in Birmingham at 11, then meeting Simon in Swindon at 2/3 and then we are going to Devizes to present YFC and what a centre could look like there to interested people, and then I will be traveling back to Gillingham.

Not great timetabling I know but sometimes these things just happen – all prayers gratefully received!

After Newham today I popped into Nick and Bridget. It’s always good to catch up with old (or in this case younger) friends. Evie has grown massively and seeing her walk around and recognise words can’t help but make you amazed at how the human body and mind develops so skillfully.

As we sat and chatted (Nick and I not Evie as she got bored with me quite quickly!) it dawned on us that a whole year had passed since SITC and me starting this job. Where does time go? More amazing is how much has happened in that year and how much our lives have changed which must have had an impact on our ideas and thoughts.

Interestingly, unless you stop and actually look back, or unless you are struck by wonderful growth such as with Evie, you can just plod through life without noticing these things.

Amazing.

Today I, and Patrick from XLP, met with 2 of the fantastic people from Transform Newham– Liz and Paul.

Liz, for example, has set up links between youth workers, prayer clubs in schools, co-ordinated events and all just since October. She shared today that she is not now planning to go to Uni in the next couple of years as she feels God is saying stay in Newham. What a fantastic calling and fantastic courage to go with it.

I have spoken of these people before who blow my mind away. They have been meeting for years to pray for the transformation of this incredibly diverse borough. I have now had a few visits to Newham and I deliberately get there early so I can have a brief wander around the streets.

As I wander and pray I get such a great sense that God wishes to do something in this area. It’s not surprising I guess with the massive amount of prayer that has gone on in this area. One major thing they are doing is trying to get prayer light houses in every street in the borough. The map shows in red the streets that already have such a house – amazingly they have other 500 house of prayer! Again, no wonder there is a different atmosphere in this borough.

I met with Liz and Paul today with Patrick so we could talk about youth mission in borough. How we can best support the local churches in what they are already doing. If I am honest I would love to see a YFC centre in this area as I believe we have a lot to offer and that this area is ripe and ready for long term sustainable mission. I believe the churches need to be supported in what they have started.

It would be really cool if this could be done in some unique partnership way with Transform Newham, XLP, YFC and other organisations. It would be great if a real partnership with no individual agendas could emerge to work in this area. It would truly illustrate Kingdom Values that we talk about when we want to. To be honest, the idea scares me. Working with others is always hard. Working with others is always frustrating. Working with others is always flipping hard work. Working together in a new way is, though, I am sure, the only way to reach this generation of young people in this community.

I am excited by the opportunities and the vision and hope to see great things happening in the near future.

It’s been a busy but exciting couple of days.

On Monday I met with 3 of the London Directors to iron out our Mission in London stuff. This is a program where we hope to tailor support, mentoring and training to our volunteers, whether they be ‘full time’, ‘part time’ or ‘after-time’.

As I have said before – we are not developing a gap year program here, but a program that will be on-going and support all our volunteers no matter how much time they give. The distinguishing thing about the volunteers involved here is that they will all be in a mentoring relationship which helps them to reflect on their practice and learning.

I think we made loads of progress. We have a ‘training’ and ‘social’program with dates in the diary. I now just need to type them up and get them out to the rest of the centres.

Oh and MiL-ers …. Mission in London-ers – we have Rich to thank for that one!

I’ve been waiting for years since I put down the last book for this to be published.

Sarah pre-ordered it and when I returned from Aylesbury YFC on Saturday there it was, all new, untouched and with that lovely ‘I am a new book’ smell. The book gently enticed me to open them and allow the first light upon them to awaken the words on the pages. The gentle whispering became louder and louder and after 10 seconds I gave in and started to read.

200 pages, and 11 chapters on, I don’t want to put the book down! I know its written for children but Rowling writes excellently and I just love these books. I have a hard choice on the way to London in the morning – do I take Nouwen to finish or Harry Potter? Decisions decisions!

This morning the bulk of church families met in Riverside Country Park rather than attend their individual groups or go to ‘church’.
We had a great time talking, playing games, chatting, sharing, getting to know each other better, and generally having a great time.

I’m not going to say this was church, but it had a lot of the elements of what church should feel like. People of all ages, from different backgrounds enjoying each others company and growing together. People having fun together and taking a role in everything and looking out for each other. I loved the community sense and feel that today had. It just felt right and great.

Last night Tom went fishing with our next door neighbour. At the end of today we had a BBQ with our neighbours to eat the fish they had caught … from Tesco’s! Another enjoyble experience.

… again until Friday.
It’s a good life – this time, though, I am involv in leading the retrat with YFC staff at the Marist Centre in Nympsfield.

This has been the question on everybody’s lips today as the news revealed that the London bombers were young British men. There is disbelief and confusion. How could this be done by people that are part of our communities?

Questions hang:
What causes an 18 year old who has to do this?
What motivates a father of an 8 month year old child to do this?
There is something here that we are missing and not understanding.

I am disturbed by the hard, war mongering words, that we have heard from politicians so far. ‘The best form of defence is attack'(Bush), ‘we will look how to deport such people'(Blair), ‘we will make new laws’and so on. There has, correctly, been a lot of condemnation of the acts. There has, understandably, been condemnation of the four bombers.

I hope we can change. To now our reaction has been to hunt, to eliminate, to destroy. The shocking state of events, the fact that these were not overseas people, means we need to think again. Our seurity services and our politicians need to ask why and not just react.

I hope we can listen. I hope we can ask Muslim leaders for advice. I hope we can start to understand.