Liverpool Connection!

Me and the team I am leading at the moment spent Friday June 8^th in Liverpool. We ended up making a random connection with another group from Youth With A Mission that had come over from Boston. When I first said Hi to them they were amazed, as they had met one of the other outreach teams that the current Discipleship Training School I am helping to lead sent out in Glasgow. So to meet us was crazy, especially as it was all unplanned, God is so funny like that. I met them because I had left the rest of the team to take a walk with God to encourage people as I went. Walking round the city centre, going left where he told me and right where he told me, talking to people as I went and eventually God lead me straight to this other team.

While I was talking to one of the guys two skater kids came past us and we got talking. I found out that the guy I was talking with (Matt) had been talking with them a bit yesterday. This conversation really broke my heart and challenged me greatly; it started off with the older of the two (who was around 16) saying that he would rather believe in science than God, which is where the conversation had ended the other day. The only problem with this is that I am a trained scientist (I did a marine Biology Degree) which meant that the defense he was trying to use about science fell down. Then I felt God tell me he does not feel loved, so I asked him if this was true and he just said yes, in an almost defeated way, and almost started crying. So I got to tell him how when I met God properly for the first time 5/6 years ago I was filled with an overwhelming sense of being fully loved, like I had never felt before. This brought back all the emotions for me too. We got to talk about this for a bit longer at which point his mate who had listened said he thought that maybe this was a good thing, maybe they should meet God themselves. I had to run at this point as my team were leaving, so I left them with Matt and another guy to talk about what this meant, saying yes to God, saying yes to Jesus.

The whole thing brought me back to that place of such thankfulness for the fact that God loves me, and everyone else for that matter, no matter how much we may have messed things up. And how much it breaks my heart to know that others do not feel loved at all, it makes me angry that people do not know this, that the world has lied to them, telling them that they are not loved, or valued, that they have no hope. It was one of those moments that brought into sharp focus the reason for why I do what I do, why I listen to God and follow what he is saying.

Spreading Hope in Stockport

I spent the day spreading hope in Stockport with my team and Stockport family church (www.stockportfamilychurch.org.uk) on Thursday (June7th).

We spent some time praying before we went and asking God for words of encouragement to put in a big box for people to come and take from. We also spent some time praying about the weather, as it was supposed to rain for the whole day, when we got into Stockport the rain stopped and did not start again until we left, which was amazing, God is so good.

When we arrived we started with worship (a guitar) and continued this for the whole time we were out. We also set up a question board for people to come and write on and headed out with a video camera to ask people what hope is.

It was such a fun day, the worship was very significant, as people would come and stop and then start asking us why we were around, as did the question board. It was a really great time of being able to answer questions about hope and God, and bless people, some of them even asked about coming to church to find out more. One of my favorite stories came from one of the guys on the team who had gone out with the encouragement box; they managed to stop a guy who travels around on a mobility scooter. This guy looks like a pirate with a bandana on his head and he asked if he could take three notes to which they said yes. After he read them he started asking about whom God is and about where the church was as all the notes had been very specific and significant to him. The funny thing about this is I had managed to give him a note the week before when we just came to pray round Stockport to see what God wanted to do.

The video camera was a lot fun, most people told us that hope was looking forward to better in the future. One woman even told us that hope was what she had found when she met Jesus the year before. It is amazing to see God at work in people, and to go and be apart of that is so exciting.

The Flame Passes...

As we all know, I hope, the Olympic flame is passing round the UK at the moment on a tour prior to the opening ceremony in July.

The team I am leading at the moment happened to be in Bolton when the flame was coming through. Since this DTS (Discipleship Training School) is a UK focused one due to this being the Olympic year, we thought it would be really cool to go and see the flame and pray for the place and the Olympics at the same time. So we headed down to Bolton town centre an hour or so before the flame was due to pass through the town centre and spent time praying and speaking out scripture to bless the people. It was a really big party atmosphere, and it was really amazing to be a presence of God in that place.

 

It was one of those ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ situations, I am probably never going to see the flame again like this, so it was really amazing to be able to join in the celebration, but also to be able to pray for it as well as I know prayer makes such a difference.

 

Invading Space!

The YWAM (Youth With A Mission) team that I am leading at the moment in Newcastle had an opportunity to partner with an organization that calls itself space invaders!

http://www.spaceinvadersgateshead.org.uk/

Over the last couple of weeks we have joined these guys for 4 days of renovation on a house. It is being used to give local youth, some of which have been excluded from school, a space to be creative. The youth do a mixture of helping to renovate the house and simply be creative, for example of the final day we were with them they were given a pile of wood and told to create something, they came out with things from bookshelves to a swing.

We spent the time helping the project to strip a number of rooms of the many layers of wallpaper, and then fill the holes ready for them to be re-painted.

The project is not run by Christians, one of the ladies who work on the project is and she told us that having us around made the atmosphere seem so much lighter. One of the other ladies was also very curious about why we had come to join them, and asked a bit about our faith, she also accepted being prayed for on our final day with her.

We had a lot of fun, and it was really nice to be able to see the progress as we come back each time.

Faith in Newcastle

I have recently been in Newcastle with a small team working alongside YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in Newcastle. The guys in Newcastle had put together a number of different activities for us. One of these was something called a faith day. An open day on our schedule in which we ask God what he wants us to do and follow his lead. The rules are no returning for 12 hours and you are not allowed to take any money, food etc, it is all done by faith, trusting God in everything.

I really enjoy being involved with these, especially with a group who have never done it before, as it really does teach you trust in God and hearing his voice.

 

So we headed into town and after praying as a group and asking God about what our morning should look like, we went around and spoke to everyone we found who was on crutches, asking if we could pray for them. We got mixed responses, but did get to pray for more than a dozen people. My favorite lady was an older woman who was waiting for her sister; she had arthritis in her knees. After talking for a while about the city and her memories of the place we prayed with her. We also stopped to talk with quite a few homeless people and got to pray with all of them.

At lunch we asked God what we should do, and felt like we should go to a local park and enjoy the sun. So we headed there and had a nap for about an hour before we had a time of intercession for the city. This was a really powerful time, with everyone hearing the same things from God.

We felt like we should then go and do some practical gardening work, so we eventually got connected with an asylum seeker from the Ivory Coast in Africa and helped him with his garden. This was great as when we finished he gave us tea/coffee, as much as we could drink, and as many biscuits as we could eat. We were told a couple of days later that our visit had helped to lift him out of his hopeless mood and get him fired up again for life.

We also got a call from the YWAM leader in Newcastle after we left him to let us know that someone had made us a curry and brought it round, so when we got back we got to enjoy that. We had more than enough for the next day also!

We ended our day down at the station, where I sat and had a long conversation with another homeless guy. I really enjoy just chatting and giving people time and an ear to listen. He told me as I left that I had made such a difference to his day, that by just stopping and giving him some company it had really helped him.

All in all we had an amazing day. We not only got to see God touch a few lives, but also provide for us. The comment from one of the guys was it was a great day for addressing attitudes he had, and to really confirm to him both that God is real and that there is a reason for him being here.