Last night Phil Hazelden invited me to meet some of the young people with whom they've been working. Phil, Marcelle and four lovely ladies regularly go out to meet young people who live in/near to the road they've adopted that's close to their church. They do so in great humility, not in their strength but The Lord's. They also go out in some trepidation, never quite knowing what will happen but going nevertheless and trusting The Lord to keep them safe and to guide them.
Even before we went out there was a ring at the church door where two young people were waiting. I could see that there was a clear relationship between them and the team. Although both of the young people were extremely exuberant and loud, they were at ease with the church team and keen to walk around the estate as a unit - shouting most of the way :o). The effect this had on me was interesting. Shirley will tell you that I'm probably the biggest fuddyduddy you'll ever meet. I've always believed kids and young people are best when they're well-behaved. I still have a preference for good behaviour, but last night taught me that just because they're noisy, they're not necessarily being intentionally annoying. There may be reasons for their behaviour and I suspect that these bear some relationship to wanting to be noticed. Is it perhaps the case that if you suffer deprivation of one kind or another that you might want to seek attention just so that others know you're alive? Very probably so. Phil and his team have clealy communicated to these young people that they actually like them. In some cases, this might be the first time that these young people might have heard this from someone outside of their own network.
We also met up with several other young people, amongst them a young lad and a young girl, each of whom is seriously challenged in ways that I won't go into in this blog. But I will ask you, please, to include them on your prayer list. God knows who they are and what's happening in their lives. One of them, the lad, appears to be seriously thinking about becoming a Christian. Listening to the gentle exchange between Phil and him, I'd say he's at least aware that there is a better way for him. I pray he won't lose sight of that and that he'll have Jesus to fall back on when life becomes tougher for him, as it probably will.
The team is due to take several of these young people on an adventure day on Saturday. Let's please pray for their safety and ask too that something of the love that Jesus has for these young people will be understood by them. This is a growing process. Thank God for the Team, thank God for the young people and thank God that they are open to the growing relationship that exists between them, which provides an ample foothold for the Holy Spirit. As George would say, they're ploughing the field.
Phil and his team are very keen to support me and others with me who want to go out to Horsell Common/Knaphill. They'll come out with me/us. The Team is due to meet soon (date to be advised) for a prayer marathon. These start at 8pm and finish when they're exhausted - expect 2pm, sometimes later, sometimes earlier - the clock doesn't really come into it. If you feel that you should be there then please email me at jndurrant@gmail.com and I'll let you have the date when I have it - you'd be welcome and they'd love the support.
They've also offered to come out with me/us on prayer-walks. This to my mind sounds a great idea. For me, the best off-the-cuff analogy I could think of last night was making the first cut into a piece of wood with a saw blade. If you're not terribly good at carpentry (which I'm not) chances are that the blade will skate across the surface of the wood until you succeed in denting its surface. It's only after that that the blade starts to cut deep and straight. If I were a carpenter I'm sure I'd be able to cut wood without thinking. If I were Billy Graham I'd be a great evangelist - but I'm neither, I feel like the least of you except that I've been challenged by God and I'm doing my best to rise to it.
Prayer-walking around the village therefore seems to me to be a great place to start. It's the thumb or pencil line, if you like, that keeps the saw blade/guides it straight until it starts to cut. If you've read this far, thanks very much - and please consider whether you would be able to come out with me on prayer walks both to Horsell Common and/or Knaphill. Phil's team always says that it's 60% prayer, 40% action. Patience therefore is hugely important so long as it doesn't become complete inaction - focus (keeping God in the cross-hairs) is totally essential but if you've a butterfly mind, as I have, actually not that easy. So please pray for me too, that I might be patient, true, and faithful.
Lastly I'll share with you that as I drove in my car yesterday morning I prayed aloud, as I often do, and hope that people who see me will think I'm talking hands-free (which I suppose I am, in a way). With complete seriousness I asked the flawed question, whether praying out loud was really more for my benefit than His. Was I, in other words, praying as a reminder to myself - in essence creating a to-do list of what needs to be thought about - or was God actually listening? I seriously have no doubts that God is there but I suddenly felt that, perhaps, (as I hadn't heard from Him recently) He was content and happy for me to remind myself of what I had to do. I can hear you all say 'That's stupid', and you'd be right a) because that would mean that I would be acting in my own strength and b) because Phil, after praying last night, said that he had felt The Lord saying to him that He IS listening to my prayers. I promise that I hadn't advertised that particular question/inner thought to the Team. Apart from anything else, that would have dishonoured them and what they're trying to do. I'd never do that and although I had never had any doubt about the challenge The Lord had set, I was still confused about His modus operandi. Now I'm not! :o) How GREAT HE IS!
Much love
John
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