More Ketchup, Please

Photo - Vyne Field Last Monday

Last Night
I had ten minutes' good chatter with a group of lads (14/15yrs) last night. Just Phil and I went out from New Life Church; Nancy, Nick and Richard all needed to be elsewhere.

The two of us arrived at St Peter's Rec; in minutes Phil had organised a game of football while I chatted to the other youngsters who were watching/playing with the Frisbee.

Phil finished playing and was chatting to some girls, whilst I overheard some lads talking about Jesus and arguing whether he was a Jew, or not. I figured that was a signal for me to step their way and we had a good ten minutes' chat, with them denying everything I suggested - but the encouraging thing was that they were thinking about spiritual stuff before I got there - perhaps prompted by Phil's presence and mine?

I said to one lad that the next time I see him I'll try to be better prepared to respond to some of his questions - many of which amounted to the same old stuff, 'Why should I believe in God?' 'I'm not bothered about going to Hell. If I go to Heaven I'll have to follow the rules, so Hell sounds like more fun'. 'Who made God? Nyer! (smug smile)'. 'Wasn't Jesus just mental for getting himself crucified? I felt desperately in need of Holy Spirit Power - a Jesus-style one-liner wouldn't have gone amiss - it's almost impossible to have a sane conversation about stuff that's as serious as life itself when several others are interjecting their thoughts mid-way through your own sentences.

Despite my failure to make a real impression with my infinite wisdom about life, God and the Universe, I take comfort from the fact that they were prepared to listen to my feeble attempts at encouraging their own freedom of thought - so that they might be prompted to question what they're taught/hear about the origins of life, and how the variety of answers they'll hear might be relevant to their own lives if they bother to disect them. If kids are encouraged to THINK and to not take everything on face value, then there will be hope for us all yet - and my biggest prayer is that there will be hope for them!

Moving to earlier in the week

The Vyne continues to be popular with the young. There must have been 30+ kids there again this week and the relationships there are becoming easier and easier as we move forward. Malcolm, Mary and George had a long chat with a young lad who has had a dreadful life - he's 19 and seems permanently drunk, but if you knew half of the things that had gone on in his life then possibly you might understand why/how that is. Meeting with young people like him has been an education for me: it's taught me to try to look at the man behind the bottle.

Last Week

Was our first week where we weren't able to use The Vyne, because another group has pre-booked the premises on a permanent once-monthly basis. But we were were blessed with glorious sunshine, and the boys loved playing football - courtesy of the Knaphill club lending us the goalposts. (See the photo above). It has to be said that Eileen has done a brilliant job organising/liasing/cajolling people into providing for these young people. BUT - it's a lot of work, especially for someone who is busy doing lots of other things for the community as well - MORE HELP IS NEEDED, PLEASE!!!!!