MUGA-Lite

Mondays
These past few weeks we’ve not had much opportunity for relationship-building in Knaphill as the young people have been inside in The Cabin, and we’ve been concentrating on preparing the ground for the Inkerman Estate. But, hopefully we’ll have more opportunities these coming weeks now that the MUGA floodlighting has been installed –making it more likely that young people will venture out on dark evenings.

I went there a few nights ago and took some photos (with permission) of some 16-year olds playing football under the floodlights. One of them said, ‘This is awesome’, another said, ‘We’re loving it’. The £10k+ grant application for the lighting installation was submitted by one of our Outside Light lads and supported by Geoff Ward of Woking Borough Council, our local Knaphill councillors and Knaphill Residents’ Association. We’re really blessed to have been able to have worked with this excellent group of professionals, and we know from the young people who are using it, that it’s already a huge success. Thanks to everyone for pulling out the stops to enable this to happen.

I’m hopeful that as a result, dynamics in the area will change from last year, where young people were congregating in the car park next to residential property and playing football there amongst other things. Now that the MUGA is floodlit, there’s no reason for them to do that. The main benefit though, is that young people have further evidence from society that they’re cared for.

Since Outside Light’s arrival on the scene last year, they’ve seen adults taking an interest in their wellbeing; The King’s House was opened to them as a drop-in; The Vyne provided a larger venue, thanks to Eileen and Knaphill Residents’ hard work; and now they’ve got MUGA lighting. Hopefully it’ll dawn on them soon, if it hasn’t already, that they’re valued and cared for. Hopefully this’ll have a positive influence on their lives, which will be realised in the coming times.

Tuesdays
Opening New Life Church as a drop-in has proved to be really challenging. A few weeks ago you’ll recall that the first evening open there was a fight that ended in the road outside. The second week was a little calmer and each subsequent week the evenings have become calmer still.

A feature of these evenings is that the kids are really keen on singing and playing instruments in the Church’s Sanctuary. This amuses me, because most of them rush to be in there. In more usual circumstances we might have expected to have had to have dragged them screaming and shouting into a church building. What’s really good is that one of the young lads, who fought in the street a few weeks ago, is actually quite good at singing. The kids seem to enjoy it so much that we’re planning a talent contest in five weeks, to take place just before Christmas. Plenty to pray about there :o)

This week we’ll also be setting up prayer for the latest vision for Outside Light, which is that we’re not to restrict ourselves to serving young people, but to look at needs across our society. So our prayers are now being specifically targeted at what we might do to serve the elderly and infirm, particularly those who have little contact with other people, perhaps because they find it difficult to leave their homes.

We’re looking for this vision to be confirmed, so if there’s something about this that speaks to you then please do let us know.