Normandy

The team from GSGBC that had been in Normandy the last few weeks has arrived home with glowing reports. The team spent three weeks prayer walking Normandy - the beaches and interior. General reports were that the church in France is nearly dead and in desperate need of the Holy Spirit. Parts of Normandy, in particular, remain very bitter about the war, both of the German occupation and their need of Allied liberation. Thus the people are spiritually stuck, unwilling to forgive their former oppressors and unwilling to show genuine gratitude to their former liberators. So they cling to D-Day like a scorned lover who clings to the note that says the relationship is over (did I really just write that?). Still, the GSGBC team, led by John Pressdee, says they were able to accomplish what they had set out to do: to open doors for the Spirit and to offer healing and repentance for the land. They partnered with an evangelical church in Normandy, for whom the real hard ground work will now begin, and they truly sense that the ground has been broken and the plowing begun.

At the moment, the web site is down, but I suppose more detail on their trip will soon be posted on prayerexpeditions.org.

London Youth

It's been a little while since I last posted, so I thought I might jot down a few thoughts from the last week or so.

Among the ministries I've been involved with here at GSGBC is the work with the local youth. You could pick from any number of reasons to explain why, but young people are among the major concerns for a lot of local residents in and around London. Vandalism and teen violence seem to have been fairly prevalent. In the last week, several shootings or stabbings have taken place among the youth around greater London. On Tuesday night, I was at the church for the weekly drop-in, in which the church doors open for kids to come in and shoot pool, play ping-pong, or just hang out. Typically, there are 30-35 that show up - all of them around 13-15 years old and none of them "church kids." As I observed them the other night it occurred to me that though they may be friends, none of them actually seem to like each other. The interaction among the boys, of whom there are far more than there are girls, simply revolves around who's getting picked on next. There's not an encouraging or uplifting remark among them. If they're shooting pool, they're either cheating or cussing each other out because of an argument over the game. If they're not shooting pool, they're seeing how they might disrupt the pool game. The kids need help.

Among my responsibilities here is to assess the different home groups the church has set up. What a difference to go from the youth club on Tuesday night to a home group on Wednesday night. The long-term love and support and encouragement that is evident in the home group is just as strong as the general disregard the kids pay one another at youth club. It really is remarkable.