All in God's time

It has been two weeks since I last posted, and I find myself just about to begin week 9 and the half term holidays here. I think I say it most weeks, but it really has astounded me quite how fast this is all going. In the past couple of weeks, lots of really awesome and encouraging things have happened, and I thank God daily for the wonderful experiences that I get to be a part of here in Stepney, they give me so much hope for what He has in store for us and they make me very excited for these young people's futures.

Last week was Eid-ul-Adha, a feast which celebrates the story of Ibrahim (Abraham) and Ishmael (Isaac) and we had used our prayer time at Church to pray for the Muslim people who are a part of our programmes and our communities and also to make Eid cards for them with the Lord's prayer in Arabic on the front. I dropped mine around to our neighbour, and he popped over on Tuesday to wish us a happy Eid, give us a platter of sweets and invite us over for food. Whoever said community was dead in London, ay? Another beautiful moment to behold was our Smarties session this week where they explored the last few chapters of the story of Esther through Veggie-Tales, song writing, a clue hunt and potato experiments, and we also talked about human-trafficking. At the end, one of the little boys prayed aloud for "anti-transporting" and another wrote a song which read "I love you God, I love you God, I love you more than cake!" - our kids really are the best!

Psalm 27:13-14 (NIV) reads 'Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord' and this verse has really spoken into my heart this week. I have felt my calling being challenged in so many different ways in the past few weeks, through things that I have had the chance to be involved in, though all the amazing things I see and also through things that have happened to me. At times, I have caught myself just wish I had a hotline to God, to just ask him if it's all going to work out, or ask for some kind of instruction, and at times, I have wondered "why me, Lord?" Studying the story of Esther this past half term with the kids has really challenged me to think more about how I live out my faith. The story tells us how we can be brave with God, that with faith anything is possible, and although sometimes things that we are going through might seem tough, they are all an important part of God's plan - that we are all an important part of God's plan. Seeing the Bible through the eyes of a child really made me wish that I could experience God like them, to have a love as pure and as faithful as that little boy who wrote "I love you God, I love you God, I love you more than cake!" Oh, how marvelous that would be!

Walk by Faith

A lot has been going on this past week, particularly this weekend, and it has been really good fun! There were so many amazingly encouraging moments this week, like Smarties where I got to lead the younger group and we discussed Esther and how God makes us brave when we face things that scare us and we made shields and bravery badges to remind us about the story, or like the Big Green Game show where we hosted the Big Green members and their families for a night of assorted game show rounds, and where they got to know other parents and the Youth Leaders too, or when I was given the opportunity to lead prayer time during the Sunday service and we prayed for our Muslim neighbours and made them cards for eid with the Lord's Prayer in Arabic on the front. I think one particular moment which really stood out for me was the Think Big Green youth home group on Sunday where a handful of our young people discussed their faith and what they thought about the Bible. We were amazed by quite how strong and well developed their opinions were for eleven and twelve year olds, because we had never wanted to impose any sort of ideals or opinions of our own on them. I'm just reminded time and time again about how incredibly blessed we have been to have shared in this past year with them and so see them turning into the wonderfully unique people we see today, not scared to share their opinions or to stand up for the things that they believe in, whether that fits in with the Christian faith or not.

The story of Jesus walking on water in Matthew 14:22-33 has really stuck with me this week, particularly the point at which Jesus beckons Peter out onto the water and he falters. Verses 29-31 read

'“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

I think sometimes it's quite easy to "talk the talk" but when it comes to the crunch we struggle to "walk the walk". In this particular story we see Peter challenge Jesus  “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” (Matt 14:28) Peter wants proof that it really is Jesus, and so he asks Jesus to prove it by allowing him to walk on water and so Jesus simply responds with "Come". When Peter sees the wind and becomes afraid, he begins to sink and has to be rescued. 

How much of this resonates with you in you walk in faith? If I'm entirely honest I feel like it reflects my walk sometimes. I have been praying for God to help me to sand away at those rough edges that I have, the ones that keep me from serving Him with my all, but yet, when He does work on me, and it does challenge me in ways I never expected, I falter and I sink. I forget that with these changes and with these struggles I need to continue walking the life of faith that I had when times were easy, and trust that with Him, anything is possible to overcome. I forget all the while that I asked for this, and that He has actually responded to me, inviting me to experience something of his awesome refining power. He hasn't left me on my own, He is right there beckoning me forward and inviting me to walk on the water like Peter, and I guess that means the best is yet to come!

Toast!

It is week five already and goodness, has it been a busy week! I sang, danced, made lots of toast, ate toast, painted with vegetables, washed up, ran around, pretended to be a bean, drank a lot of tea, held babies, ran around some more, played scrabble, and have helped to set up and witnessed a Dedication ceremony. I love that my role within the church has such a fantastic bias towards the silly and fun!

So much happened this week, I can hardly believe we did so much. The highlights of my week were probably watching members of The Big Green Youth Club doing their straws and smarties relay for crazy games night, baby Nathaniel's Dedication, and listening to the young people at our Think Big Youth Homegroup get so excited about talking about the Bible that they were talking over each other trying to share their thoughts. As hectic as it has all been, the madness of crazy games night included, I wouldn't change a bit of it. I can see God at work in all of the young people that we are blessed to encounter, and it makes me incredibly excited for them - we serve an awesome God! This Essential year just keeps getting more and more exciting!

Perhaps inspired by baby Nathaniel's dedication, or maybe just all that moving around, the theme of journeys has really woven it's way through my week on so any different levels. From the hazy, overwhelming "ahhh!" of last week, it has moved onto quite a mellow and reflective experience this week, as I was blessed to have a couple of really good chats that helped me to put everything into perspective. In life it's hard not to get caught up in all the madness of it all. I think we often find ourselves so concerned about all the baggage that we brought with us banging around in the back of the car that we don't really take in what is passing us by. I often find myself overwhelmed by the grace of God, as I struggle to fathom quite how much He has forgiven me. At times, the weight of what He has planned for my life scares me still. But I know that I serve a great God, one who is capable of the impossible and the improbable, and who loves me dearly. This year is an amazing opportunity to just see where He is at work around me and I need to just enjoy it. I feel like God has spoken this into my life this week, through the people I have encountered, and through the wonderful simplicity of quite what we do at Stepney. As 1 John 4:19 reads, 'We love other because he first loved us", and that's pretty cool.

Harvest week at the Salvation Army in Stepney

And thus marks the end of my first "real" week at my placement Corps in Stepney Green, East London. I can hardly begin to describe it, so much has happened in such a short space of time. If I had only one word to describe this week it would be overwhelming - not in the sense of "Ahhh! I can't do this!", although there were some moments,  more overwhelming in the sense that I think I grasped just some of the importance of this next year for me, and it all kind of knocked me sideways. I'm not entirely sure how my Corps Officers keep up with themselves during the week, but I have strong suspicions it involves coffee and an IV drip, or Hermione's time-stopping pocket watch from Harry Potter, or body doubles... suggestions on a post card...

This past week I was thrown in at the deep end and I really appreciated that. Early on in the week I was blessed enough to hang out with our performing arts group, Smart Crew, and then on Tuesday I got to help lead Smarties, our after-school church club, where we made spy props like mustaches and glasses and talked about Esther Ch.4 and being spies for good in our playgrounds. It seems I also have a new nickname, kindly gifted by the younger members of Smarties. My not-so-secret spy name is now "Potty" (sound familiar, Dad?) which I'm actually feeling kind of happy about. I mean, if they give me a nickname, they like me, right? Haha! The rest of the week was spent in study, helping to prepare things for Harvest and Youth Club stuff, which included my first 1-2-1 mentoring session with one of our young people - just awesome!

The Harvest Festival on Sunday went really well, as we saw food being shared across a real cross-section of the community projects that Stepney is involved in - it was super cool! Babysong mums and toddlers, members of Smarties, members of our church, residents of Booth House Lifehouse and masters students from Queen Mary... I can't imagine a better picture of community than that, or indeed a better picture of His Kingdom. I'm still blown away that two of our two "Big Green" youth club girls showed up to help. It's amazing quite how much they seem to have grown up in a year, and we're so blessed to be able to be a part of that.

I saw a lot of God's love and provision this week in that afternoon alone, it was really quite overwhelming. God is good and He is at work here in Stepney. Much like Esther in Chapter 4, and our Smarties spies in their playground, I know we are here for such a time as this, to do good and help the people that we live alongside see the light that was already in their community - the community that we saw sharing in a meal on Sunday. I just can't get over quite how blessed I am to be surrounded by these people.