"Shine a Light on Crime - Tower Hamlets"

Long time, no post, I'm so sorry! If my calculations are correct, I think I'm now on week 24 of my Essential Gap Year? Now that is crazy!

In the past few weeks I've been up to a lot, from attending a prayer gathering for London Central Division at THQ, to a Prayer Weekend held by the Prayer Network, from playing ukuleles in church, to playing them around the streets as a part of a London Citizens campaign for a safer Tower Hamlets, from having my first Essential appraisal to my first interview for Officership. All of this has happened, as well as the usual programmes at Stepney, so I hope that you can forgive me for the radio silence on this Blog!

I think one of the experiences which has challenged me in the most diverse ways recently has been the "Shine a Light on Crime in Tower Hamlets" action which happened a couple of weeks ago. It was the result of several local institutions in Tower Hamlets meeting through TELCO, the Tower Hamlets branch of Citizens UK, over a shared concern in the safety of those living in our area.


We initially met at the Citizens UK office in Whitechapel a couple of months ago to talk about the issue of Safety in our community. It was encouraging to see individuals from different backgrounds and stages in life sharing in their negative experiences of this area and then moving together to change that for their communities. It was then that we decided that a lack of light in our local parks and along the canal was contributing to crime in the area and we wanted to change that. Over the next few weeks, we were walked through the process of staging an "action" - a stunt that would not only unite our community and our institutions under a common concern, but that would also send a message and instigate a change. As a group, we decided upon a walk from Shadwell to Mile End, stopping at local parks and stations, meeting local groups along the way - all dressed in high visability jackets, and holding torches - and it was fabulous! People really seemed to enjoy themselves, getting to talk to other people in their community, local police officers, the Chief Inspector Mark Long and the Mayor, Lutfur Rahmen. The Salvation Army in Stepney brought our ukuleles along, and entertained the group and passers by with "This Little Light of Mine", as well as our own improvised version of "Put Oil in Our Lamps". A couple of us even got a cheeky little Police escort through Mile End Park on the way to our house-group by Chief Inspector Mark Long, who was a lovely chap, and asked us about how it all affected the running of our programmes at the Salvation Army.

For the event, I was appointed as a Steward, which meant that I was responsible for the Salvation Army group which would meet the larger group at Stepney Green Park. It pushed my comfort zones, particularly in leadership, as I had to co-ordinate with TELCO and people I didn't know very well, give notices to parents at our projects, and talk to a group of people about crime and safety in our area. I have also never really experienced being a part of the planning and organising of an action, and so that was a fantastic learning experience in itself.


All of this had a deeper significance to me, particularly within the wider context of the London Central Division. At the beginning of January, a prayer evening was held at THQ which was entitled "God in this City" where we asked God to show us how we could break down the barriers and boundaries that exist within our communities. Here, I was overwhelmed with the image of greyness of Mile End Road, and the faces of those whom I knew along there. I felt a distinct lack of light within our community, a light to lift the greyness of the everyday living, and prayed that God could show me how I could be light, like in Matthew 5:16. I think I found that getting involved in this action group was a funny way of God answering that prayer. In more than the obvious, physical "being light in the darkness", He demonstrated that through social action and engaging in our community, we could be that light that leads to change within people's lives and I have grown to appreciate the importance of being a church which faces outwards even more because of it.

Grace.

Grace is a gift, a gift given to us by God, our Father. Grace is "holy", but Grace is not otherworldly in the way it works; it is right here, right now, working on us. Grace knows the harsh realities of us, of the way our world is, and Grace knows all the stuff that we carry around in our big coats with lots of little pockets of hurt, and yet it still covers us. Grace takes the blame, and wipes our slates clean, despite all that. But to say that Grace simply covers us is to sell the powers of Grace short. You see Grace is active. Grace sets to work, rolling up her sleeves and tucking her hair behind her ears. Grace finds the beauty in ugly, dirty things - Grace finds the beauty in us. Grace is much more than I could ever describe. What does Grace look like? Well, the power of Grace can be seen in the transformational power of the resurrection; what once hurt and left a mark has given birth to new life - but more tangibly, I guess, Grace kind of looks like that person you know who walks around accompanied by music; the world is still roaring around them, but it doesn't affect them so much anymore. Grace is here.

I used a personification of Grace purposefully; the name Grace is a girls name, but more powerfully, I think, it speaks of our own human propensity to take something huge - something that is completely mind-blowing - into something we can hold. In our everyday lives we do a disservice to the enormity of Grace. John Newton wrote "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, /That saved a wretch like me. /I once was lost but now am found, /Was blind, but now I see." But how often do we stop and think about those words, and really mull over the profound nature of those sentiments,"I once was lost but now am found, /Was blind, but now I see"? If the gift of Grace was really all we gave it credit for, all we built it up to be, would it have the power to turn a life around?

The subject of Grace has really challenged me in the past few weeks, and I am still struggling with it. I guess I'm just struggling to understand why I've been given it, because I certainly haven't done anything to deserve it. I think there lies the beauty of it though, we are given Grace despite ourselves. I'm trying to show Grace to others in my life and it is hard going a lot of the time, but I know in part it is helping me to understand something of what God has given me and I count myself blessed. I can only pray those around me experience a bit of what that means through me.

Youth Day and Knit-Wits! (a late post, whoops!)

Last week was week 11 of my Essential gap year, and also week two of the "Stepney Knit-Wits" - oh how time flies when you're having fun! Christmas planning for the Smart Crew performance, choir performances, and Christmas on the Farm are all underway, and the chilly weather has meant that it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas here in Stepney. I love Christmas, so I couldn't be happier with the head start, although I know that this is just the calm before the storm in the church calendar!

There were so many highlights of this week, Knit-Wits included, but I have to say, the London Central Youth Day was a spectacular thing to behold. Six of our young people headed out to Denmark Hill to the training college for a day full of fun, with the optional activities of art, dance, rapping, drumming, football, and inflatables to get involved in, as well as a prayer space, a worship band and the filming of a video to enjoy. It really was fantastically co-ordinated by Sue and the gang and it really opened our young people's eyes up to their wider community in the division, to new and exciting activities, and also to other Christian young people. After we had finished, the staff from Youth Club were invited back to one of our young people's houses for sausages, soup and sensational fireworks. It was the perfect way to celebrate the end of such a beautiful day, surrounded with those we love and serve!

Benjamin Still's accidental Teddy-Bear Y-fronts from the first week!

As I mentioned, this week also marked the second session of "Stepney Knit-Wits", which is a community knitting circle. Knit-Wits is a venture that I've really felt led to start up over this past year and it has finally come into fruition, with the support of my lovely Corps Officers, Nick and Kerry. One of the brilliant things about my particular stream of Essential is that I was already a part of this community prior to starting Essential. This has meant that this year I have just been able to focus on building up relationships in the community and growing in the family I already knew. The Knit-Wits has really grown from this family feeling, and what a wonderful family it is! It has not provided a great space for members of our church and the wider community to come together and knit, but also to use the space as a means by which they can seek support from their fellow knitters. I'm really encouraged by the way that the Spirit is moving in this group; there is just something out of this world about how comfortable our living room feels every Friday
morning. I'm so incredibly blessed by each of our Knit-Wits, they bring so much joy to my week, and I look forward to seeing how we grow as time goes on.

Community!

Hello, again! Week 10? Alrighty then! Last week the Corps officers were on a well deserved holiday with their family, and so the Corps was running on a reduced programme, which meant we all got a week to relax and re-energize ahead of the Christmas half term, and it was beautiful! I got to spend some quality time with old friends (my bed included), cook dinner for my lovely discipler Ruth and her daughter Lucy, and I also was afforded some reflective moments, where I could just re-charge and re-connect.

Before we broke up for the holidays, both my housemate and I showed some visiting French Junior Soldiers, their chaperones and their officer, Major Florence Bruno, around Stepney Green to show them what we get up to and to give them a sense of our Corps' ministry - which naturally included finishing with tea and cakes in our living room. In return, they sang us their "Torchbearers" (Scouts) song in French and showed us a presentation of the activities at their home Corps in Nice, France, as well as giving us some tastes and smells of Provence. It was a lovely evening, they were such a blessing to us and the stories they told us about their corps were really encouraging.

Divisional Prayer Meeting

Divisional Prayer Meeting

This amazing sense of unity continued into this week because, as well as the usual programmes, I was able to attend a TELCO meeting (The East London Community Organisation - a founding chapter of London Citizens), as well as a Divisional Prayer Meeting, all on the same night! The TELCO meeting was really cool, as community action groups across Tower Hamlets gathered to discuss what we could be doing to help those within our communities who need it the most. Just seeing how much love and passion local people had for their area gave me a great deal of hope; God is working here in Tower Hamlets through all those people! We then headed off to the Divisional Prayer Meeting at Regent Hall on Oxford Street where we saw the cultures of our division unite in an evening of praise, fellowship and prayer. The flags displayed around Regent Hall served as a powerful visual tool to demonstrate quite how diverse London Central Division is, and I had no idea what half of them were! It occurs to me how overwhelmingly blessed I am to be a part of such a loving church, and indeed a wonderful wider community, who, regardless of language barriers and cultural differences, is united in such a strong sense of purpose. If this is just a glimpse of what God is doing with the Salvation Army right now, it makes me very excited!

Where are you in your journey?

As I write this I am reminded of Revelation 7:9 (NIV) which reads, 'After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands'. I think I saw a little bit of what that could be like on Wednesday and it just overwhelmed me. It was such an encouraging sight to see so many countries represented by the people of London Central Division, just beautiful. We are blessed.

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.