The Truth is Getting Out!

Wow! What a week.
Sorry for the late post, but these weeks has been crazier than usual, it feels.
What have we been doing that has made it so crazy?

For the last week or so some of us at Ignite have gone into 2 of the high schools here in Cardiff and have been telling the story of Jesus' last 24 hours before His death. The program we were doing was called "24 Hours That Saved the World".

As a part of the session, we would take a couple minutes and have the kids discuss things like, "How do you decide if something is true or not?" Some of the kids answered that they Google things to see what's true or not, while others were a bit more sensible and said, "I'd want witnesses and evidence before deciding." We even put out the point of saying "If this stuff isn't true, than we might as well forget about Christianity, but if it IS true, then this is really a big deal." And we make a point of quoting the Gospel of John when he said "I saw this with my own eyes, so I know that it's true."

One part of the school lessons that I really enjoyed was in the beginning we would all introduce ourselves and give an interesting fact about ourselves. I tried using something unique to the US and said that my mother had been Amish in the past. I didn't quite get the reaction I wanted simply because most of the kids didn't even know what Amish was.

So I changed my fact to "I've been in prisons more times than I can count." That got their attention! And I left it at that! Then at the end of the session, when we would encourage the kids to ask questions either about the lesson or one of us, they'd usually ask why I went to prison. (For those who don't know me personally, my family goes into prisons to share Jesus through our music. I've never been arrested or spent the night in a prison.)

For TYC this week, I spoke a bit about Jesus' resurrection, but more about why He did what He did on the cross. I told the kids that before they were born, God had placed a value on their heads, and that value will never change no matter what they do. I told them that God says they are worth the death of His own Son. I told them that God wants them to come to Heaven when they die, so He paid the price for them to come, but the only way that payment is valid is if they accept it for themselves. Jesus was that payment. And He went willingly to die on the cross because He wants you to come to Heaven too. Because He loves you.

Later that night we had one of the kids completely kick off and she started swearing and hitting and throwing a chair and the whole shebang. We had to tell her to go home. I'm wondering if this might be the enemy's attack, trying to fight the Gospel that is making it's way into the hearts of our young people here in Tremorfa. We have been feeling a lot of opposition in the natural, but we're pretty sure it's coming from the spiritual realm.

You may or may not believe in the spiritual side of our fight for Christ, but that doesn't make it less real. That is why I'm calling all you prayer warriors to pray for Tremorfa and the rest of Wales as well. God is definitely doing something and the enemy doesn't want it to come about. So please pray against any spiritual attacks of the enemy, either on the workers or on the kids and people we're working with.

Thank you for praying.

Laughing at Ourselves and Daring to Dream

We've created a new game this week called Keep it Going. It involves a ping pong ball and 2 paddles, and it may or may not involve the ping pong table. Basically the game started out with me and one of the boys playing (or attempting to play) ping pong, but we couldn't seem to keep it on the table! So we started playing where you'd just keep the game going, even if it hit the floor or the ceiling, or just stayed in the air while we hit it back and forth. It was a fun challenge to keep the ball bouncing, especially when it was so near to the ground.

One of the best parts about this new game though, was the fact that you didn't have to be good at it! So when neither me or this boy were good at ping pong, we could play this game and just laugh at ourselves and not be embarrassed by our lack of skill. And then when we did almost manage to look like we were playing a proper game of ping pong, we could congratulate ourselves.

I love being able to see these kids use their skills in various areas. When you get used to seeing people in a certain environment, you can forget that they might not be the best at this one thing, but they are a genius at something else. So when some of these kids might not be good at reading or football (soccer), they might be really good at keeping a ping pong ball bouncing on their paddle.

I met up with one of the girls for coffee yesterday, just to chat and hang out. This is one girl who has come to the Lord, but when she and her mother moved to another side of Cardiff, she had a difficult time staying plugged into church. During our conversation I asked her "If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?" I like to ask things like this just to open up the  kids' minds to the possibility of something different in life; daring them to dream. 

Her answer greatly surprised me. She said that she would like to be either a police woman or a prison guard. Now, understand that this girl, while she might be 17 looks to be about 13. She's petite, mild mannered and maybe an inch over 5 foot. It boggled my mind that this little lady wanted to be a prison guard! Not wanting to squelch any dream she has, I changed the subject, but I brought it up later. 

I asked her, "Why do you want to be a prison guard?" She answered that she wants to help people who have had troubled lives in the past and help them to start again new. 

Now I get the idea! I am then blown away by this girl's heart and her motivation behind her answer. Still unable to see her working as a prison guard, I suggest that if that's how she wants to help people, why not try helping at a half-way house? It's a place where prisoners might go to help bring them back into society. Or, if she's determined to help people who are currently imprisoned, she could try being a chaplain.

She seemed to really like that idea. We got distracted by then, so we didn't fully finish that conversation, but I am so encouraged by that meeting. She not only revealed her heart for broken people, but also her courage! I am so proud of her, for wanting to live her life for Christ. I encouraged her to ask God where He wants to take her, and that He will provide the way there.

Thank you all for your prayers over this city. Please pray for this young woman as she embarks on this new adventure with the Lord.

Hurting for the Hurt

A lot has happened this week. We had the beginning of the Thrive course, youth club, mentoring, as well as an afternoon hangout time with some of the girls in Tremorfa.

At mentoring, it has been getting easier now that we’ve gotten to know the kids better. Now we can start to plan the sessions more around the individuals rather than as a group. I had each of them write a list of 5 goals they would like to achieve either in their lifetime or in the next year. I explained again what I was there to do as a mentor: to help them set goals and help them achieve goals. One girl sat up straight when I said this, like she just now got what we were there for. She then got really excited and quickly picked up her pen and started writing her goals.

I then went down the list and asked about each one, “What would it take to accomplish this goal?”  She wrote that she wanted to get more confident at gymnastics and when I asked her the question she responded, “I guess stretching and conditioning?”

This was one thing I feel I can actually lend my expertise in since I have such a history with dance. So we ended up sitting on the floor demonstrating different exercises we can do to condition our muscles. It was great because she really clicked with this and she realized I can practically help her with something she wants to do. She was excited to come in again next week and work on that some more! It’s so encouraging to be able to help this girl with something she wants to do because I’ve been through the stretching and conditioning with dance.

Later that day, some of us with who work at the youth club in Tremorfa invited some of our girls to come over for hot chocolate and girl talk. We wanted to talk to them about how valuable they are and how they don’t need to give their bodies away to receive love. Some of the girls have put themselves in very vulnerable positions in looking for a boyfriend, and we wanted to tell them off a little bit, but mostly, tell them how much they are worth.

We had a notecard with each girl’s name on it and then we passed the cards around the table and had the girls write only positive things on each other’s cards. It was amazing how difficult it was to get the girls to write anything positive about their friends. Some even refused to write something as shallow as “pretty” because they didn’t want to say that their friend was pretty! Good grief!

Some of the girls were as young as 11, and when they got bored they just up and left. But what happened after that couldn’t have happened if the younger ones were there. The 2 girls we had left had both confessed to self-harming, and one of them showed us her arm with the scratches still there. We spent time just talking to them about other ways they can express their pain aside from self-harming, then we spent some time praying for them. 

Neither of these girls are saved yet, and they weren’t quite sure what to do while we prayed, but I think they took it okay.

I am gifted with this thing where I’ll cry for others who have hardened their hearts to a point where they don’t cry anymore. Like, they can’t cry anymore. Maybe they don’t even realize just how big of a deal some of the stuff they are dealing with is. But I cry. I cry for them. I’m not entirely sure what it does, but I think it can help these hardened people to realize that what has happened to them is not okay, and that it’s okay to hurt. So, of course, I was crying as I prayed for these girls who aren’t older than 15. I explained to them after the prayer that I cry because God in Heaven is crying for them; He is hurting for them and with them.

Please pray with me for these girls who have been so hurt in their short lives. Please pray that the self-harming would end, and that they would find Jesus. Pray that their hearts would be softened.

Thank you for your prayers.

Midnight Bike Ride

It had just past twelve thirty. I’d left the gathering of friends before the others because I knew I’d have an early morning.

I took off down the bike path that runs along the River Taff heading towards the bay at the end of the river. I could see the buildings across the river reflected in the calm waters. The early March air chilled my face, but the exercise, as well as my thick winter coat kept me warm. You could practically smell spring in the air. Everything was silent except for the soft creaks of the bicycle, the sound of the rubber on the pavement and the occasional seagull crying out overhead. It seemed as if the whole world was asleep. It was just me, with the moon to keep me company. The moonlight shone brightly, illuminating the path around me. Farther along the river I could see the city lights shining twice over, firstly from above the waters, and secondly from beneath. I basked in the moonlight as I peddled myself closer to home and a warm bed. The thing that kept going over and over in my head as I witnessed this midnight beauty was a prayer of thanks; thanks to the One who created the earth and everything in it. I gave thanks to the Loving One who has gifted me with the blessing of experiencing His beauty.

As I finish writing this, I know that soon I will be tucked away under my covers, awaiting the sweetness of slumber. And as I drift away, I will be saying one last “thank you, Jesus” before my day comes to a close.

While it seems like Jesus was involved in very little of this, I know that without Him, I wouldn’t even be here right now. This week I’ve been reminded of everything I’ve taken for granted. Everything from people’s kindness towards me, to God providing and bringing me to Cardiff in the first place. This is an adventure I could only have dreamt of, and so many things in it were set too perfectly to have been a coincidence. I know that only the Hand of God could have orchestrated this journey so well. …and yet I found myself complaining.

Since this realization of these many blessings God has poured over me, I’ve started an experiment; a thankful heart experiment. I have set my phone’s alarm to go off every quarter hour, and when I feel the vibration, I am reminded to be grateful for what I have and to say a prayer of thanks to God. I’ve only been doing this for the past two days, but I’ve found that already I am a happier person in general.

I’d encourage you to try this experiment for yourself. See what it does for you. But more than that, say thank you to the God who gives us blessings.