Pirates, Parrots and Masks

From George:

This week I have been helping out at our holiday club; the theme is pirates. So I donned my mask and fake moustache and stuck a stuffed parrot on my shoulder for added authenticity - drew the line at cutting my leg off and replacing it with a wooden peg, though. Having worn the mask during the day, I reflected last night at Outside Light on how everyone, on occasion, wears a mask depending on who we are seeing and talking to.

There is a lad - under 16 - who we have been speaking to for a while, who has made a commitment to Christ and is starting his journey towards knowing him better. He poured some of his heart out last night, and it was interesting listening to what he described as his life with his mates and parents over the last months. He is someone who admits still to taking drugs, drinking alcohol, sleeping around and so on, but underneath all that is a young guy who is hurting, lonely, empty and feeling so very rejected.

It reminded me why I do this work. Underneath our masks we are all hurting in a way, failed relationships; promotion that didn't quite satisfy; the joy of losing that half a stone just faded - I could go on. Most of us 'put a brave face on it'. Some of us look for relief in the bottom of a bottle. But that doesn't remove the hurt; it simply anaesthetises it for the pain to return tenfold later on. Even more encouraging then when someone sees that Jesus came to set us free from our slavery to these things. This lad knows that truth, but he still hides behind the mask when he's with his mates - peeking out just occasionally when he's with us.

I know from experience though, that that's often the way. Many find Jesus, reject his ways (it's just too hard sometimes to accept them totally), then something happens and you snap back with a crack and commit your life to Him. Thing is, His hand is always there to grab you back just as you're sinking - and He will save you! Just as he saved Peter when he stepped out of the boat, walked on water, lost his faith and was then in need of rescue. Our part in this is to be there and suggest that you reach your hand up to His.

Another (older) lad is running away from his problems, living by candlelight, alone, spending his money on bags of grass instead of food and electricity, and so the story goes on. This chap and others like him desperately need to fill the gap in their lives (mind the gap), the problem is they are going in all the wrong places in our opinion. The problem is that he's written himself off. He feels no hope - and he probably never will enjoy that experience, unless one day he listens.

So many of these young people KNOW that life should be better than this but they lack any motivation in a world that says you get value from what you do, not from who you are. They simply crash out of the pressure and turn to other things. Both of the lads we spoke to recognise that when they're doing the bad stuff it's not helping them. And afterwards they feel much worse than when they started, but still they do it again and again. Doh!!!

Most, though, appear to be just genuine youngsters who are having fun hanging outside and passing the time. But I wonder, if we looked under the masks of some of the others, who we would see?

As we build our relationships, we are occasionally privileged to hear their stories and wonder whether, perhaps, there is a degree of pain in most of them.

Mary and John this week spoke to a young girl who is an achiever in a lad's world. She's athletic, bright and determined, but she struggles to overcome the rejection and bullying she receives from her male team members (there are no other girls in he team) - no doubt because she's actually more accomplished than them in many tasks. She gets relief, therefore, from being away from her team and fooling around with her mates - she admitted that she behaves much as they do in order to fit in to the group, even though she actually has a faith (not a practising one currently) and is from a church background.

So in this case we actually have someone who is wearing a mask for the opposite reasons to both of the boys. This is someone who needs to fit in somewhere and find her equilibrium, some kind of balance in her life so she hides her accomplishments rather than her failures.

She's like a diamond in the rough. We've seen how, in the past, she's been the sensible one putting the brakes on some potentially foolish group activity. What would the group be like without her? Sometimes God's design is just visible if you look for it.

Be encouraged reading this that the first young lad wants off of the treadmill of drugs, drink, sex, anger and we will keep you posted on how God changes him.... Meanwhile please pray for the other lad to open his eyes, ears and heart and for the young girl to grow in strength.

Much love

George

More Ketchup and Thoughts

Hi

I send the link to this blog to quite a lot of people who haven't yet found their faith. It's possible that some of them might feel, sometimes, that the language used here, together with the ideas premised upon our hope in Jesus, sounds bizarre and slightly crazy. I thank them for not expressing those thoughts to me, but in all honesty not too long ago I'd have been thinking the same thing if I'd read what my brothers and sisters and I are writing these days.

I struggled with this for a while. My life changed last year in April when I had a God-experience. Nevertheless there were remnants of worry about 'what would people think' if I chose to express myself in a way that some might call delusional. Believe me when I tell you, for years I obsessed about what people thought of me. As an estate agent, my whole life was centered on doing and saying the right thing because I lived under a microscope where I was 'expected' by many to display weaknesses such as greed, dishonesty and so on. So for me, integrity became everything - but the cost of integrity is that once you slip and make a mistake, even if someone thinks you've slipped and you've not, then your reputation will be stuck half way up the Basingstoke Canal without a paddle.

Yes, I worried - but now I don't. How much better it is to live life in a way that acknowledges that we ALL do wrong - you don't have to be an estate agent, you just have to be human; but through the grace of God, we know we are forgiven so long as we repent and seek to get back onto the narrow path. Once you have that thought firmly in mind, think then how blessed we are that we live in a part of the world where prayer and the open expression of our love for God is not an offence as it is in some other parts.

Above was meant to be a short preamble for my suggesting that take a look at this article by Pete Greig.

Read this and you might be surprised that prayer is so despised by some even in the 'free world', that an organisation would waste hundreds of thousands of dollars to discourage it. Interesting, isn't it, that their way of making the world better is to plaster it with advertising billboards!

Last Monday the Outside Light Trustees had a meeting. We do so every couple of months and try to discern how Outside Light is unfolding. All this was very fine but it left Mary, John H and Malcolm R alone to meet with the young people at The Vyne. This is Mary's brief report:

"John H., Malcolm R. and I tried our hand at circus skills. Eileen had organised an event evening for the young people and included in this was someone who taught juggling etc. Have to say we were shown up by some young individuals who were good at juggling sticks and balls and throwing the Diablo. This distraction was great - someone noted that while their hands were busy juggling etc, they weren't smoking!

Although only a few from Outside Light, We knocked a ball around into the night - had good conversations, including a long one about one lad's aspirations. In the MUGA tennis was played, and the evening had a really positive feel about it."

The best result from Monday came this afternoon, though. John H is a recent volunteer with Outside Light. This is what he wrote: "Just to add , thankyou to Malcolm and Mary that prayed for my younger sister Katie who is currently suffering from depression and struggling with a few areas in her life. She is starting to feel a bit better and is facing the world again. Your prayers are working so thankyou so much." I asked John if he'd mind me sharing that on the blog, partly because of the link above that speaks of prayer in different tones. My reponse to them is to pray for them. If you're reading this and you have faith, will you please joing me, and also pray for Kate?

Much love

John

God Loves Travellers

The weather didn't look too good and half the team couldn't make it.

It looked like not a lot was going to happen outside this Tuesday in Outside Light. Nancy was keen to get out anyway despite the frequent thunder storms so off we went. Myself (Phil), John, Nancy, Rob and Jo.

When we arrived at St Peter's Rec there was nobody there, but within minutes there were four or five lads and girls who came out to meet us. They must have radar.

We chatted for a bit but the weather made it difficult to do much more so I asked Rob and Jo if they fancied a bit of family visiting down Gloster Rd. John and Nancy continued to chat with the youngsters on the rec.

We really didn't know what encouragements awaited us. The family we were visiting are well known to us and have had their fair share of difficulties and from a 'travellers'' background.

They have always been very hospitable towards us at Outside Light and we have been welcomed into their home rain or shine.

When we got there the mum of the house was ill and laying on the sofa, we briefly spoke and then prayed for her for healing and prayed blessing on the house. The daughter and grand- daughter were also present. We also know the Dad pretty well and he then arrived.

Both the mum and the dad were interested in where Rob came from and soon Rob was talking to them about how coming to know Jesus had rescued him from various problems that he'd had in his life.

Some very positive interesting conversation followed but this was interrupted when a lad (we'll call him Joe), came to visit from another 'traveller' family. Joe wants to know if anyone in the house had a 'pressure washer' for a job he's doing. Joe has just recently got out of prison.

He heard us talking about Jesus and stated that on coming out of prison he'd started going to a 'traveller' church and was amazed that the 'travellers' in the church didn't swear, drink or smoke. He also said that he can't stop going, there's something about it that keeps pulling him in every week, and he showed a great interest in Jesus and his death.

We started talking about the possibility of starting up a small group for local 'travellers' to meet and pray together (the nearest 'traveller' church is Leatherhead). We spoke as well about some representatives of Outside Light going to the Leatherhead church to meet the pastor.

Coming away we were blown away by how active God is behind the scenes. We don't have to push God's Kingdom forward we just have to jump in the slipstream.

A lot of people criticise 'travellers', or gypsies, (although they don't like to be called gypsies) and maybe in some cases there is reason for that; but we have seen more good in this family than bad and if God is at work in them then we need to do our best for them.

Jesus loves 'travellers'. What a privilege to join Him in what He is doing with this close knit community.