During the summer young people from Ireland went to tell boys and girls about the Lord Jesus in England, Scotland, Switzerland and Germany. We’ve already heard from Sam who went to Switzerland. A team of 15 young people, led by Philip Annett, went to London for a week to help Steve and Rachel Ball (the CEF workers based there) in their outreach. Mark Knox was on the team. Here’s what he says:
Writing about London is hard! This is my millionth draft of this blog! See, what happened to me personally in London this summer can’t be written down, or even worded. God answered my prayers this year in London. Perhaps I wish I hadn’t prayed what I did. On the first day of the trip we split up into the 3 teams that were going out to reach the children, to pray, and when it came to my turn I asked God to break my heart into a million pieces for the people of East London, and not happy enough with wrecking my own heart and head, I prayed the same for the rest of my team. God answers prayer!
Each team was running three 5-Day Clubs® a day in different areas. My team was in Walthamstow, and the whole London Team was sleeping in Walthamstow Central Baptist. Our first club of the day was in a great children’s play park, the type you see on TV but not in real life. They are all over Walthamstow! My favourite day of that Club was probably the second day. We turned up after a good first day, expectant of another good day, but no children came. So we waited and played a few games but still no children. The park was packed with children but none were willing (or allowed) to come to the Club. So the team sat down and prayed for the area. We wept for the children and I played my guitar and sang a song over the area. The song was “God of This City” by Belfast band Bluetree. The song goes like this:
You’re God of this city,
You’re the King of these people,
You’re the Lord of this nation,
You are.
You’re the Light in this darkness,
You’re the Hope to the hopeless,
You’re the Peace to the restless,
You are.
For there is no one like our God,
There is no one like You, God!
Greater things have yet to come,
And greater things are still to be done in this city!
Greater things have yet to come,
And greater things are still to be done here.
You’re the Lord of creation,
The Creator of all things,
You’re the King above all kings,
You are.
You’re the Strength in the weakness,
You’re the Love to the broken,
You’re the Joy in the sadness,
You are.
For there is none like our God,
There is none like You, God!
Greater things have yet to come,
And greater things are still to be done in this city!
Where glory shines from hearts alive
With praise for You and love for You in this city.
Every word resonated within our souls and every word was true of the city we were in. God wasn’t done with it. He was here. He was the hope for the people, and He has greater things yet to do here. We wept some more after the song and just felt God’s peace in the silence.
Our second club was in another play park inside a park… if you get me… and it was like the McDonalds of 5-Day Clubs. Children came, played, listened, left, and as one child left another sat down and did the same thing! It was hard enough to teach there, but we were well accepted by everyone and many parents came and videoed us playing with and teaching their children from God’s Word. It was an amazing site to see. We even had a summer scheme come join us one day and all the children sat down and heard God’s Word.
Our third club was in a park, beside a play park (London is full of parks) and it was great. The numbers were few each day, but God spoke through us all and into these children’s lives. On one of the days we got to do another club to the summer scheme that was going on, and that meant our team did four clubs that day. In the politically correct culture we live in, it is hard not to offend someone, so my advice to Stephen going into this club where we had many restrictions was that Jesus wasn’t worried about getting invited back so why should we!!
We also got to do so many other things during the week, like taking part in the church services and the prayer meetings, but what we were doing hasn’t stayed in my mind as much as what God did. I asked him to break my heart into a million pieces for London, and He did. Now I have to give every piece of my heart to God and ask Him to shape it how He wants.
Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city!
Mark Knox