“10:10” was the name given to a youth outreach held in Banbridge from 11th – 15th November 2009. The local Baptist Church had asked the Youth Challenge team to run an outreach for them, and after a lot of debate the name “10:10” was chosen. The name was based on John 10:10, where the Lord Jesus Christ spells out the choice between following the thief (Satan) who wants to steal, kill and destroy, or the Lord Jesus Himself, who offers life to the full.
Marcus and Chris headed up the outreach and challenged young people in the area about their need to come in faith to the Lord Jesus to experience the new life only He can give. In the lead-up to the event there were many opportunities to speak to young people in four schools in the area. Around 2,000 were contacted through assemblies, RE classes and Scripture Union groups. Each evening the Gospel message was presented through music, testimonies and Bible talks, while there was also the chance to chat informally about important things. Testimonies from Chris Killen, who was saved from a life of drugs, and Michael Halliday of Glentoran Football Club, really grasped the attention of the young people. After a slow start on Wednesday 
attendance grew throughout the week, and on the weekend nights the hall was packed, with over 100 attending on Sunday evening. A number of young people were left thinking seriously about their response to the Gospel. Please pray that the Lord will continue to speak to them.
We hope that “10:10” is a format we can use again in the future, and so we will be making it known to other churches that the Youth Challenge team is available to help them conduct youth outreaches. We trust the result will be that many young people will come to know Lord Jesus who can give “life to the full”.
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:
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!!