For such a time as this

I was having a chinwag (my favorite British word for "chat") with one of my new British friends. She's a wonderful gal, close to my age, with whom I share four very important passions: God, youth work, hot chocolate, and shopping at IKEA. Aside from all that, I'm just downright impressed that she graduated from Cambridge University! I mean...wowzers. So, anyhow, the other day we had a chinwag (seriously, I can't stop using this word) about youth work in West Bridgford (the *posh* area of Nottingham that I live and work in). Now, my friend was born and raised in Nottingham, and has a wonderful grasp on the community and youth in the area. My friend remembers more than one group of workers coming in for weeks or months at a time, attempting to set up some sort of youth ministry in West Bridgford. The way all of these groups individually described West Bridgford to her was as if it had a sort of haze over it...like a cloud of apathy just hanging there above the seemingly perfect little town.

West Bridgford has long carried the title "Fur coat & no knickers," given to it from the surrounding areas of Nottingham. Aside from being an adorable-sounding British phrase, "Fur coat & no knickers" basically means it's all about show. The theory is that West Bridgfordians only have enough money to APPEAR wealthy (thus the fur coat), but underneath it all...can't even afford underwear.

Putting both of the above ideas together in my head seems to paint an almost Stepford Wives-ish picture.

Where I find myself right now is in a state of awe of God's timing. The team I'm working with is in the EXCITING stage of putting together a vision team for our future outreach center / youth church / cafe ministry / whatever you want to call it. As we've been making lists of names and praying over them, amazing things have been happening. Again, this is something that has been hard for me to assign words or coherent thoughts to...but of course, I'll try to type it out anyway! Please forgive me as I attempt to record my scattered thoughts.

There are already big stories of God's power coming from our vision team...and we haven't even had our first official meeting yet. Ha! We divided the names of the people we needed to "cast the vision" to, in hopes that we could persuade some of the people on our list to join our vision team. So how's this for making our job easier - some of them approached us before we had time to ask...inquiring about how they could get involved in what we're doing because they had recently been feeling like God was really tugging on their hearts to get involved in youth ministry!

One of the gals I asked to be on our VT was recently given the task at her job to map out all the local youth clubs or centres...and, as expected, she found a grand total of ZERO. Zip-a-dee-doo-da. This is quite an embarrassing find for such a prestigious area of Notts! The government in the area is to the point where they are DESPERATE for anyone to do ANYTHING with the youth in West Bridgford. So, now our vision team gal's task at work is to propose what the local borough councils should invest in...gee, can you think of anyone wanting to put together a community minded youth ministry?? :)

This is the perfect time for our ministry to take root. The churches in West Bridgford are coming together in an amazing way for the first time. It just seems like the local church leadership is being pruned, primed, and prepared for something BIG. Time and time again, the passage in Esther about how Mordecai suggests that she was brought to her position by God specifically "for such a time as this" has come up. It keeps popping up in sermons and devotions had by our vision and prayer teams.

My teammate, Amy, told us that her mom says God answers prayer in four ways:

1.) Yes
2.) No
3.) Later, or
4.) I thought you'd never ask!

We're thinking that all of our prayers for this area of Nottingham is resulting in God answering us with #4. That's exciting.

There is an unseen spiritual battle going on right now in West Bridgford. Satan has had an invisible hold on this area for a long time now, and he's not going to let go without a fight. But...God is raising up an army of dorky Americans and silly Brits that are ready to take hold of the promise found in 1 Chronicles 20:15 - "Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's."