It's been a little over a week since I set foot in this amazing place called London. It's absolutely beautiful here, so green and historical!
It feels like such a long time ago that I found out I'd be going to London for outreach, and now that I'm here I feel like I have even less time before it all ends.
We're working with an organization called Megacities while were here. Basically what it is,is a Christian organization that picks a different place around the world every year and splits the place into different areas. Then they have different teams come in and take on an area of the place and focus on what God is already doing in this community and what else God wants to do, volunteering and helping out the community in many different ways.
It's been quite easy with the location being London because it's already split into different boroughs (kind of like neighborhoods or suburbs). My team is working in the borough of Red Bridge, this area is very green and is filled with upper class people. It reminds me of a little village; filled with little shops, double-decker buses and million dollar houses.
So far what we've been doing is prayer walking; going around our borough praying for different people or reading our Bibles out loud in public places...just getting a feel for the community. We've also been to a number of churches and youth groups.
Yesterday we went to these apartment buildings called the Estates, with a guy who does door knocking and evangelizing there. It was quite interesting. This place is known for people commiting suicide by jumping out the windows of the buildings, and is a place where a lot of mentally ill people live. If that didn't freak you out the elevator would. The guy told us to all squeeze into this small little steal elevator...after the doors had closed we asked if it was safe. The only response we get is, "I don't really know, be praying." Long story short...I'm still alive!
There was eleven floors and we knocked on every single door. The people weren't very friendly or open, but some of us got some good conversations going with some people.
In the next few weeks we'll be working with Street Pastors (Pastors that go out into different areas and help out with the homeless; giving them food, giving out flip flops to the women with broken high heals, etc. I'm really excited to go out and help out with both the physical needs and spiritual needs of this community.
I'm also going to be buying some chalk soon and going out and making some pictures on the sidewalks to get people's attention and hopefully ask me what in the world I'm doing. I think it would be a great way to catch people's attention without being all in their face. I'm curious to see how God will use my art skills.
The people here come from many different backgrounds and cultures, white people becoming more and more of the minority. The people keep to themselves..but have found if you just step out and start a conversation they open up and it'll be hard to get them to stop talking.
Also with London becoming more of a Muslim nation it's hard to find devote Christians. It's not like the U.S.A. where everyone mostly calls themselves Christians even if they don't live like it.
Materialism is a big problem here with Central London only a forty-five minute subway ride away. Their shopping stores are HUGE here. It was very overhwelming my first time going into a store. It seemed like just a small building but find that it's actually a couple stories up and down, and the prices are decieving since it's in pounds and not dollars. It would be easy to get caught up in the hustle of buying and buying, and always wanting more.
Please pray for this place!
Right now I'm getting ready to do something called slum survivor with a youth group. What's slum survivor you ask?
Me, three other ywamers, and some of the kids from the youth group here at the church are going to be making houses out of boxes in the downstairs basement of the Church and living in them until Sunday afternoon (originally we were going to do it outside on the Church grounds but It's too cold and is expected to rain. Personally I would like to tough it out and do it outside but I'd probably be regretting it after a few hours). We're allowed a sleeping bag, pillow, and our Bibles. We get three meals a day, but what we get is limited and will be rice or beans.
Should be quite the experience.
I'm excited to be humbled by the experience, getting a little glimpse at how people have to live.
If I make it out of the slums alive I'll tell you how it all went!
Thank you for all your prayers and support. Please keep praying.
I believe God's going to do some amazing things these next few weeks
excited.
mariah
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