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We began packing boxes this weekend. I know that will shock you because we don’t leave out flat until 2nd August, and those who were involved last time we moved will remember (with painful memory) that Mrs Positive Thinking genuinely believed she would get those “last little bits” done on the morning of. The morning of! Who were we kidding. They had finished packing the van and I was still sat there desperately ramming things into cardboard boxes…
 
I think people mistake the whole ‘estate living’ and ‘serving a community’ thing for being secretly glamourous. Like the 'glamping' version of following Jesus in the day-to-day; Glamcarnational Living maybe? As if this particular inner-city story involves all these inspirational stories about change and exciting opportunities to preach the Gospel, or run a huge community day and see hundreds attend and change their lives. I’m guilty of believing in Glamcarnational Ministry/Living too, we’ve been here nearly two years and the impatient streak in me is restless to see something more.
 
I am reading a great book called The Raggamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. It’s so sickly I can only read a few pages at a time, I ferociously underline almost every sentence and those around me witness me screaming ‘YES! C’MONNNN’ and raucously laughing in agreement with all the ridiculous church paradigms Manning slays in just a few words. I recon it’s probably a bit like watching the average man watching a football game?
 
Manning reminds me that doing things properly, means doing things at God’s pace. Normally, that is pretty slow. Let’s not lie. Manning talks about this idea that Faith is more than believing what you can’t see. It’s trust. I believe in God, but do I trust Him?
 
We don’t want to be in 'Glamcarnational Ministry', we don’t want ‘glam’ anything. But unfortunately in order to do that we have to step away from faith as belief, and move to a place where faith is trust - to stop ourselves from rushing ahead and doing things in our own time and in our shiny own way.
My friend Louise had a picture thismorning. A picture of an Ice-Cream that wasn’t melting in the heat, and a reminder that we have a God that can do the impossible.
 
This update was originally going to be me telling the sad story of us having still found nowhere to live and no-one to live with, and no money to move somewhere bigger like we had hoped. But God has done impossible for us before, and He will do it again. Our loss is God’s gain; so we will keep throwing our stuff away and stop planning our future and wait for His guide.
So maybe we're packing because it feels like defiance, defiance to the system that is trying to make us feel anxious or worried. Our God is not a God of that stuff, He’s got it in hand, so we’ll pack the boxes and He’ll get the rest sorted.
As many of you will have seen on the news the Chalcots Estate in Swiss Cottage was evacuated this weekend, this is just a stone throw away from us and we have a number of teenagers who come to our Swiss Cottage Bus Project who will have lived in these flats. On Sunday morning I was able to go down the the Leisure Centre and offer some support. I joined The Winch in organising a safe space for children to play while parents had conversations about accommodation and logistics. As I’m sure you can imagine tensions were high and lots of people were upset, but I was impressed at the turn out of Camden Council workers at the centre and the willingness to support the community however they can. Please continue to pray for families who have still not been given accommodation, and all the complications of being shipped out of Camden to other boroughs which many of them have been.

We are hoping to take some of our local teenagers to Soul Survivor this year, I have had positive conversations with local churches and even possibly a school! Sadly Soul Survivor have cancelled new bookings as they are over subscribed – please pray that this would somehow be resolved so we might still be able to take a group!

Last Sunday we had a Church Picnic in Regent’s Park and it was just wonderful! A handful of children turned up and lost almost all Matt’s tennis balls in the lake (shh!) but we had great food and lovely weather. It was such a fun opportunity to spend quality time with church members and we were really grateful to have been able to go along!

^^ North London Youth Workers Breakfast

Rosie has been organising once a month breakfasts for Christian Youth and Children's workers. Most recently we met at St Martin's Gospel Oak and had about 12 people representing 7 different churches/organisations!

Things in XLP Camden Team are going well, it is a quiet term with exams on meaning we are not able to get into all our schools as normal, but are trying to touch base with our young people as and when we can.

We have had some difficulties at one of our schools, it is too long to explain but there is one particular teacher who finds it very difficult to have positive feelings towards us and has unfortunately cancelled our end of year trip. This has been totally gutting for the kids and we would appreciate your prayers as we try to rearrange this for outside of school, and also your prayer for our relationship with this particular teacher Mrs B that we can somehow build up a positive relationship with her.

I am still working with M who hurt her leg a few weeks back. I am now supporting M in two of her lessons on a Wednesday and I am allowed to take her offsite for lunch. Last week I took in a mini picnic and my Gel Nail kit and did her nails at lunchtime. This felt like a really special time together and I think M really enjoyed it. It is hard being in her lessons as I don’t want to be mistaken for a teacher or for this to affect our relationship in a negative way – but so far it seems to have been a positive move.
Community projects this term have been much more consistent with the bus working! (Although as I write this the generator disagreed with the heat and has given up). Regardless of that we have been busy as we are ramping up for summer with 'Summer Camp', 5 days in Dorset at a Scout Camp, and 'Snow Camp’ which as many of you know is a number of 2-day trips to Hemmel Hempstead Snow Dome in a bid to get kids who many never have experienced snow (not proper snow) to get out on it and learn to Ski or Snowboard.

We have such a limited number of spaces for Summer Camp for each borough, it is going to be difficult to wittle down who this opportunity is going to benefit the best. But we are hoping to have lots of new faces this year which will be very exciting!
PRAYER POINTS
  • Please pray for our accommodation situation
  • Please pray for Anya who's visa was declined from the UK Embassy, pray that her second attempt will be successful and she will be able to join us for the XLP Gap Year in September.
  • Please pray for M who's so close to being expelled. Pray for breakthrough with her through mentoring.
  • Pray for all the young people doing exams at the moment, that relationships with youth workers wouldn't suffer with lack of contact time.
  • Praise God for our wonderful church and family at KTEC and St Luke's.
  • Praise God that we have so many exciting opportunities to offer young people over the summer!
  • Pray for all the logistics and planning we both have for the end of term, over summer, and new things starting in September.
  • Pray for conversations about Summer activities and that the right young people would come to the right events!
  • Praise God for all our supporters, we feel so upheld by all the prayers and are so grateful to God for you!
Poor lad who didn't see this coming in our water fight at Swiss Cottage!

Financial Support

If you feel like you might be able to support us financially THANK YOU! Our bank details are here, but please let us know if so as it's helpful for our budgetting.

Account No
90186335
Sort Code
09-01-26

Copyright © 2017 Matt and Rosie Conroy, All rights reserved.


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