Launch isn't very far away and Lucy and I have been thinking very much about what we're going there to do. Lucy watched a program about some girls who have totally missed out on what life should be (The Trouble With Girls - BBC) and how they just need some help. I replied to her e-mail with the following. It all kinda just poured out of me and I suddenly realised how true it is:

Exactly. It is what they need. It’s exactly what James is talking about when he says (and I paraphrase) “It’s no good saying, yeah I believe, and then just sitting on your bum. If your mate comes up to you and says ‘I’ve got some problems’ don’t just say ‘Oh, well, God bless then’ and walk off. What good is that? You can’t have faith without actions, and actions without faith are lost. You gotta have both!”

That’s what the Army was all about. And sadly, at some point, the “social work” got divorced from the “church” and we became exactly like the Churches William Booth fought against. He saved men and women and then sent them to Churches who wouldn’t even let these people in. That’s the only reason that the Christian Mission ever became a Church, simply because no other Church would take the people he was saving.

Look at how far we’ve come from our calling... incredibly really! So that’s what we’re going into: saving souls and serving suffering humanity!

I can see us spending a lot of time out at night with the young’uns, with bottles of water and those mini bibles that Andrew gave us. We’ll just be chatting to people, helping them out, telling them there’s another way.

That’s also why I want us to have a bigger place, because we’re gonna have people round for food all the time and we may even have people staying with us occasionally. B&B but without getting paid for it, lol.

At the moment, without Lucy working and with debt that we've built up whilst we've been living beyond our means in Reading, we'll only be able to afford about £400/month. Even in Looe we're only looking at a 1 bedroom flat for that. Basically, we both feel that our mission and our creation of community down there is going to require a bit more space.

More space means more rent, more rent needs more income, more income needs a job. Our most outstanding prayer need right now? That Lucy find a job and we find the perfect home and base of operations.

If God can, by some miracle, give us the home first, then fair enough. But if we have to do this the worldly way, we're going to need Lucy to find a job. Please cover this issue with as much prayer as you can!!