Bite the Bullet
Getting ready for tomorrow's Bite the Bullet event in Wood Green. Details here.
Day time includes input from Professor John Pitts, a panel discussion, plus seminars and more.
Evening is an urban music concert.
Last year's event was fantastic, and this years looks set to once again help churches and practitioners face some of the difficult questions around youth gangs and violence.

The "mini sabbatical" is over...
My 1 month (ish) sabbatical is over. My dissertaion is submitted. Now I just have to see if it was any good...will probably post more on my thinking/conclusions another time.
It was nice having some clear time to put into it.
Meanwhile back to work!

On Saturday we had a "forum" day related to "Bite the Bullet", to make space to listen to young people and try and get a "top 5" issues they face, especially with violent crime as the background noise. We ended up with a top 6 issues : Consumerism & money, peer pressure, identity, fear, respect & power, the double standards of the wider (adult) world. The standard "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" along with gang stuff seemed to the group to be symptoms of these underlying issues. Was an interesting day!

For such a time as this...
Great stuff at the Bite the Bullet Conference today.
Unprecedented media coverage for a Christian event. All the major UK TV channels sent crews and reports made both local and nation news. Wow.
Lets pray for an end to the ongoing violent youth crime