Good News for Northern IrelandLaura Brown - 3 Apr 2013
West Belfast is an area known around the world for its violent and sectarian history. It is marked by high unemployment, poor physical and mental health, entrenched sectarianism, and an on-going suicide epidemic. However we see a vibrant and creative community that God loves and wants to powerfully encounter! We are a community of believers based here for a few years, praying and believing that God is going to break out in a miraculous way, and we’d love you to come join us for a week.
God has given us a vision of a broken people restored, of young people leading their peers to Jesus, of new murals going up declaring that the hope of Jesus, a community delivering spiritual training and discipleship and worshipping in this area. We see neighbours sharing meals, evening outreach to gangs, a supernatural centre to the community where people can come for prayer, healing, a hug, and an encounter with the Father.
Unfortunately we are a long way off it. At the moment the sectarian tensions in Belfast are worse than they’ve been for ten years, and in West Belfast people struggle with the effects of poverty, deprivation and sectarianism.
A while ago we, as a group, dipped our toe in the water with our first prayer room, during a local Fun Day. The building we held it in was once a row of houses on an interface that went derelict because no one wanted to be on this stretch of land for threat of physical violence, but is now a shared building catering to both communities.
Our prayer room was the first time anything like that had been done locally and we expected a quiet afternoon. Instead we were inundated by people – being nosy, asking questions, asking for prayer.
Amongst others, we got to pray for an older couple who had never had someone pray for them before (what a privilege!), and lead a group of teenage girls in praying for the first time.
This is the reality of our communities – people who’ve lived their entire lives in a 'Christian' country, not knowing there’s a King who loves them and can rescue them. We want to tell them! This is a really exciting place to be as we wait expectantly for God to break out and Heaven to open! We have met to pray every week for 2.5 years, and we are now in the tension of knowing God is going to build something incredible here, and being really impatient to get going with it, but of knowing that first we need to build a foundation of prayer and faithfulness. And we can’t do that alone.
We would love some people to come and spend a week praying with us into our vision, and praying for this place and telling us what God puts on your heart for West Belfast. We believe this team is an answer to prayer and we're so excited to see what God does through it!
Would you like an opportunity to spend a week praying into one of Northern Ireland’s most troubled and deprived neighbourhoods?
This one-week long team, for maximum 6 people, will be a prayer-focused team, spending time prayer walking, treasure hunting, and seeking God for our community. We will also be helping out at Storehouse, who feed the poor, as well as helping with local Christian youth work, and praying in and for local churches. There will be opportunities to pray for physical and emotional healing and administer the prophetic and Spirit-led dream interpretation. This is the first time a 24-7 team has come to West Belfast and it will be a full-on week of God adventures!
Dates: 14th - 21st July 2013.
Cost: £325 plus flights and travel insurance.
Closing date for applications: 14th May 2013.
To apply: Download the application form and email the missions team.