Rock Thurrock prays for Follow-up, Finance and the Future

• Follow-up
• The Velocity course have begin this week in four centres across the borough, but take-up from the young people who responded at the Rock Thurrock events has been slow. Obviously, we rejoice at those who have come, but we need to ask the Lord of the Harvest for wisdom and help in keeping everyone who responded keyed into developing a relationship with Jesus. It maybe that the strategy needs tweaking, or we need to look at the whole thing from an oblique angle to see it through God's eyes. We also need to pray for the adults who responded. We don't want to do it 'our' way - we want to do it 'His' way! Our heart, and God's heart, is that none of them will be lost.
• Finance
• Rock Thurrock still needs to raise £4K to break even. This may seem a lot, but is actually only a small fraction what has already been raised, for which we give thanks. So many individuals and churches who perhaps aren't all that rich have given towards the project. We just need this final push, and the only idea we have at the moment is another curry night...
• Future
• Developing a long-term strategy for young people and Christian youthwork in the borough.
  
• In the mix, we have Olympic stuff coming up (More Than Gold visiting Thurrock on 10 November) and this time next year the GSUS LIVE project (www.gsuslive.co.uk). The BGEA's Dare To Be A Daniel course for young people could be prototyped here in Thurrock. 
• Part of the original Rock Thurrock vision, in the days when it was Epicentre Thurrock, was to see young people developed into peer leadership. This vision still stands but requires the resources and facilitation to make it happen.
• It's been noted that the interchurch youth service UNITE 30/31 is run by youth leaders from just five local churches - revealing that work on the ground with young people in out churches is sadly lacking, and so training and opportunities need to be developed to equip and resource local churches in this area. And UNITE 30/31 itself would like to be a monthly affair.
  
• The borough needs a united, harmonised, and cohesive approach to this. God has placed this responsibility on us! So we're going to pray this one through!