A quick cultural synopsis

A church plant in a different country was always going to take more time than I wanted. A church plant where you're launching out on faith that a team will be brought to you, rather than go with you... yowsers. Let's just say there are days I question my sanity!

But whilst I admit that personally this place can be hard for me to be and my pride is worried in case you superstars in EastLake Bothell think I'm crap and dropping the ball, when I stop and remember it's not about me, all is well.

• It feels in this culture that there's an oppressive spirit holding people down, sucking life and possibility out of them. PLEASE PRAY AGAINST THIS!

I'm seeing this in my professional work regardless of the context- consistent themes of people feeling worthless and like they're helpless to change their circumstances. A BBC report this week said that the height of ambition in NI is to own a decent car. Kinda tells you something of the mindset, right?

• There is a NEGATIVE spirit here. Even our humour is based on cutting the legs from under our friends and the more harsh it is, the more it conveys that we feel close to the other person. But where in WA I experienced that banter is offset by tons of wonderful affirmation, we don't do that here so there are no checks and balances. Because you know your friends are going to point out and make humour of your weaknesses, you seek to point them out first so you are the one getting the jibe in. This leads to you having to think ahead what they'd say and you end up cutting yourself down imagining the worst that you can think of, which of course leads to a situation where you're constantly self-policing and develop a negative internal dialogue to cover all bases. Fun, eh? Any wonder our kids are suiciding at an alarming rate.

Please pray. These two things alone are what I keep coming up against. I feel the drag on my own energy and pioneering spirit and could honestly do with a) a team of similarly visioned people and b) more contact with friends in WA to keep me energized in spite of my context.

Maybe this all means I'm horribly immature that I need this level of support (see, there I go assuming I know what you're thinking and getting the sleight in before you do) BUT I would rather see it as inviting you to be part of what God's doing here and an act of maturity on my part to reach out and ask for help. Yippee, positive change, praise God! :D

Prayer points for now- TEAM; God to bind, banish, get shot of this ghastly negative and oppressive spirit's hold on this country. Fill NI with hope.

Thanks for reading- please comment. Always good I'm not just writing to myself.