Increasingly I find myself working closely with some of the young people who have become involved in the gang culture of Derby. Every day is an education lesson on what the new words are, who is what colour bandanna, who has been a part of the latest stabbing or shooting, where the local drug dealers are and then where the drugs are stashed! I learn about the young peoples experiences whilst being in prison, getting in discussions about how different "Big Mans" prison is to "Young boys" prison.
I begin to understand a little about their background, about how they have grown up, their circumstances, and how the have become who they are. The way they live from one fix to another, from one steal to another, from one girl to another, without very rarely thinking of the consequences of their actions. They live for the now and very rarely look to the future. Many having no remorse for what they have done.

After a while you become to realise they are who they are because their background, family, and how society has shaped them.
For those young people they need protection, role models, identity, boundaries, discipline, love, security, forgiveness and a second chance. Within a family unit this is what the father teaches them. But for so many young people they have no father, so they go to the closest thing that provides for these needs . . . Gangs!

My heart breaks for the young people of this city, this nation, for the young people who have not had a chance in life, the young people who are born into confused families, who don't know who their fathers are. With the young people I work with I can quite often see the hurt, and the pain in there lives, they want to be loved, to be noticed, to escape from their situations, to succeed.
But if we, society, continue to look at them and judge them for what they have done and the crimes they have committed, then there is no way that things will change. But if we commit to acknowledging that yes they may have messed up, and none of us are perfect, but see them for who they can be. There is SO much potential locked up within these young people that needs to be released!

I wake up every morning I go to work, I come home and sleep. Then I wake up, go to work and come home.
I sometimes think . . . whats the point? What am I achieving?
Then I look again and see that actually within my job, I fill significant post. Within the mundane (sometimes!) routine of work, there are moments of spontaneity, moments that I could never dream up or imagine. There have been times that all it has taken is a split second to change a moment. And I long for God to use me, to allow me to pland seeds in these young peoples lives, at times when I feel helpless, like I can not do anything, I am driven to pray!
I pray that God would start to raise up Godly fathers in these young peoples lives. To give them the hope and the love that only God can give, to give them a sense of identity, of aspiration, and a sense of belonging.
I am excited to see God break in, to see these lives change, and if all I can do is pray, that is enough!