rach in durban - end times and exciting times

Hey team

Still sunny here with LOADS going on. It's been a great weekend.

End times
Just before we left for Durban, Soul Survivor took the difficult decision that SITCD 2009 would not be happening. A tough call, mostly (but not entirely) based on the fact that the British Lions tour is pushing flight costs over £1000. Much of the time we've spent here so far has involved Ben, Dave and Sue having to meet with people to tell them, apologise to them, explain what's happening etc. It's been a tough time. I've not told you before because we had to wait for it to be public knowledge.

As hard as it has been, people have received the news graciously at this end and some churches are already talking about the possibility of continuing it themselves with South African delegates. It's hard for us to let go of something into which we have invested so much of ourselves but we have to leave it with God and trust that His plans are infinitely better than our own.

The side effects of that are that Ben is moving back to the UK. Staying here in his house gets more interesting by the day. Dave and Sue popped to the supermarket on Saturday and came back to see their beds being loaded into someone's truck and driven away! We're holding on to the furniture in case it gets sold from under us!

Exciting times
Sue and I joined a prayer walk yesterday afternoon which was organised by several churches in the city. We walked and prayed through Warwick Junction - a busy market area under the flyover of one of the main routes in and out of Durban. There were about 50 people from a huge variety of churches. It was SO exciting to be part of it and to see so many Christians of all flavours coming together to pray for their city.

I met Fr Stephen from the cathedral after the walk. He's involved with SITC and has some delegates at his church this summer. We are planning to stop at his church on the last day of the prayer walk and he has suggested we call into the end of the morning mass (in English) during which they will pray for us, and then stay for the beginning of the afternoon mass (in Zulu) when they will pray for us again and send us off.

Something good:
Meeting with all those churches to pray for Durban yesterday. They are planning on prayer walking together monthly and its so exciting to see it start and begin to grow.

Something I am working on:
I have a few more churches to connect with over the next couple of days, some of which I have meetings with, others I am yet to talk to.

Something to pray for:
The churches and projects who were going to be part of SITCD 2009 - pray that they will keep focussed on God and His plan.