London

More pictures here

On my way to India I got to visit London first.
My church in Los Angeles, RealityLA planted a church in London, RealityLondon about 2 years ago. I wanted to visit the city and see the church. It worked out that RealityLA was doing a prayer tour around the same time I was going to London. So I joined them.
About 40 of our members did a week long prayer tour through London. We came to encourage Mark and Lizzy, the couple who moved to London to start Reality London and to pray for the city.


It was an intense week. We started each day around 8am for breakfast and usually ended dinner around 11pm. We walked and took the subway through the whole city, visiting about 2 districts each day. We would walk through and area, check out sites, talk to people and then pray for the area.

God did a lot of great things while we were there. You can check out the blog of the prayer tour here

One interesting event for me happened a few days into the trip. A group of about 6 of us were blogging in the lower room of a local coffee shop when the only other guy in the room turned to us and asked if we were missionaries. It turns out he was a christian from South Africa whom God had called to London. He noticed that I was stretching my back because it had been hurting from all the walking we had been doing. Those of you that know me, know that I have a bad back and am in pain whenever I do any physical activities. The guy asked if he could pray for my back. I was grateful for his prayer and was actually very surprised to find that the rest of the week my back didn't hurt despite all the waking we had to do. I even got bold and wore my tom's shoes and sandals on some days! (a big risk since they have no arch support).


I also felt that God gave me verses to pray over for two of the districts in London.

Islington: Psalm 16:5 “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot."

• I think this verse was on my heart for the area because it is an area with a lot of young couples and families and those families will have to decide if they want to have their children grow up in a church, and if so what church. Some couples will raise their children in the church hoping the church can teach them good morals and how to be nice people, but the parents don't actually believe in the teachings of the church.
• This verse speaks to the heart of that problem. It does not work to just raise children in the church if there is no actual faith at home. They will grow up resenting the church and seeing the false religion of their parents.
  
• God wants for the people of Islington to have true faith him. He wants for them to love him and serve him above all else. So I am praying for families in that area to love the Lord and raise their children with that genuine love for the Lord.
  

Shoreditch: 1 Peter 2:13 “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.”

• It actually took me a bit of time to figure out why this verse stood out to me for this area.
• The verse speaks to the idol of the area. Shoreditch is made up of many young 20-something artists. It reminded a lot of us of the Silverlake area in LA.
  
• The thing I noticed about these artists was they prioritized freedom above all else. They don't want to be subject to any government or authorities. They are all about independence and rebellion.
• My prayer for this area is that artists would live in this area who love Jesus and show a true counter cultural attitude by being willing to be subject to the government and the Lord