One Friday night a couple weeks ago Aisha and I were preparing for a detached session as usual. As the nights have started to draw in and it is becoming ever colder we were expecting not to see many young people out and about. However we regularly pray before we go out to be protected and directed where we should be and to lead us to people and places where God wants us to go. That particular night as we walked around I was wondering is this work making any difference during this time of year or are we just doing the same thing different weeks hoping to meet some young people out on their Friday nights?   As we walked past the bandstand we came across a young person who we know walking towards us. Usually when we see this young person we just exchange “hello’s” make small talk and go our separate ways. However that night they were keen to talk to us about issues of concern they were having. As we sat with this young person for 1 ½ hours talking things through we helped them find some solutions to give them a sense of control, which they hadn’t felt in control with recently.  As we talked the young person stated that “we were people they could be trusted and talk too”. This caught me by surprise as I felt we had little contact with this young person apart from detached sessions, however in their eyes they felt that the work we do in detached has helped to make a decision that we are approachable and trustworthy people they could speak to in times of need. After we went our separate ways I turned to Aisha and shared that even though it may be cold and dark and feel like its same thing different week when we walk around it’s encounters like this that make detached work worthwhile.

 

James