First week in London

Wow, a week in London has already passed by! I'm here back to my other home- not Cornwall or Southampton, but the Isle of Dogs. For those of you who don't know, I have spent a lot of time here in my gap year with London City Mission, and on lots of visits since. I've grown to love this beautifully diverse place and its people a lot. I'm here on the summer programme working with the Mission at Cafe Forever, in conjunction with City of Peace church.
The journey here was long but I was really excited to be coming back, and expectant about what this summer might be like. Navigating the tubes across London to the island was 'interesting' and definitely gave me a welcome back with the rushing, the heavy luggage and the enormous heat. God definitely provided people along the way to help me with numerous flights of stairs and an extremely large bag (I can fit inside it, just so you know). Welcomed by dear friends, it was good to relax.
This week has been very busy as we have been preparing for our summer programme which starts tomorrow, Monday 2nd August (anyone else thinking it's really weird that it's August already?!). It involves three weeks of activities and trips, all with the aim of meeting and befriending local people and being open to share the amazing love of God and the transformation that it brings. Most of these activities will be based in the local park, where we have a small kitchen/hut which we have turned into a cafe kiosk. We want to be a positive influence in this community where there is much hurt and need. We want to spend time with people of all ages and show that we care for them.
We have got a great team of people, from all different areas of the country and which includes people who live here long term- remember Tom, Marlene, Carol, Josh, Moira, Nathan, Louise, Daniel and me.
If you are a Christian and would like to pray for all of this, we really value that. We need God. Please pray for us as we start, for organisation and adjustment of plans. Pray also for us as we meet people, that we will be open and bold, and genuinely love them. Pray that many will come and quality relationships will be built up, and that this will be true also of the people we already know; that they might even begin to ask questions about our love for God. This week it has been really nice to see children and parents and other individuals that I have got to know over the last couple of years.
I'll try and update this regularly so that you can hear how it's all going! On a side note, for those who may be wondering, I am flying out to Germany for my year there on 31st August (this is scarily close!). Please pray as I sort out some details, without being distracted from things here.
I had better go, I need to revise my nursery rhymes and get my play dough ready for our playgroup in the park tomorrow morning!
Thankyou for your love and support.