Good evening from Prague

Oh how a glass or two of wine helps ones reflections, been in Prague for just over 24 hours, I now know what the purchase prices of a Lime twister and a gallon of ketchup is. Feeling good about giving up full time employment building steam turbines to go to college for two years to learn how to do this :)Mind you that was before many of your were born, it was 1978. Just thinking what the world was like at that time. The wall was firmly in place that prevented many of who I now know and love as friends were kept separated, we were still murdering each other in my home land, Mandela was in prison, in England we were about to enter what has become known as the winter of discontent and I had discovered a world of opportunity, community and awakening.

Oh how my heart sings and inside I am dancing.

It's kind of funny when I think about what I try to do! The awakening I discovered was a movement called the YMCA. I believe that what I experienced and learned with the YMCA has effected me and helped me understand others and the situations that people live in here and now.

There is something fundamental about seeing others grow and thrive that actually builds me up as an individual.

In this I want to take a Hebrew word, shalom, this is about pursuing wholeness, and a quote, from where, I do not recall, 'seek the shalom (wholeness) of the city and in that pursuit you will find your own shalom (wholeness)'. Which brings me back to that obscenity that is a wall. In Belfast there are still what are called 'Peace Walls' and in the Middle East there is that monstrosity that cuts families and communities and individuals from association with each other. I experienced that recently while working in Jericho. The 'something' I see in young peoples eyes in England that are fully engaged in the YMCA, is exactly what I seen facing me,on the eyes of those young Palastinian people, looking into my eyes, they were eyes not of despair but those of youthfulness that said, I can do this... with a hand up... I can make this happen.

The last thing that comes to mind is nine folk from England who are heading to Ukraine this Friday to meet up with peers from Moldova and Belarus to look at how we, the YMCA provide spaces for young people to be transformed into what ever they choose to be and two others who will travel to Yeravan for a seminar on Peace.

And I am only here to buy cans of pop!