Bradford North Circuit

Whither? And with whom? I sometimes worry that I do more writing about prayer than actually praying! I heard a talk recently by Edna Gibson, who’d been a Christian believer from the age of nine and had risen successfully in the ranks of her chosen profession to managerial level, when at 40 she felt the desire to know God more. Not more about him, but to know him better as God, as Heavenly Father, as Lord and Leader – drawing closer, and that meant prayer. She went on to describe her journey then, with God calling her to do things for which she felt quite inadequate, unsuited, and ill-equipped – indeed impossible. But how at every protest God would challenge her to trust him. And he had led her to become a missionary teaching English as a second language to young people in many parts of the world, so they could mission better too: the fruits of her prayer. A second prompt to me, of much longer standing, arises from our closing churches, shrinking congregations and vanishing youth