24-7 Prayer UK share this moving tale of God's strength through suffering and faith in the place of hopelessness...

"My name is Charl Young, I am 19 and last year I was part of 24-7's discipleship course ‘Transit’, hosted by the lovely and inspirational Stanford Boiler Room. I am now living in a community house in Reading and am a part of the 24-7 community here. As I write this I still can’t believe that God has brought me here and that of all people, he has placed me in such a privileged position. My year doing Transit was a defining moment in my story not least because it was the first time I every really prayed or took God remotely seriously. He changed me, He broke me for the marginalized and he commissioned me to go and now I rest in the tension of prayer and mission, intimacy and involvement as I journey with him and with his church out of the Prayer Room and into the world. I remember one night sitting with some bread and wine in the prayer room, resting with God, dreaming of where this romance would take me and praying the words of C T Studd as I did most days:

My last few months of transit and over the summer were very difficult for my family, Dad had a heart attack and had major surgery, my brother was attacked, my mum was off work with stress and I still had no plans come September, we were literally all living on a prayer. Needless to say here we are now some 5 months on with Dad back at work after a triple bypass, my brother thankfully has only a jagged facial scar, mum taking a year out and well me I’m kind of running this coffee shop in the middle of a neglected council estate… God is good, eh?

Running this coffee shop has given me an open door to meet incredible people who have been crushed by life, the temptation is to have an ‘I will fix you mentality’ truth is they are fixing me. I held the hand of a homeless lady who is beaten persistently and we prayed together for joy, love and peace, I was taken out for dinner by a single mum with her three kids and I get a smile from the local drug dealer most days. God has broken me for this estate and I’m not afraid to dream big… but any action has to come from a place of prayer and so myself and a few others have come up with a plan.

A month of prayer for the estate, right before a regeneration project is due to begin in the New Year. The estate as it stands is a 1970s monstrosity… the flats were only supposed to be around for 10 years, there is asbestos in the roofs and the community has been promised regeneration since the mid- ninety’s.  What is left is a community that doesn’t know its identity… addictions, crime, relationship breakdown, abuse, depression amongst others have been passed down from generation to generation and levels of unemployment are rising fast. This place needs change, this place needs prayer.."

Read the rest of Charl's story on the new 24-7 Prayer UK website.