One of the benefits of the Internet is that there is a lot of information readily available to us to help inform our prayers. Local authorities produce a lot of statistics and information about our areas which can help us to have a factual understanding of issues affecting our area.

Goldthorpe is situated in the Dearne North Ward of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. In Barnsley as a whole, currently 18% of the population is under 16 and 23.8% of Barnsley’s children aged under 16 years are currently living in poverty. Statistics are often meaningless to me as I’m not that good at maths! But apparently that equates to approximately 8,700 children in Barnsley living in the 20% worst areas in England for low wellbeing. I find numbers easier to deal with than percentages, and that is an awful lot of children who are in difficult circumstances. All children need our prayers, but there is no doubt that it is doubly difficult for those living in poverty.

In 2009, 39.3% of young people in Barnsley schools achieved five A*-C passes (including GCSE English and Mathematics) and at the end of March 2010, the percentage of young people defined as Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) was 8.1%. These figures are all higher than the national average and reflect the difficulties many young people face. Because of their lack of qualifications, they struggle to find jobs and there is a sense in which other problems (lifestyle factors, the risk of involvement in drugs and other criminal activities) become exacerbated by their educational failures. In our area, the picture is even worse, with only 29.8% achieving five A*-C passes (including GCSE English and Mathematics.) As we are praying for schools throughout February, we need to pray that pupils will be able to do well in their learning and that they will leave school with some form of qualifications and life skills that can help them to find work and purpose in their adult lives.

Statistics can obviously be interpreted in a number of different ways, however. If we look at the above statistics, they mean that 60.1% of young people in Barnsley schools did achieve five A*-C passes (including GCSE English and Mathematics) and that a huge number of young people are in education, employment or training. That is a far more positive way to look at things! We need to be careful to look at the whole picture. It is easy to be gloomy and despondent about the situation in our local area, but there is indeed much to be positive about. Nonetheless, we need to pray for our schools and for the children and teachers working there.

Education is not the answer to life’s ills in itself. As C.S. Lewis wryly pointed out, “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.” The secular world view which is so prevalent in our Western society is nowhere more evident than in schools, especially secondary schools where evolution is taught as fact and humanism is the prevailing philosophy. There is also far more to life than paper qualifications. As we are praying for schools, let’s pray that children will learn well in all areas of the curriculum, but that they will also learn moral values and spiritual truths that are consistent with Christianity and that they will be encouraged to seek a personal relationship with God through Christ. Many schools work hard to give pupils some moral framework that is consistent with Christianity and there are many youth organisations and church organisations which seek to have a positive input into schools. Pray that headteachers and governors will understand the need to look at the spiritual values and ethos of their schools as much as the need to do well in ‘league tables’ and achieve good academic results.

(Statistics used here are available from LASOS (Local Area Statistics Online Service))

Thursday (31st January) will see the last prayer meeting of the month, with the whole church encouraged to pray and fast on this day to conclude the first month of prayer and fasting of 2013.

Prayer is not a New Year’s resolution which lasts for only one month, however. Prayer is ongoing in our life with God. We will continue to pray for what Mark jokingly calls the ‘Ten Commandments’ (the list of things we have been focussing our prayers on during January), but we will also focus on other aspects throughout each month of the year.

In February, we will be praying particularly for the local schools in our area, praying that:
• God will bless and encourage Christian teachers
• Through these teachers, the school will have some Christian input
• Christian organisations and churches will be allowed to work in schools
• That children and teachers will come under the influence of the Holy Spirit
• That seeds will be planted in children’s and young people’s lives that will
result in them coming to know Jesus as their Saviour.
• That God will bless and protect the children.

There are 4 main schools in the area:
* Goldthorpe Primary School
* Sacred Heart Roman Catholic School
* Highgate Primary School
* Dearne ALC (Advanced Learning Centre)

Some further information about Dearne ALC from their website is given below:

The Dearne ALC opened its doors to 1100 students in January 2011, replacing the Dearne High as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme. The new secondary school is part of the regeneration project in the village that we have been praying for.

The school motto ‘Aspiration, Ambition and Achievement’ embodies everything the school stands for as a learning community. “Our aim is to continually develop new ways of learning and teaching that respond to the varying needs of our students.”

The school is situated on the fringe of Goldthorpe. The number of students eligible for free school meals is well above average as are the number of students with a statement of special educational needs. The building has been designed to meet the full needs of our community. Service provision for students and their families and additional learning support is located onsite alongside a broad range of community and extracurricular resources. Adult learning and high quality community use facilities are a key element of the school and the community we serve is positively engaged to make use of these every day.

The school achieved the National Challenge floor target of 30% 5+ A*-C including English and maths for the first time in 2009, an increase of 8% on the previous year. Results in 5+ A*-C English and maths have increased by 2.4% from 2009 to 2011. In 2011, 32% of students achieved 5+ A*-C including English and maths.

Dave preached from Acts 19:8-20 last night, looking at how the church in Ephesus engaged in prayer, one of the chief weapons in our armoury. Ephesus was a city in the grip of superstition, sexual immorality and witchcraft. People lived in fear and darkness, but Paul lived out spiritual warfare long before he wrote about it in 2 Corinthians 10 and Ephesians 6! He knew that the stronghold of darkness could be overcome by truth, love and righteousness and that the power of God was stronger than any other power he would ever encounter.

He began his ministry in the synagogue, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God, but there was opposition from some Jews. They became obstinate, hardened their hearts, refused to obey and publicly maligned the Way. Paul moved on to rented accommodation, lecturing each day (probably from about 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.) for two years and building the people up in truth. Teaching is an essential part of church life.

Extraordinary miracles followed the preaching and teaching of the Word, with many healings and deliverances being seen. Paul continued with his ministry even when others tried to jump on the ‘Jesus bandwagon’, exercising the same kind of deliverance ministry without the authority of Christ – only to find themselves overcome by the demonic powers who knew Jesus and knew about Paul but who failed to respond to those dabbling in things too powerful for them. Paul’s preaching and teaching resulted in many people confessing their sins and getting rid of their old ways of living. Evil deeds and the practice of astrology and the occult were renounced.

The church in our day needs to live as the church in Ephesus did, in the power of the Spirit and in the authority of God’s Word. We need to learn from Paul’s example and be available for God to use; we need to teach truth (believing God’s Word will not return to us empty) and we need, above all, to love people. Love is the key to earning the right to be heard.

It is easy for us to look down on ourselves, believing ourselves ‘just’ to be a small church. We may be a small church, but we have a big God. Great things can be accomplished wherever people look to the power and greatness of God rather than focussing on their own weaknesses and size!

The last time Stephen preached, he spoke from Luke 9 about the commission Jesus gave to His disciples – and how that commission took priority over all other things and involved trusting Jesus totally. Today, he looked at the practical outworkings of that through the healing of a man, told in Acts 3.

Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer – the implication is that this is something they did regularly, so presumably that had seen the crippled men begging at the gates before. On this occasion, however, when they were asked for money, they did far more than offer material aid.

Peter declared that they did not have any silver or gold that would help the man, but revealed that they had something far more helpful! They introduced the man to Christ and Christ’s healing. Not only did the man receive physical healing, however; he was introduced to spiritual life through this miracle (he began walking and jumping and praising God!)

We need to offer whatever we have to those in need. Sometimes it is relatively easy (and safe) to offer material help. We need to ensure, however, that we also introduce Christ into people’s situations, for more than anything else, people need Christ and the life He offers.

Every week members of the church faithfully serve the local community through the coffee mornings. It’s a great way to meet people and to enjoy a drink and a snack!

1 Samuel 7 tells the story of an Israelite victory against the Philistines and what they did to mark that victory: “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer,saying, “Thus far has the Lord helped us.” So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again.” (1 Sam 7:12-13)

The hymn ‘Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing’ takes up this theme in one of the verses:
“Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.”

Today on our final prayer walk of January, we walked round one of the new estates on the west side of Goldthorpe, actually in Highgate, and saw this:

I’m not quite sure what these stones represent or if it was just the fact it had snowed overnight that made them stand out so much, but they reminded me of this passage in 1 Samuel. As God gives victories, we need to remember them and mark them in some way so that we remember ‘Thus far has the Lord helped us’. And if the Lord has helped us this far, He won’t let us down in the future!

Some other streets we saw: