Day 59: Praying for young people who are unemployed (1932)

Join with Salvationists of the Wales Division for day 59 of 150 days of prayer.

• ‘You, God, are my strong, safe place. You are the God who loves me with a faithful love’ (Psalm 59:17, EasyEnglish Bible). 

1932

Hugh Redwood wrote about The House o’ the Trees (at Penygraig, Williamstown) in The New Chronicle (10 June 1938):

‘Just over six years ago a little group of Salvationists, deeply concerned at the outlook for the unemployed youth of the Rhondda, prayed for a certain piece of waste land on which these lads might be put to some sort of work. They did not get the land they asked for, but within a few days they were in possession of 42 acres adjoining it. There came with the land, moreover, a house and some farm buildings.

‘This was the beginning of The House o’ the Trees, in the opening of which I had a part in 1932, and by not a few, it was hailed as a miracle. But today, when I was privileged to open its latest extension, I was able to see for myself what a far greater miracle has been wrought in the intervening years. 

‘Hitherto The House o’ the Trees has accepted youths from South Wales only. The extension now opened … will make it possible to take them from other distressed areas. [Regarding the farm] Two pedigree sows, a particularly welcome gift from the farm of Mr Lloyd George, have lately been added to the breeding stock. 

‘Glad as we are at the success of this experiment, in dealing with unemployment, we rejoice still more over the lives which have been changed here.’

Prayer

• The Army still supports young unemployed people. Pray that they may see light at the end of what must at times seem to be a dark tunnel.
• Pray that they will know, as did the psalmist, that ‘you, God, are my strong, safe place’.