FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTs 
Paul Stevenson(Photo: © Paul Stevenson)Just over two years ago, my 100 days with Urban Expression came to an end.
On my last day I walked the streets of East London with Steve, a former drug addict, who opened my eyes to the street corners where drugs were sold and the dark alleys where they were used.
He showed me the secret sleeping-dens of the homeless and where he himself used to live before the Good News transformed his life.
On reflection, I know that his first-hand account to me sowed the seeds of my passion for being a channel through which the word of God and his unfailing grace redeem people's lives.
That seed, which I owe to my experiences with CMS, has slowly taken root over the past two years and some of its fruits have started to appear in my life.
Without my CMS placement, I would not have gained experiences in mental health.
I volunteered on Mondays within the Spiritual, Religious and Cultural Care Department -- the first of its kind in Britain -- at Mile End Psychiatric Hospital.
I visited patients on wards and was involved in the evening services in the multi-faith chapel.
I also gained experience in multicultural children's work, vital for working in care.
The adventure playground in Shadwell is an important space for children in the area because the only piece of 'green space' is located on the other side of a busy highway. Having a place in which to kick around a football was important to them.
We enjoyed playing games of Kingball and having snowball fights when the playground was at its quietest over the winter months. However, during the summer, it was like any other children's playground -- full of grinning children!
I now work at Bethany Christian Centre in Edinburgh, where I support people with a history of drug and alcohol abuse to reclaim their lives and pursue a life of recovery, doing so through a Christian 12-step programme.
Urban Expression taught me that potential within a person or an area stretches as far as your own imagination will take you and as far as God will lead you.
A 'graffiti project' image of a lion used in East London(Photo: © Paul Stevenson)The graffiti project that I carried out while with Urban Expression gave me the opportunity to use skills I hadn't used for years and opened up my creativity again, thanks to the opportunities I was given to try out new ideas.
The graffiti project aimed to bring colour to Tower Hamlets in a cheap and innovative way by acquiring discarded wood found on the streets and applying spray paint to it in the form of stencils to brighten up the streets, primarily on routes by which children would be walking home from school.
I acquired too an understanding of how churches can be missional.
I thank God that he does call ministers to the inner city and he enthrals and excites the people there to initiate 'church'.
That experience demonstrated to me that leaders with passion and warmth are integral because they must be welcoming and constantly inspiring as well as valuing each person for the unique contribution that he or she is able to make.
They are the leaders who take time to get to know every individual, motivate them to persevere and give the creative input required to deepen a calling from God into a capacity to serve the local community.
Many inner-city church leaders demonstrate what it is to be missional 24 hours a day by living alongside the people of their community.
They can be seen living out the Good News even when they know that you can't expect to make a difference everywhere you go, but that you can patiently persevere, knowing that God's timing isn't always the same as your own.
An image of zebras used in the graffiti project(Photo: © Paul Stevenson)I still feel called to urban communities and the homeless who live within them. God doesn't want us to forget about the inner cities. He doesn't want us to walk away.
Missional opportunities exist everywhere and churches need to support them or initiate such openings where individuals are unsure of how to go about it.
Thanks to CMS, I have broadened my understanding of mission and realise that my work in Edinburgh is missional, but it doesn't stop there. There are so many more opportunities in local communities that church leaders and their congregations can seek out together.
Which is why I take great joy in knowing that my next Make A Difference placement will be in Bangalore, India, through CMS, an organisation that's done just that -- make a difference.
To read more about Paul's placement, after his coping with a diagnosis of cancer, and how Paul was baptised during his time in East London, click here.