Freed by Grace

Unfortunately my car broke last weekend, so I've been getting fit this week by walking everywhere! But praise God for his provision and for the generosity of the people around me here who have helped me out with lifts to places that are too far to walk, and as I type there is a mechanic working on the car - he's fixed the initial problem but is now trying to make the heater work so I don't get so cold!
I've really seen God's provision in so many ways since moving here, and the generosity of so many people is really humbling.

Well other than that I've had a relatively normal and busy week. After our weekly meeting on Monday, Dan, Fenton and I had the joy(?) of filming the next episode of the "Randall and Fenton" series that we're showing at our 'Catalyst' youth events. This week we walked around Newport asking people what they thought about Christmas, dressed in a trench coat and Christmas hat, and Fenton wore a boiler suit as you can see in the photo. I think I'm going to need to get used to deliberately humiliating myself!

Inspector Fenton

In the evening I had a lovely meal with a couple from church and had the pleasure of looking through my photo album from Uganda with them.

We had another interesting day at Moorlands on Tuesday, complete with a break dance performance from one of our lecturers, during a lecture on incarnational ministry. (There is a film on Facebook if you want a laugh!). I also handed in my last essay for this year which was such a good feeling! 

Essay finished and ready to hand in.

I had lots of planning to do on Wednesday for two weeks worth of Rock Solid (as I'll be away next week) and in the evening I had DofE in Cowes. THis week the young people were learning first aid. You can only laugh when teaching CPR to a group of giggly 14yr olds!

The planning and preparation continued into Thursday, but this was more fun as I was preparing activities for Rock Solid. This involved hiding a coin inside a Mars bar, and freezing a coin into a block of ice, among other things, followed by a bunch of risk assessments. I also got my Sunday youth group planned and more or less prepared, the Friday post of the YFC bible in one year blog written (iwbibleinoneyear.wordpress.com) and I made a start on writing a talk that I'll be giving at a youth event in a couple of weeks.
Rock Solid went well. The young people succeeded at getting coins out of a Mars bar, a block of ice, a bowl of soup and a mess of gaffa tape, among other activities, and we learnt about God's big plan.

On Friday we ran Catalyst - a youth event with games, worship and a talk. It takes a lot of set up, so I arrived before 3, and we opened the doors to the young people at 7. The evening was themed "Sentenced to death, freed by grace." and it went really well. After packing everything away, a few of us were going to go out, but this is the Isle of Wight where most places are shut by 11pm, so we piled into someone's house for a while instead.

On Monday, Phil and I are off to Moorlands for a week of lectures on New Testament Studies to finish off the term.

If you'd be up for praying for me, please could you pray...
- That Moorlands this week would go well. That we'll enjoy and understand the lectures and not get too exhausted.
- That Rock Solid this week will go well without me.
- That my car wont die!

The Silent Lecturer

Last Sunday we collected the Christmas shoeboxes at church to send overseas in time for Christmas. It was a really surreal feeling as I remember distributing shoeboxes into the hands of children last year with Smile in Uganda and it felt really strange to be doing it from this end again having witnessed the other side of the chain.

Children at Blessed Word of Life Church Children's Club
with their Christmas Shoeboxes in December 2012

Shoeboxes collected at Gunville Methodist Church last week.

 I lead the 'Rising Tide' youthgroup as usual and this week we talked about prayer (and played Chinese whispers!). I was very privileged to share lunch with Paul and Linda and we had a lovely afternoon and a cold but beautiful walk by the sea.

On Monday we had a good meeting at YFC and were able to plan an upcoming youth event called 'Vibe' for December and in the afternoon I finally made a start on my essay!

The next day at Moorlands we had what you might describe as a 'slightly different' style of lecture which was about Postmodernism, during which our lecturer stood at the back of the room with signs which read "I am your tutor." "I am silent." "look - explore." for 20 minutes!

On Wednesday I did some planning and worked on my essay and then in the evening I went to Cowes for my first evening as a leader at Cowes DofE. It was a great evening and I spent most of the time with a new girl who was interested in starting the DofE award scheme, explaining to her what DofE is and what she'll have to do.

Thursday took me back to YFC for safeguarding training in the morning - an unfortunate necessity, but it was lead very well. I had a pretty busy day with planning and preparation to do for Rock Solid, a meeting with my Field Work Tutor about how Moorlands is going, and an essay to write - and all that before I had to run Rock Solid in the evening. It was a good and productive day and Rock Solid was great fun. I themed all the games around 'school' and encouraged the young people to live at school in a way that brings glory to God. 

I was determined to finish my essay on Friday, and I didn't leave the house at all (apart from to move the car off the drive and out of the way). Finally, at about 10pm I completed my first draft. If I can find the motivation it will hopefully get looked at again over the next couple of days and hopefully made a little bit better before I hand it in on Tuesday.

So having (more or less) finished my essay, I went out for the day on Saturday with a friend to Southampton. It feels good sometimes to get off of the island for a while and we had a lovely day.

If you're up for praying, I'd appreciate if you could pray this week for:
- Catalyst (a youth event) that we're running next Friday.
- That God will use me in all the youth work that I'm involved in.
- That I'll have a good week.

Only in Youthwork!

I think it's safe to say that only a youthworker would be able to choose between "Communicating the Incommunicable Attributes of God" and "Jaffa Cake Face Races" for the titles of my blog!
Our YFC meeting on Monday morning was very productive as we managed to plan the themes of all the talks at our Friday evening events until the summer and even to arrange who would be giving them! I'll be speaking on the power of the Holy Spirit in December. I had a meeting in the afternoon and got a few bits done. Also got to speak to my friend in Uganda to wish her a happy birthday.

Moorlands on Tuesday was good. I took some more books out of the library which will hopefully be useful in writing my essay. We had a brilliant youthwork lecture in the morning on empowerment. Are we, as youthworkers, willing to take risks by giving young people responsibilities that will empower them and enable them to grow? Straight after a huge meal for lunch, our lecturer had the challenge of communicating to us the 'incommunicable attributes of God'! I was very grateful for my A-level in Religious Studies which meant that this wasn't all brand new information and therefore a bit easier to take in!

My Theology Library is slowly growing...

On Wednesday we had a meeting about Sunday school to talk about our aims - i.e. helping the children and young people to learn about God's love and to encourage them to grow in their faith - not just as a means to get them out of the way of the adults during the sermon! I had a meeting in the afternoon about starting to help at an open DofE (Duke of Edinburgh's award) centre soon. It was great and I'm really excited to start volunteering there. The centre is at UKSA - a youth charity. It was really interesting to look around and to see what they do and have. They have so many incredible resources and it struck me that I've never seen a Christian charity in such a privileged position. But this got me thinking, and I came to the realisation that although many Christian charities don't have so many material resources like boats and buildings, as Christians we have a resource which is far greater than others can ever dream of - the security of God's provision, the hope of his plans and the knowledge of his love.

Well I had a lovely evening having dinner and watching a film with a friend, and Thursday morning soon came around bringing with it a morning of discipline training. In the evening we ran a new youth club at church called Rock Solid that we launched last week where we had lots of fun, food and mess. We learn't about perseverance and relying on God to help you. Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It was a really great evening. We had jaffa cake face races (moving a jaffa cake from your forehead to your mouth by wiggling your face), made paper aeroplanes to transport a chocolate 'passenger' across the room and did 'doughnut face relay races' (a relay race with a stack of doughnuts balanced on your face)... I definitely seem to be getting a reputation for games which involve food...

On Friday I got the ferry over to Southampton where Mum picked me up and we spent the day together. In the evening we went to 'The Big Church Night In' in Bournemouth - a worship event with Leeland and Martin Smith which was great! I stayed the night at my parents' house and got to see my brother in the morning before coming back to the island.

Please pray for me this week...

- To get my essay done.

- As I start helping at DofE on Wednesday.

- In all the things I already do - pray that they will go well and that I'll have a good week.

Thanks :)

Our first ever Rock Solid!

My youth finally decided a name for our Sunday morning youth group Last Sunday, so it's now called 'Rising Tide'. Lats week we all wrote letters to ourselves which I'm going to give back to them in a few months time so they can see how much God can do in a relatively short space of time. I also got them to make a mind map about themselves and then to add to each others which was a really great exercise to learn things about themselves and be encouraged by each other.
I led the YFC prayer breakfast on Monday morning (complete with crumpets, muffins and chocolate spread!) all about being thankful. We looked at Psalm 100 and we spent some time giving thanks to God for the things that we often take for granted.
I had a meeting in the afternoon about potentially starting to help out at a DofE centre soon which is exciting! Also got lots of planning done and some bits for college and managed to get into bed by 8.30(!) ready for the early start on Tuesday.
A good nights sleep definitely makes a day at Moorlands much easier and more productive. I got my first essay back this week and was very happy with the mark I got for it. I also handed in my second essay which was a reflection on practice. It always feels good to hand an essay in and to know that I don't have to do any more work on it! My lectures were all good. We had one on informal education in the morning and talked about teaching through conversation. Also had lectures on syncretism (being in the world but not of it) and on the attributes of God.
Wednesday was full of planning and preparation for all kinds of things. After writing Friday's entry for our YFC Bible in one year blog, and wondering around Sainsburys searching for m&ms, straws and polo mints (guess the games they were used for!) I soon found myself surrounded by risk assessments, permission forms, registers, game plans and a few other things as I got everything organised for our first ever Gunville Rock Solid party on Thursday. In the evening I had a meeting at church with my 'steering group' to chat about how things are going. That went really well as did the Rock Solid party on Thursday. We only had small numbers, but we had great fun and played lots of silly games.

On Friday YFC held a worship evening for the youth on the island called 'Emerge'. Chris talked about the fruit of the spirit and we had a great evening.
I met up with a friend on Saturday, and as there's not that much to do on a Saturday afternoon on the Isle of Wight in November we went to a garden center to see all the Christmas decorations! I missed all the western Christmassy things last year as I was in Uganda, so it was a bit weird, but good fun.

In the evening we went to a praise evening at my church and I decided to get my djembe drum out and play which I really enjoyed.
This morning in church I taught my youth group about grace. It was great to have the opportunity to explain to them that God loves us all so much that although there's nothing we can do to be worthy of him, he has made a way for us through Jesus. 

Please pray this week...
- For Rock Solid on Thursday - pray that we get a few more young people and that we have a good evening.
- For me as I write my next essay. Pray that I'll find lots of motivation and enjoy writing it (and that the books I need will be in the library!)

Half Term

As I mentioned at the end of last week's blog, I have been home at with Mum and Dad for a few days this week. Sunday was Dad's birthday, so after church we went to John and Catherine's house for a roast dinner which was very yummy! It was lovely to have the whole family together to celebrate Dad's birthday and I'm very impressed with John and Cat's cooking skills!
In the afternoon Mum, Dad and I watched a very weird film - it seems to be becoming a tradition that all the films we watch together are a bit odd! Dad had received some nice cheeses and crackers as a gift so we ate them for dinner.

It was lovely to go back to Christ Church in the morning and see everyone... not entirely sure why Ian was preaching from a bicycle though!

There was a big storm on Sunday night which was all over the news, but despite this I drove up to Reading on Monday to visit my grandparents. My Granddad grows chrysanthemums, and he bred a new one a few years ago which he named after me and it recently won first prize in a flower show, so he gave me the prize money of £3! It was lovely to see them both and to have a proper catch up and a good cup of tea (even if I did get told off for having sugar in it!)

I survived the journey back, avoiding all the fallen trees on the A33, and the next day I spent the morning doing some essay writing. In the afternoon I left Basingstoke again and drove down to Southampton to see Esther - one of the girls that I was with in Uganda. She's now at university in Southampton so I stayed with her on Tuesday night before heading back to the island on Wednesday evening.
It was so lovely to see her and to get to meet some of her new friends and see where she's staying. We went to the Christian Union and then out for ice cream and afterwards we both fell asleep watching a film back at her room. The next day we met up with some of her friends to sing worship songs, and just as we were singing 'Blessed be your name' which we used to sing all the time in Uganda and Esther and I were singing in Luganda (the local language that we learnt in Uganda), Clare (one of the other gappers) phoned and joined in which was lovely,although a bit emotional.

The next day, back on the Isle of Wight, we had a light party at church. About 80 people from the local community came along which was brilliant! We had lots of crafts, food, games and fun. I led some parachute games which went down well, and I gave a short talk at the end of the evening about Jesus the light of the world which went really well.
On Friday I actually got a lot of my essay written instead of just procrastinating which was very good. I also managed to get lots of planning done for other things which are coming up. So all in all a productive day! I also had a quick phone call with my friend Terry in Uganda who recently had her 2nd daughter Breanna. She told me that Berindah (who is 2 and a half) has been trying to breast feed her baby sister!

At the weekend I went to Cowes to visit the Chivertons, (a family from my home church) who were staying on the Island for half term. It was lovely to see them and catch up and share lunch with them. I then spent the afternoon with my friend Natalia. We went for a walk and had a lot of fun in very strong winds by the coast. Natalia had been asked to lead some games at a church social in the evening so I went along with her to that too.

We're starting our new youth club - rock solid, on Thursday with a party. Please pray that it will go well!
Please also pray for me as I lead the YFC prayer breakfast tomorrow morning.

Thanks :)