Why teenagers can be some of the most inspirational people you'll meet

I feel so blessed to work with the young people that God has put in my life... they're all incredible, beautiful, loving people and although sometimes they act like the young teenagers that everyone expects them to be, they so often they just blow me away with their maturity and wisdom when I give them my time and the opportunity to show it.

Being 13 is really hard; I wouldn't want to go back and battle my way through all the dramas of secondary school again, but looking back I know that I actually had it really easy compared to some of these girls that I work with. As if growing up in itself isn't hard enough, some kids can be so cruel to each other, some homes aren't the kind of places that you'd really want to spend much time, some families are broken in unimaginable ways and some young people have to deal with so much that most people don't even know about.

The girls that I work with are incredible. Behind all the giggles and teenage drama are a bunch of young girls who are navigating their way through life as they start to become young women. They think deeply and love passionately and hurt terribly and care strongly. 
They have hopes and dreams and they're desperate to grow into young women who will not only fulfill their dreams but to help others too.

Ultimately, they just want to love and to know that they are loved and all they're trying to do is figure out how to make sure that that is a reality. Love is such a powerful thing and I've seen massive transformation in some young people just by having people in their lives who choose to genuinely believe that they are amazing and to tell them that.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that my young people blow me away. Most of the time that I spend with them is filled with games, hot chocolate and giggles... but every now and then, one of them will come out with a little gem and tell me something, or ask a question, or do something that reminds me quite how deeply they think, care and love. I praise God that he would give me the privilege of watching him work in these beautiful, incredible young lives.

Ali and David

I believe that a huge part of discipleship happens when we serve God by serving others, and along the way we learn more about him and about how we can live for him.

Two of my friends on the island are planning a trip next year that I'm so excited about because I know how much God can and will do in others and in them through their trip. Two of the things that I'm most passionate about are discipleship and social justice... and I think this trip will incorporate both.

My friends are planning to go to a country in the South East of Africa called Mozambique. God is doing some amazing things in Mozambique, and he's doing a lot of it through Iris Ministries. Ali and David are planning to spend some time working at Iris with some beautiful, precious people who rely on Jesus for their most basic needs.

Both of them light up when they talk about Mozambique... its so clear to see that God is in this plan. They are two of the most inspirational people I know and I'm not even exaggerating - their love and passion for Jesus blows me away and their obedience to him is incredible.

I'm so excited for both of them as they follow Jesus into this adventure, and I fully expect that he will use them there, but also that he will turn their worlds upside down and inside out, he will show them a new perspective, he will challenge them about things they have never considered and he will just grow in them hearts that are more like his own.

I really want to support Ali and David in this trip. They are both amazing, Godly, inspirational people who are just running towards Jesus and obediently going where he is calling them. I would love to encourage anyone who can, to lift them both in prayer over the coming months as they prepare and fund-raise. My prayer is that they will fall even more in love with Jesus, that God will grow in them hearts that are broken for the things that break his, that they will experience the privilege of being a part of God's plans and simply become more and more like him as he uses them to do the same for others.

If you don't know Ali & David but would like to support them in more ways than prayer, give me a shout and I'll be really happy to pass anything on!

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Have a look at my youth work blog at http://gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.co.uk/

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More than just Christmas boxes

In church this morning we took a moment to bring the Christmas boxes to the front and to pray for them and those that will receive them. It's so great that so many people get so involved in packing a shoebox and sending it off to someone who is less fortunate. I've handed them out myself and seen firsthand the joy on so many precious faces when they receive their Christmas gifts.

Christmas 2012 in Nansana

So let's not limit this to Christmas. A shoe-box will put a smile on a little one's face for a few moments and they will enjoy playing with a new toy and maybe get a new toothbrush and sponge, but tragically, many of these kids might still go hungry the next day. Many of these kids are still not in school. Many of these kids share a space on a mat on the floor at night with their siblings and walk to fetch water from a dirty spring.

Please do go ahead and pack a shoe-box, pack it with toys and toiletries and lots of love and prayers. Pack it because it will put a smile on the face of a precious little one this Christmas.

But please, please, please - have a serious think about how we can make sure that these kids get more than just a Christmas present this year. Some of us will probably spend more on gifts this Christmas than it would cost to educate a child for a year.

https://my.compassionuk.org/app/sponsor/campaign/

http://www.smileinternational.org/sponsor-a-child.aspx

Learning to read at school in Kuffu

If you're interested in what I get up to as a youthworker on the Isle of Wight, I keep a youth work blog here!

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Being a Nomad

In the past 4 months I've slept in 11 different beds (and also on 3 different floors!) in 4 different countries and I haven't spent more than two weeks in one place since June! So although it's the end of October, today for me kind of feels a bit like the end of summer... according to my calendar I now have just over a month to try to get back into some sort of routine before I'm off again!

The whole summer has been quite an adventure, but even just the past two weeks have been absolutely incredible and I'm so grateful to God. Last week, in the 'chat time' at our youth group, I had planned to go through the rules and to do a short talk about the fact that God is everywhere... God had other ideas, and somehow I found myself explaining what it means to give your life to Jesus, and then leading a bunch of the young people in a prayer to do just that! (That'll make a great illustration one day, for a talk about God's plans being better than our own!) I just praise God so much that he would use someone like me to do something so amazing, I love getting to be a part of what he does and to get to see him at work in so many ways.

This past week I've been up in York staying with my best friend at uni. Its been such a perfect week and I'm so thankful to God for blessing me with such an amazing person to call my best friend. York and the people I met there were beautiful, and part of me is a bit gutted that I don't get to have that experience, or even just to get to live with Clare all the time! (walking around campus I couldn't believe the number of people our age that were in one place - I think I know about 3 other people on the island who are in the same school year as me!) 

with Clare

Despite that, I was actually really excited to get back to the island... there's nothing better than knowing that you're where God wants you to be, and after seeing what happened last Monday evening I'm super excited to see what God has planned for the next few weeks. This week we're just about to launch a kids club and a cluster group where we can have more time to explore what it means to follow Jesus with the young people.

Doing life God's way is just like one massive, never ending adventure and I love it so much! :)

My youth work blog is usually updated on Sundays - have a read about the work I do on the island at http://gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.co.uk/

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YFC Retreat

This week I've been in Wales with the rest of the Isle of Wight YFC core team for our annual retreat. It's been such a great week full of fun, laughter, prayer and a lot of good food! We spent the mornings chilling with God in all kinds of different ways and the afternoons spending time together as a team doing things like 'mountain' climbing (apparently 6km is a really long way?), cooking (and eating) some pretty incredible food, white water kayaking, playing silly games (as you might expect from a bunch of youth workers!), chatting a lot and inevitably complaining about the Welsh weather! Its been so good not only to spend time with each other but also to take out a whole load of time every day to spend with God.

We had a conversation one evening about how Isle of Wight Youth For Christ first started around 15 years ago. To see how much God has done since then is really exciting, especially as we look to the future with expectation. I feel so blessed to get to be a part of that and to work with such a great group of people. IOW YFC started because 2 young guys were obedient to God; out of their faith and obedience they launched an organisation which now reaches hundreds of young people all over the Isle of Wight. I doubt that any of us would be here if others hadn't taken risks to invest in us and empower us to do what we do.

I hope that I'll have the faith and obedience to invest in others in the same way that others have invested in me...

God will use us every day if we'll let him.

Have a read of my youth work blog if you're interested, at http://gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.co.uk/

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Joy

I am so lucky to have what I have. Through the generosity of others and the grace of God I live in a heated house with my own bedroom, I sleep in a comfortable bed and eat three meals a day, I have my own phone and laptop and even a car.

And yet, sometimes all I want is to sleep on a thin foam mattress on a concrete floor under a net. I want to walk to the bore hole to fetch some water so that I can bathe outside and wash my clothes in a bucket. I want to spend hours picking stones and dirt out of beans and rice and then cook them over charcoal. I want to sit on the floor in the evenings reading the bible by candlelight with friends and singing worship to our incredible God.

Evening devotions in Kuffu 2013

I’m so grateful for the incredible generosity that people have shown to me, but I believe that joy has very little to do with the things that we have. The reason that I love life in the village so much is not because I enjoy carrying jerry cans full of water and sweating over a charcoal stove, but because these things remind me of a truly joyful time; a time when I discovered that joy is so much deeper and so much simpler than the things that we think we need. I was living and working with people I loved, doing what we all knew that God had called us to. We had no flushing toilets or running water, let alone electricity or internet, so we spent our free time talking, singing, reading and praying. We invested our time in our relationships with each other and with God rather than in our Facebook profiles and the shows we might watch on TV.

Kuffu bore hole 2013

When we strip away all the "stuff" we have, we might think that life would be difficult. For some people; those who really do have less than they need, life actually is difficult and that is a total injustice. But that's a whole different issue (and don't get me started!)... When we know that the necessities are taken care of, we give ourselves a chance to come back to a much a simpler way of a life and to realize that all the luxuries have very little effect on how happy we really are.

In the UK, society is constantly telling us that we need more things and more comfort… but perhaps sometimes we need to stop listening to that, and to realise where our joy really comes from. My most joyful moments are not those when I watch a film or check Facebook; they're times when I'm with friends and family and doing the things I know that God has called me to. I feel the most blessed not when I eat a good meal or curl up in a warm bed, but when I get to see God at work and to know that he's let me play a small part in that. 

Whether I'm in a rural village in the middle of Uganda, or a little town in the middle of the Isle of Wight, I believe that the things I have or don't have will have very little effect on my true joy. That is something that comes through relationships - with those people that God places in our lives and above all; with God himself. In these, I know that I'm truly blessed wherever I am in the world!

If you want to find out about my life as a student youth worker on the Isle of Wight, have a read of my other blog at http://gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.co.uk/

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"Though I walk through the wilderness"

God's presence is definitely the best place to be.

I wasn't sure whether to share this story, but my friend told me that I should, and I hope that somehow God will speak through it.

On Thursday I had a message from a friend in Uganda telling me that one of our friends had been robbed in the night and that he was 'not okay'. I had no more information than that and no way of getting in contact because his phone had been stolen in the robbery.

I was totally helpless and it was horrible... This is one of my best friends and someone I love so much and I had no idea what kind of state he was in. I did the one thing that I could do - I prayed, I gave the situation to God and I decided to trust him with it.

I finally managed to speak to my friend on Friday evening. He told me that someone had come into his house whilst he was sleeping, drugged him so that he would stay asleep, and taken pretty much everything that he owns. I just thank God that they didn't hurt him because the situation could have been so much worse. Because of the drugs he had been given, he was feeling dizzy and had passed out earlier in the day, but he couldn't see a doctor because all of his money had been taken.

Again, I felt totally helpless and so worried for my friend. To hear one of the most joyful people I know, sounding so down and telling me that he's afraid to go to his own house was horrible, but I knew the only things that I could do were to listen and chat to him, and to pray for him... so that's what I did. I was at a youth event that we were running and it was about to start, so I gave the situation to God, and decided to just let go and worship him... because he is always worthy of our praise.

The following morning I received a message saying that my friend and some others had spent 5 hours in the presence of God until 3am, and that he was now feeling much better than he had been.

God's presence is a miracle in itself and is so clearly the best place we can ever seek to be.

I don't know why this has happened, but I do know that God is working in and through it, and I know that he'll be glorified from it.

The situation is still pretty bad and the police will only do their jobs if my friend can fund their transport and meals. Understandably he's feeling really down, scared and upset. He's lost everything and doesn't know what the future will look like. As I try to figure out how to support my friend in such a rubbish situation, I ask you to join me in prayer for him... I know that God has a plan, and I'm looking forward to the day when I can tell this story in it's fullness with the glorious ending I trust it will have.

If you want to hear about what I get up to in the week, have a read of my youth work blog at http://gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.co.uk/

If you could not fail

I have a pack of cards that I use in youth work - each card has a question on it, designed to get young people thinking and talking. One of the questions I read recently really got me thinking...

"What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?"

Ashamedly, my first thought was selfish - I would try to achieve something for myself, like climbing a mountain or swimming a great distance, but I quickly gave up on that idea when I realized that 'inability to fail' doesn't equal 'ease'.

Taking on a great challenge is inevitably challenging (the clue is in the word!) It requires patience and strength and sacrifice, but there are some things that we're willing to make sacrifices for.
I know that with Christ behind me this question takes on a lot more weight, for "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). Of course, this verse doesn't grant us super powers to do as we please, but it does promise that when we're acting according to God's will, we don't even need to have words like 'impossible' in our vocabulary.

When I thought about this, the answer to the question was a lot more obvious to me... 
And with my answer, I also found a challenge - something to do and act on, something in which I should expect to make sacrifices, but something in which I can also expect to see God's hand every step of the way.

I won't tell you what my answer was... because each of us will have our own answer - our own calling and our own challenge that God will ask us to attempt; knowing that for as long as we stay with him, we cannot fail.


Check out my youth work blog at http://gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.co.uk/ to find out what I've been up to in my work.

Adventures

Its that time of year when everyone is going off to Uni. Whether they're going back after the summer or starting for the first time. The island is beginning to get quieter; after first losing the summer tourists and now another year group of school leavers are venturing out to live on 'The Mainland' for the first time, as they start this new adventure which university offers. It must be a pretty scary prospect to move to a city when you've grown up in a place like the Isle of Wight. I know though, that these years will be life changing for these young people.

I can speak from experience in saying that being away from home is an adventure, but also that it doesn't come without pain and discomfort:

I left home for the first time in 2012 in a pretty dramatic way - I got on a plane to Uganda knowing that I wouldn't be coming home for Christmas... or in fact for a good few months after that either. Uganda was my adventure... sometimes it was uncomfortable, but it was one of the biggest and best adventures of my life so far and pretty quickly it became my new comfort zone... 

Then in summer 2013 I left and I moved on to a new adventure on the island. Again, its been tough and uncomfortable and I've often had times when I've wanted to return home to the comfort of Basingstoke or Kampala... but here on the island I've grown in ways I never thought I could or would. 

I feel very blessed to be living my life, but I honestly can think of few things worse than my life staying the same forever.

I believe that the pain and discomfort that comes hand in hand with stepping into something new and unknown is often necessary for growth. We grow most in ourselves and in our faith when we are challenged and when we push ourselves to leave our 'comfort zone'. As the phrase suggests, leaving your comfort zone is uncomfortable... but if we never did it, we'd miss out on so many adventures, opportunities and lessons.

'Oceans' by Hillsong has a brilliant bridge...

"Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, let me walk upon the waters wherever You would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Saviour"

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I spent the last week at Moorlands, starting the second year of my degree with a 'block week' of lectures. Tomorrow we have another 3 day block called 'Personal Development Exercise' - designed (I think) to push us out of our comfort zone... I have very little idea about what it will include because we've deliberately not been told, but I'm really looking forward to it and to seeing what God will do in this next week.

Adventure and growth comes with discomfort... so bring it on!

So here's a challenge... why not do something this week that's a bit uncomfortable, and see what God will do through it. Have a chat with a stranger, pay for the bus ticket of the person behind you in the queue, offer to volunteer for a couple of hours somewhere instead of sitting in front of the TV. 

Take a risk and expect an adventure...

... I dare you!

Stuart

Just over a year ago, I met a child called Stuart. Stuart was once a healthy little boy, but on the day that I met him, Stuart's mother had been asked to pay double the usual fare to bring her son on public transport because the driver had thought that he was a corpse. Stuart was suffering terribly from Cerebral Palsy that he had developed after contracting malaria, which spread to his brain when his family couldn't afford to treat it.
Children with cerebral palsy need regular physiotherapy to stretch out their tight muscles, but nobody had known that this was what Stuart needed, and so his condition had worsened until his body was so tense that people actually thought that he was dead.

I'll never forget the day that I met Stuart. He was indeed alive that day, but there was no life in his eyes. It was one of the most haunting and devastating things I'd ever seen. This was what I wrote in my diary that day:

"Stuart was really, really thin. It reminded me of photos I've seen from the holocaust. He looked at me with wide eyes but there was just nothing there. Moses started his physiotherapy and he cried with such a horrific look in his eyes, but there was just no life behind them; it was horrible."

Last week I was told the sad news that Stuart passed away this summer. I never knew Stuart when he was healthy, but I hope that someday I'll meet him in a place where he is more alive than ever.

The truth is that Stuart died because he lived in poverty. If he had had access to proper malaria prevention and treatment, Stuart would still be a healthy little boy running and playing in his village in Uganda today.

Stuart and his Mum

The truth is also that many people will read this blog, and feel sad for a moment, but then close the window and continue with their day. I often do the same because its easier and less painful to distance ourselves from the injustice in the world and its much more comfortable to make no effort to do anything about it.
So while we enjoy coffees out with friends, nice new smartphones, an endless supply of clean water and all the other things that we take for granted, somebody's child is dying. 

If a member of your family was in the same situation, few of us would even have to think at all before we did something to help them. But for those of us who are Christians, these people really are our brothers and sisters. If we actually acted that way, the world might be a very different place.

I can't tell you specifically what to do about this... God calls each of us to act differently and who am I to know how to combat poverty anyway!? But what I do know is that if we don't do anything, then nothing is going to change, So please... before you click on the little 'X' in the corner of your screen... take a moment to decide what you are going to do about the injustice in this world, and then actually do it.

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Kisaakye Rehabilitation Centre is a locally run charity that works with disabled children in villages in the Kayunga District of Uganda where I met Stuart. They gave me permission to share Stuart's story, and they continue to work with many other children in similar situations. Tragically, this week another child that they work with died. Her name was Amazing Grace. Kisaakye desperately need support to continue the work that they do and to prevent this story from repeating for more children. They have a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/kisaakye.rehabilitation

Perseverance

Sometimes, God uses one situation in our lives to teach us something about another one. When I was about to give up on something this week because I felt like I’d hit one hurdle too many in the youth work I'm involved in, God used a few phone calls to remind me why I shouldn't.

Here’s the story – I receive a message from a friend in Uganda that makes me worried, so I dial his number to check that everything is okay… after a few rings I hear the phrase I've become way too familiar with; “sorry, we could not connect the call to the number you dialed.”

I hang up and try again… 

no less than 24 phone calls later I finally get through to my friend.

24 phone calls!

It’s hard to describe how it feels when you have to hang up for the 23rd time, still having not heard the voice you've been waiting for on the end of the phone.

Persistence can be painful, especially when you feel like everything you try is failing. It turned out that my friend was fine, but the ridiculous effort I had to put in to find that out, taught me something.

Sticking at something when it feels like its taking more time and effort that it should, is really hard ...but what motivates us to do it anyway are the people we love.

The great thing is that God doesn't ask us to love the task, he asks us to love the people.

That means that I don’t have to love dialing the number; I have to love my friend. So I dial the number because I love my friend.

It also means that when I feel like I've hit a dead end in setting up a youth group or organizing an event, I have to remember the people that I'm trying to love in this task; I don't have to love making the risk assessment or going through the process of trying to find new leaders. I have to love the people that I'm reaching through these things and persevere because of them.

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This week we held our first Rock Solid of the new school year. When we first launched Rock Solid in November 2013, only 3 girls turned up, and for the first 3 months that was it and no one else came. We persevered for a while for the sake of the girls that came, and started to watch each of them grow.

Trying to think of enough games that you can play with only 3 people is harder than you might first imagine, but as we persisted, we gradually started to see Rock Solid growing too; slowly, we began to welcome a few more girls to the group and then started to watch each of them growing as individuals too...

Well this week when we added the 19th name to the register and I had to add a waiting list to our folder!

With that inspiration behind me, I now face a new challenge of growing our youth work and discipleship further. I might be hoping that it will be smooth and easy, but I'm not expecting that to be the case. I'm expecting a challenge... I know that as I seek to stretch and grow the young people I work with, God will stretch and grow me - and I know from experience that it’s unlikely to be comfortable. But I will continue to get up each morning and do what I do because I know that God has asked me to do it, and by his grace has given me love for the young people that we work with... and I have faith that this time next year, I'll have another story to tell about what God can do when we persevere.

'Back to School'

So the new school term has started. For me that means that I'm back on the island and getting back into the routine of running youth groups, planning events, attending meetings and just trying my best to make a difference in the lives of the young people I work with.

For some of my friends this time of year means a new year at uni, complete with a new house and a fresh set of essay deadlines. For others it means that their kids are moving up into a new year group or starting a new school, and my Facebook news feed is littered with photos of children in school uniform. But for some people I know, the new school term means another bill to pay, because if they don't pay the school fees, then their kids will be sent home from school.

Unfortunately, for so many people around the world, education is not something that they can take for granted like we do. One of my best friends took his eldest daughter to school this week for the first time. Like many parents, he's had the experience this week of coming back for the first time to a quiet house and missing his daughter; hoping that she's getting on okay at school... but as well as that, and just like so many other parents around the world, he also is embarking on the beginning of a long season of bills and payments just to keep his little girl in school.

I know that it wont be easy for my friend, but I also believe that he'll be okay... I've seen God provide for him time and time again just at the right moment and often from the most unexpected of places. But for many others, the story isn't quite the same. According to UIS, in 2012 there were one hundred and twenty one million children of school age around the world who were not in school.

One hundred and twenty one million.

But God does provide. And often he gives us the privilege of being a part of the way that he does that. Child sponsorship gives thousands of kids around the world an opportunity that they wouldn't otherwise have - to go to school and receive an education that will empower them to have a better future.

My friend was one of the lucky few - he was able to go to school because he was sponsored through compassion as a child and now he's in a position to be able to send his own daughter to school. I asked him whether I could share his story in this blog, and this is what he had to add...

"It takes love and faith to make a difference in this world. Its not always about how rich you are or the surplus on your budget that you can give. Its a heart to help and share and love just as Christ did for us. You know it only takes you as an individual to make this world a better place for one person. It begins with you and the little you can put in - even if its only prayers; start with that and you can make a change."

So as you drive past the kids at the bus stop, or you wave your little ones off to school, or you sit and write your first essay of the new term, just take a moment to think about those who don't have the same privilege of education that we have in the UK...

And maybe take a moment to consider doing something about it?
https://my.compassionuk.org/app/sponsor/campaign/
http://www.smileinternational.org/sponsor-a-child.aspx

13 nights of camping

In the past three weeks I've spent thirteen nights in a tent, but in the few days that I spent at home last week, my parents and I had some visitors from Canada staying with us (one of whom has the same name as me!) We had fun catching up and visiting a few different people and places around the area and I enjoyed sleeping in my own bed for a couple of nights.

After our visitors left, I made my way back to Somerset for a Christian festival called Momentum. This is the same as Soul Survivor, but aimed at people in their 20s and 30s, so it meant that we didn't have the responsibility of looking after a bunch of teenagers and also everything was a lot more relevant to us. Among other things we got to take part in a massive worship evening around bonfires with Rend Collective and go to lots of interesting and challenging seminars. It was a great week spent with some brilliant people and our amazing God who as usual taught me a lot.

The Big Top at Momentum

Among many other things that God taught me this week was this...

Kneeling on the floor with memories of people that I miss so much it hurts playing in my mind, God quietly whispered to me "if you miss them this much, how much more do you think I miss you when you take yourself far from me?" 

I find it way too easy to convince myself that by being in the place God wants me to be and by doing the stuff he's asked me to do, I'm staying close to God. In reality, I need to daily make him my first priority - even over his work. Time with God is so precious and so beautiful and the only place I should want to be is in his presence.

After Momentum, I got to come home again for a few days and to spend a bit of time with my family and also with Clare which was so lovely! In a few days time I'll be heading back to the island to make a start on my second year there... I've got plenty of vision and ideas for this year, so now I just face the task of actually making it happen!

With Clare

Soul Survivor

This week we (Isle of Wight YFC) took 2 coach loads of young people from the island to a Christian festival called Soul Survivor. Call me crazy, but spending 7 nights under canvas looking after a bunch of teenagers was an absolute privilege!

At Soul Survivor, eight thousand people get together twice a day to read the bible together, pray for each other and to go absolutely crazy in celebration of God’s incredible love. As well as this, there’s loads of great teaching on different topics, and people also get involved in all kinds of crazy activities, like ‘colour chaos’, which is basically just hundreds of people throwing paint at each other all afternoon and having fun!

Among all the fun and madness, there is a lot of time that we get to just spend with God, and as usual when we make ourselves available to God, he teaches and stretches and grows us all in different ways. It’s been so great to get to pray and chat with loads of people this week about what God is doing in their lives.

After all of the young people got on the coaches to go back to the island, I hung around at Soul Survivor for a while to see some friends who were arriving that afternoon to bring groups of young people for this week. It was so good to see them that I ended up pitching my tent again and staying another night! Tonight though, I am back in Basingstoke for a few days and very much looking forward to sleeping in a proper bed again!

Daydreaming

Well this week has brought me back to Basingstoke, but not before a bit of travelling around!
I've done some admin work with the Church of England in the past, and this week they offered me a bit of work in Bournemouth. Somehow I managed to complete all the work by Wednesday afternoon (even with a day off on Tuesday for a YFC social on the island)... So I've had an unexpected couple of days off this week!

I was on the island on Tuesday, so I spent the morning cleaning my room (and my car which seemed to have half a beach in it!) and packing. In the afternoon we had an end of year social event with everyone from the island YFC team plus other halves and families, complete with kayaking (and swimming for some) for those who wanted to, and a lot of food!

So after finishing work on Wednesday I headed up to Basingstoke and that's where I've been for the past few days. Its been really nice to spend time with my parents who I'm always so blessed by, and to have some chilled time to recharge a bit after a very busy month or so! Its also given me time to think though... and as usual my thoughts go in the direction of my heart and I daydream about beautiful people with beautiful hearts, in a beautiful country that is a painfully long way away.

Sometimes I ask God why I can't just go back to Uganda now? ...and he gently reminds me that his plans are SO much bigger than mine, and I can't ask or imagine what he has in store for me. For now, I have to trust that his plan is better than my own, and that what I'm doing here at the moment is important too, because the wonderful young people I'm working with right now are just as important and just as in need of the love of Jesus as the precious lives I daydream about 4000 miles away.

This coming week we (the island YFC team) are taking two coach loads of young people from the Isle of Wight to a Christian festival called Soul Survivor. I know that God will have some big plans for this week and I'm so excited not only to spend the week worshiping and having fun with thousands of other people who love Jesus, but I'm also excited to see what God will do among the young people that we have the privilege to take along.

Holiday Club

We've had a holiday club at the church that I work with on the island this week and its been brilliant. We had around 40 children who came along every morning and a fantastic team of volunteers from a selection of churches on the island who ran the club. The club was themed around 'Cops and Robbers' but we focused on the story of Joseph in the Bible. This meant that the crafts ranged from making police hats and handcuffs, to making pop up Joseph puppets falling in a well and on the last day we even made junk models of Pharaoh's palace! Of course we had a typically cheesy and tuneless theme song which we had the joy of singing twice a day... The kids all absolutely loved it and we all kept catching ourselves singing it all week!

My role was as a team leader, but I also had the task of running games every day with one of the other leaders... among other things we played 'police dog' (bull dog!) and relay races and we even managed to get 40 kids around a parachute! 

I think the biggest achievement of the week however was successfully getting all the kids to bake scones on Thursday! 

Cops and Robbers Holiday Club

Among it all though, we had the absolute privilege of getting to teach these kids about the gospel and to share with them the amazing news that God wants to be their friend, and that he made that possible through Jesus' death. God's grace never fails to blow me away, and the fact that he would chose to use someone like me with all my flaws and failures to tell these kids about him is just amazing. I couldn't have been happier on the last day to see some of the kids in my group telling God that they wanted to be his friend.

Holiday Club was over by lunch time every day, so we had the afternoons off. Clare was staying with me on the island this week which was brilliant. She came along and helped out as part of the team at Holiday Club and we spent the afternoons together; walking along the beach, swimming in the sea, eating cream teas, drinking hot chocolate and talking ... a lot! I can't thank God enough for blessing me with such a great friend!

With Clare on the beach

Uganda and Rwanda

Just over a year ago I got on a plane from Entebbe airport to return to the UK after living in Uganda during my gap year in 2012 and 2013... And now, over the past 3 weeks, I've had the incredible blessing of being able to return to Uganda. Living 4000 miles away from most of my best friends over the past year has been really difficult, but I praise God that we have been able to maintain relationships during that time and that he has provided for me to cross borders so that we could come together again. My prayer and hope is that this is just the first of many returning trips to my 'African Home'. 

I flew with Esther, but we stayed in Kampala separately with local friends. We spent the first week catching up with friends and visiting projects that I used to be a part of such as Goshem school in Kuffu where we used to live and teach, the Smile Farm, and Blessed Word of Life Church among other things. Seeing the progress in that building project was incredible and looking at the almost completed building, I felt really proud to know that I quite literally helped to lay the foundations there a couple of years ago!
Visiting Goshem was equally special, especially as the kids didn't know that we were coming back. It was great to see that many of them have now progressed to the next class and to remind them that we still think and care about them.

P3 class at Goshem School

After a week, an impressive number of people from Kampala traveled to Kigali in Rwanda to celebrate the wedding of Alex - the project manager of Smile Charity Uganda. I took a 12 hour bus trip with Brian; leaving Uganda for the first time in his life... It was a blessing to be able to share the experience with him and although I had been dreading such a long journey we actually had a lot of fun. We met up with friends from Kampala when we reached Kigali and a big group of us stayed at Angello's Uncle's house. We had such a brilliant time - it was nice that everyone was away from their normal work and routine so we all just enjoyed being on holiday together.

Travelling to Rwanda

With friends in Rwanda

On the Friday evening we went to a concert by a worship group from Kampala called 'VOW' (once we eventually found where it was!) It was such good fun, especially at the end when they sang a kiganda song and I got to show off my 'skills' in dancing the traditional kiganda dance (...kind of!). We also enjoyed a performance from the LT Warriors dance group.

The wedding was the next day and it was absolutely beautiful. We had fun dressing up together and then we took bodas to the wedding ... doing your hair and then getting on a motorbike (which in Kigali, involves wearing a helmet) probably isn't the best idea, but it was the only way to get there in time and was good fun!
It was so special to see Alex finally getting married and I felt so proud to be there and so happy for him. 

Alex and Beni's Wedding

The next day we attended a local church where someone kindly translated from Kinyarwanda to English and Luganda for us, and also for another visitor who spoke French... I think we counted 5 different languages that she was able to speak! Church was great fun, but I had to leave early with Marina and Brian to take Joe to the airport as he was returning to UK after almost 3 months in East Africa... it was really sad to see him go.

Angello and Brian in Kigali

Marina, Brian, Angello and I left very early on Monday morning to travel back to Kampala. Again, the journey was enjoyable and I had no trouble getting a visa at the border; the guy who served me asked how long I was staying in Uganda for and then told me that I should stay for longer so he gave me a visa for 2 months (Don't tempt me!!!)

Over the next few days we all just made the most of our time together. It was really special to spend time with Brian and Terry's daughter; Berindah who I used to look after a lot. Even after being away for a whole year of her short life, it was amazing that seemed to remember me and was incredible to see how we were able to communicate now that she can talk... she's a bright girl, so when she used a luganda word that I didn't understand she would find a way to teach me. I also got to meet her baby sister Breanna who was born in October.

With Berindah

I can't write about everything that I did because this blog would go on forever, but let me just say that this week has been absolutely beautiful and I will treasure the memories.

Its hard to describe the way that Uganda holds my heart. I was worried that this trip would be difficult because I wasn't there with Smile and because everything was so different from my gap year, but if its even possible, over the past weeks Uganda has become even more rooted in my heart. It is the home of some of my best friends, and although I have a family and a home in UK too, I'm so blessed that I also have a home in Uganda.

SPREE

With 2 days to go until I fly to Uganda, I've managed to misplace my voice...

This weekend I was at 'Spree' - an event run by Urban Saints that we took some young people to. It was brilliant and was great that as leaders we didn't have to worry about organising and  running it! We spent most of Saturday in the swimming pool, with general swimming before lunch, and water polo afterwards! The young people then took part in a massive water fight and had a go on a big outdoors water slide. It was really good to get to meet some people from different backgrounds and lots of people who had come over from the mainland (that's exciting news to islanders!) and for all of our young people to mix with other Christians their age, hear some teaching and share in worship together.

Water Polo at Spree

For the rest of the week I've been preparing to leave for Uganda for the next couple of weeks. I've trained up a couple of my helpers to lead Rock Solid whilst I'm away, and tried to get everything organised for the upcoming events that we're inviting our young people to. I also helped out at toddler group again this week (I thought I was a 'youth' worker?!) and 'all the rest' that's not really worth blogging about...

So tomorrow I leave the island ready to fly out to Uganda on Tuesday! I'm not sure yet whether I'll get a chance to write a blog whilst I'm there, but I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures. I'm so excited to see everyone that I haven't seen in over a year, to hopefully visit one of the schools that we used to teach at and to watch Alex and Beni get married. Its also a bit scary though because a lot will have changed in the past year, so I'm anxious to see how my relationships with lots of people will be different and how it will feel to be back in Uganda again. And I'm hoping that my voice will return soon! Prayer would be much appreciated for that, and for good health in general, also for safety and most importantly that God's purpose for this trip would prevail :)

Thanks :)

Looking Ahead

There's so much that I could write about this week...
I've had a great week on the island including a trip to the farm with our toddler group, the largest ever group at our Rock Solid club, some meetings about all sorts of exciting things, a few meals with friends, my highest ever grade for an essay and our best ever position in the pub quiz - we only came joint last this week!
Things here on the island are going really well at the moment and I'm excited to see what God will do over the Summer and next year.

On Friday I left the island and picked up Esther so that we could leave early the next morning for GoFest - A Christian festival all about mission. Despite getting very lost on the way there (I blame the satnav!), we had a good time and got to speak to some great people who have some fantastic stories and experiences. It was really helpful for me in starting to think about the next steps for me after completing my degree. In the late afternoon we decided to pay a surprise visit to Clare who had just arrived home from university. It was so lovely to see her and to all be together. We had a very special afternoon and evening catching up and sharing dinner with her fantastic family.

This is also quite a significant week for me because Tuesday will mark exactly a year since we left Uganda. My memories from my Gap year will always be very precious to me, but I've come to realize over the past year that whilst that particular season had to end, I'm been blessed to be able to carry forward friendships, experiences and lessons from that season and I know that Uganda will always hold a special place in my heart. So its with an awful lot of excitement that I'm now preparing to visit my friends in Uganda again next week! For me I hope that this will be the first of many returning trips to a place that feels very much like a home from home.

Do I really look 12?!

Once a month, a bunch of young people in Cowes run a really simple Saturday evening service with some worship and a talk. I love it. For one thing, its just nice to go to church without having any responsibilities, but aside from that, these young people are just fantastic! Its so exciting to see a bunch of people with such a passion for God, and already using and growing their gifts... I'd love to see what God has planned for them in the future! And of course, its just great to get to spend time worshiping God with other people who love him.

I'm also loving the fact that the sun is still out. I had a weird flashback the other night when I realised that I was sleeping without a duvet - something I only ever did in Uganda... it made me smile :)
...Well anyway, you'll be glad to hear that I didn't spend the whole week in bed thinking about Uganda! Aside from getting asked if I was in year 7 (That would make me 12!!!?!) when I was in school for a lunch club that we run on Friday, I also got thrashed in a pub quiz on Tuesday, made it down to the beach with a friend, read a grand total of 3 books in one week, and ran a youth club and a prayer walk among a several other bits.

Compton on Tuesday

So its been another pretty chilled out week, but its been good to spend time with a few different people; on the beach, in the park and most importantly, over plates of something yummy and edible!

I'm not good at doing nothing

I've had a pretty chilled out week this week.
We had our payer breakfast with the team from the Jubilee Training Center on Monday before they left to go back to the mainland. It was great spending some time with that team last weekend - apart from anything its just nice to have some new people my age on the island to get to know, but they were a great bunch of people - so passionate about God and about seeing his transformation among young people.

I've had a couple of usual youth groups this week and some meetings and bits, but I've still found myself having what feels like more time on my hands than usual - something I'm definitely not used to, so I actually really missed going to Moorlands on Tuesday! Over the rest of the week I decided that I would try to make better use of my free time. I've been for a couple of walks by the coast - I sat and watched people paddle-boarding the other day - silhouetted against the sunset which was beautiful. I've spent time reading and I've had some time to just chill with God. I've also spent time with friends; in person on the island (usually with either food or tea involved!) and on Skype and the phone to those further away.



On Saturday, Pete and I took to the water again in the sea kayaks. We paddled around some of the East of the island, and Pete challenged me to paddle all the way around the island over the next couple of years while I'm living with him and his family. Whilst we were out, we got caught in a spot of torrential rain which was fun! It was amazing to be on the water while it was raining so heavily, and to watch all the rain drops bouncing off the surface of the water.



So I guess that this week I've been learning to relax, and to "Be still and know that I am God". I'm not very good at doing nothing, but I think that God wants me to remember to rest in him.