'Build Your Kingdom Here!'

Last Sunday I decided to try to start putting together a program for my youth groups over the coming months so I asked my youth group about what they want to do and learn about this year ... turns out that they didn't have as many ideas as I was hoping that they might, so it looks as  though I'll have to get thinking!
I made good use of my afternoon by making some brownies with a friend which was fun.

On Monday at our weekly prayer breakfast at YFC we all agreed to give something up for the week in order to try to step out of our comfort zones a bit to get closer to God. I chose to give up Facebook for the week and I actually really enjoyed it! It was strangely refreshing and actually made me miss the simplicity of life that I experienced in the village when I was living in Uganda. Unfortunately, I think a lack of power would cause a few more problems in an English winter!
Not being distracted by Facebook made it a lot easier to get on with some planning and with my essay - this one is on youth work and has been really interesting.

At Moorlands this Tuesday we had Chris Bell from the Christian mission organisation, 'Interserve' as the speaker in chapel. He gave a brilliant talk about working for God and the fact that we are called to be uncomfortable. I had lectures on Christian Doctrine and on Community and we managed to get the early ferry back to the island which gave us an extra hour in the evening which was great.

This week's pile of books for my Youth Work essay

I went have a catch up with Linda (from church) on Wednesday and we ended up talking about a few exciting ideas and visions for the church. I'm so desperate to see God transform this church and the people in this community. Now I just need to figure out how to make these visions become a reality!
I did some more planning and essay writing in the afternoon, and in the process I came across a blog about the madness of christian youth group games which really made me laugh http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/youth-group-games
I went to DofE in the evening and we started to teach the young people how to read maps and take grid references.

The planning and essay writing continued on Thursday (who said that youth work was just messing around with a youth group!?) and then I had a meeting with Simon in the afternoon to talk about my role at Gunville and how everything is going. It was really good to step back and think about what I'm doing, what my vision is, and how I want to get there, but also quite daunting! I really want to see God starting to make a huge impact and bringing more of his Kingdom in this area. My prayer is that that passion wont die out, but will be the fuel that starts to make things happen.
Rock Solid in the evening went really well. We played some games around the theme of giving, and I told an interactive story to get the young people thinking about what we can give back to God. Then one of my other leaders ran a craft activity for everyone to make a bookmark to give away. I got very excited by all the stickers and pretty, shiny things!

Our YFC team had the first of 4 sessions of listening training on Friday morning which was interesting, and in the afternoon we set up for Catalyst which we then ran in the evening. This month we were looking at prayer, and lots of different people shared stories and testimonies about prayer. It was great to see so many young people sharing their stories and to hear lots of different experiences from lots of different people.
After we finished packing away, a few of us went to a friends house to relax for a while, before we realized what the time was and promptly headed home to bed.

I went over to Cowes on Saturday as the IOW Foodbank was changing location and they needed help to move 14 tonnes of food! We manged to pretty much get everything on the new site by mid-day, so I spent the afternoon writing my essay (still!) and then headed back over to Cowes in the evening for a worship service that my friend and her youth group were running.

Some of the last few boxes of food to
be moved to the new Food Bank site.

In my youth group on Sunday we looked at the Body of Christ, and I devised a great team work game from an empty Pringle pot, some string and a rubber duck - genius! I also discovered a cupboard that was pretty much empty, so I spent some time moving a few bits around and creating some storage space which I desperately needed! You know you work for a church when you get excited by an empty cupboard!

If you're up for praying, I'd appreciate prayer this week for...

- Good health as I'm getting a bit of a cold.
- Pray that God would continue to grow a passion in me to see him at work and to get closer to him, and give me the wisdom and ability to make things happen.
- Just a good week in general - pray that God will use me and that I'll enjoy the week.