Love that changes things

Well it seems that the sunshine from last week was short lived, but that hasn't stopped too much here. I've had all the usual activities and meetings, and I'm still enjoying the novelty of having no essays to write! 

We were planning a scavenger hunt on Thursday with my Rock Solid youth group and another local youth group. Despite the forecast, I was feeling relatively hopeful until I looked out the window about an hour before we were due to start and saw a huge black cloud stretching as far as I could see! We decided to postpone the scavenger hunt but we joined up with Newport Rock Solid to play some games together instead.

This Friday we held a youth event called Catalyst which was themed around peer pressure. It was our first Friday event in almost a month so it was great to get together again with the team and loads of young people to worship God.

I read a brilliant article today called "The wrong way to approach the poor". It's something I totally agree with, and something I wish I was a lot better at. Truly helping people takes humility and a willingness to make yourself vulnerable to people. The moment when we can really start to make a difference to people is when we stop defining people by the poverty they are living in, and start opening ourselves up to individuals as equals and as friends with whom we can work together to make a difference.

I'm not just thinking of overseas "mission work" though, I see the same thing in my work with young people here. You stand very little chance of making any change in a young person's life unless you're willing to build relationships. As a Christian, the main thing that I am called to do is to love. Now, love demands personal investment, but it also makes a big difference. So if we ever want to make any real difference to anyone, we have to be willing to make it personal. Treating someone as a statistic is never going to amount to much, but get involved in their life, and you might just get to be a part of something spectacular. 

Is this really England?!

The sun is starting to make more of a regular appearance and I'm loving it! It's refreshing to have a break from staring at books and to get to spend time looking at things like this instead...

Of course, I've been doing all the usual too, although it's been a pretty relaxed week. Rock Solid is still going really well and we're planning to meet up with another Rock Solid group this week for a scavenger hunt. I did a first aid course on Monday with some others who help with youth work at church which was a good laugh. I keep a blog about that and the rest of my youthwork here if you're interested.

On Saturday, Pete and I went out for a paddle again. The sea was much calmer this time, and we paddled from Totland to Freshwater - around the west of the island and past the needles. It was absolutely beautiful and almost made it hard to believe that we were still in the UK. We stopped on a little beach just past the needles that you can only reach by water, and explored a sea cave too!

RS Weekend Away

I've been writing another essay this week, but the family that I live with have loads of kayaks, so last Monday I took a break from my essay to go sea kayaking. Being on the sea was very different from the flat water paddling that I'm used to, but it was brilliant to be out on the water again for the first time in far too long and to get lots of tips from Pete about how to paddle in waves.

I also had all of my usual groups and meetings which you can find out more about by clicking here, and apart from an evening walk by the sea, I filled up all of the rest of my time with uni work. Finally, on Friday afternoon I finished, so I've now completed all of my assignments from my first year of uni... that is a very good feeling!

On the beach on Tuesday Evening

This weekend I've been at the Westbrooke Centre in Ryde, running 'Rock Solid Weekend Away' with the rest of the YFC team. We ran the weekend for young people in year 8 from across the island. It included all kinds of activities like wide games, late night swimming, lots of incredible food, watching someone drink a blended happy meal(!) and some great teaching and discussions about Jesus... the real fun though, began after all the kids had gone to bed and us leaders challenged each other to table wrestling among other things!

Also, on Saturday, we welcomed loads of other young people just for the afternoon and we ran 'RS Quest' - a competition all afternoon with lots of challenges and games. Fortunately the weather was a lot better than expected! It was great to have some of my girls from Rock Solid come along to this and to see them enjoying it so much.

So now I'm very much looking forward to an early night and a week free of essays!

A Taste of Uganda

This week has been a strange one. I feel like I've spent a lot of time in a bit of a 'Uganda bubble', which is lovely, until I remember that I'm 4000 miles away! But the countdown is speeding up and its just 65 days now until I'll be back.
On Saturday I ran a 'Uganda evening' at church; talking about Uganda and giving people a chance to try some common (homemade!) food, learn a bit of the language and have a go at a few other things. I absolutely love talking about Uganda, so for me it was great, and I hope that those who came along enjoyed it too.

Serving homemade Posho and Beans (akawunga n'ebijanjaalo)

Other than preparing for the Uganda evening, I've had a pretty normal week with my usual youth groups and a couple of meetings. Rock Solid is still continuing to grow and we had two more new girls on Thursday... that makes for a lot of pre-teen girls in one room!

I also got to Skype a couple of friends this week and it was nice to hear about what they're up to at uni.

Next weekend we're running another weekend away for 12 and 13yr olds from all over the island. We'll be having lots of fun and also getting the chance to think about who Jesus is. I also need to get an essay written and to finish my portfolio... so pray for a productive week!