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!

Back to the Island again

Last week (apart from the essay writing!) was lovely. I love being at home and just being free to do whatever I feel like doing, I love spending time with my parents and curling up on the sofa with them in the evening to watch a terrible film, I love going back to my home church and catching up with everyone. I love seeing the ridiculous things that get my Dad excited - like finding a new charging point for his electric car! In all honesty, I found it really hard to come back to the island!

Messing around with Dad

I had a long drive on my own to the ferry from Moorlands on Tuesday and then another long drive from the ferry to my Host Home afterwards, so I turned the music up loud so that I didn't feel silly talking into silence and I had a long chat with God all the way back. and by the time I arrived I was feeling a lot more optimistic about the next term here.

At Rock Solid - my Thursday youth club, we had such a brilliant evening. We have a great group of girls and they're all really starting to open up now that they're getting used to each other and to the set up of Rock Solid. Every week we have a short time of discussion in the middle of the evening. This week the girls got so into the discussion that it overran past the next activity and right to the end of the evening! Its so exciting to see them engaging so well in thinking about real life issues and being open with each other and encouraging each other.

It's times like that that remind me why I'm here and I'm really so excited to how see each one of those girls grows and develops over the coming weeks and months.

Thanks for praying!
Take a look at my youth work blog at www.gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.com

Easter Holiday!

Last week I organised a car wash for some of the young people I work with. They spent a couple of hours working hard to wash lots of cars to raise money for Smile Uganda and they made me very proud! After that, I jumped on a ferry and came home for Easter :)

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had the absolute blessing of being able to spend time with my closest friends and family – something that doesn’t happen very often any more!

Last week, Clare came down to Basingstoke, and when we weren’t baking, singing and catching up with people, we took a trip up to London with Mum and Dad to see the Lion King in the West End. It was something that I had wanted to see for ages, so with tickets from my birthday, we finally got to see it and it was absolutely phenomenal!

Lion King!

After a couple of days of essay writing and procrastination, I got to go to my home church which is always lovely. I feel like Christ Church has changed a lot in the time that I’ve been away since I moved to Uganda and then to the island, but what’s great is that it still feels like home every time I go back.

That afternoon I drove up to Eynsham (The Centre of the Universe!) to stay with Clare. Eynsham is a place that feels more and more like a home from home every time I go. Clare’s family are brilliant and I love spending time there.

Andrew joined us in the evening and we went into Oxford on Monday to meet Esther and Joe – so 5 of the 6 ‘Uganda gappers’ were reunited! We very rarely all get to be together, and we missed Finch a lot, but we had such a lovely day. We enjoyed a picnic in the sun and miraculously no-one fell in when we went punting! It was exciting to be able to say ‘see you in Uganda!’ when Joe left, as the next time I see him will probably be in Entebbe airport in July!

Esther, Joe, Andrew, Me & Clare

Well after another few hours stolen with Clare I made my way back to Basingstoke this morning (I was very proud of myself for remembering the way home without my sat-nav!). I’m back to essay writing for a couple of days, but looking forward to spending time with Mum & Dad and catching up with other old friends from around here.

Time with people you love is such a precious thing and I’m learning not to take it for granted and to really appreciate it when it happens. I’m so lucky to have some truly incredible people in my life and just so grateful for the time that we get to spend together every now and then!

Hope

What did I learn this week? ...That God's hope holds out a lot longer than mine does!

On Wednesday I was feeling really tired and I had an 'I really cant be bothered today' attitude, which just makes me so angry with myself, but hey, sometimes I have those days. In the afternoon I headed down to the church as usual to set up for The Space youth cafe. I arrived late and started to set up for the cafe; moving loads of foam sofas down the stairs. I thought to myself 'We've been running this for over a month now and only one person has ever come in... I can haul all of these cushions up and down the stairs, but no one is going to sit on them.' so I brought a few down and decided that it wasn't worth the effort of getting the rest. I'd given up hope and I couldn't be bothered.
We got everything set up and I stood outside to offer free cake to students as they walked home from school - I was feeling very sorry for myself getting cold in the wind with a plate of cakes that no young people seemed to want, so I went back inside to warm up a bit.
And then God just went and showed me that whilst I might have given up, he definitely hadn't... all of 8 people came into the cafe that day! We served them hot chocolate and cake and a few even beat me at a game of Dobble and Uno!
Just when I was ready to give up, God stepped in and showed my why I shouldn't. The next day he just rubbed in the message with 2 more new girls at Rock Solid - my Thursday youth club. We ran Rock Solid for 3 months with only 3 girls coming, and in the last month alone our numbers have increased literally fourfold! We're now able to welcome all of these girls (yes, for some reason we only have girls!?) every week into a safe environment where they can have fun, build relationships and also have the opportunity to talk about real life issues in a place where their views are respected and they are encouraged to grow. What a privilege that is!

If you want to read about all the rest of my youth work, have a look at my youth work blog at www.gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.com (Published on Sunday Mornings).

Thanks, as always, to everyone who prays for me so faithfully.
This week I'd love some prayer for...

• Thanksgiving for the growth in numbers at The Space and Rock Solid - pray that this will continue.
• The car wash that I'm running with a group of young people on Tuesday to raise money for Smile Uganda.
• A safe journey as I travel home for Easter.
• Motivation and time to get my next essay done!