Blogging From a Ferry

I’m writing this blog sitting in my car in the Red Funnel car park in Southampton whilst I’m waiting for the ferry to go back to the island. I’ve been on the mainland this week at Moorlands Bible College where I’m doing my degree. Because we only usually go once a week, we have to do a few block weeks through the year to cover the modules that we don’t have time for on Tuesdays.

This week we covered Church History and World Religions – all in one week! As well as lectures all day, we also had to prepare for group presentations which we gave on Friday. My group gave a presentation on Buddhism and Chinese religions, and from all the other groups we also learnt about Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Catholicism and Paganism. I love learning about other cultures so I thought it was great! It was also really interesting learning about the history of the church, and although its sad to remember how many times the church has gotten things so fundamentally wrong, it’s also good to learn about all the great things that the church has done too… and just down right funny to imagine people like Stylites living on top of a pole for several years!

Because we’re all placement based, most of us don’t get to see each other very often – and even when we’re in college on Tuesdays we don’t really have a lot of time to catch up, so block week is a brilliant chance to spend time together with other people who are doing similar things. They’re a great bunch and it was a blessing to have this time to spend together in the evenings (when we weren't preparing presentations!).

On Tuesday my Mum came down to take me out for dinner which was lovely (Seeing Mum of course, but also the enormous chocolate brownie that I had for pudding!!!).

Walking by the sea with Mum on Tuesday.

 I headed home for the night on Friday evening to catch up with Mum and Dad, and John and Cat even made an appearance to say ‘hi’ which was nice! Then on Saturday (today) we headed down to the church to help make posies for Mother’s Day which gave me a good chance to catch up with a few people. Now I'm on the ferry heading back to the island armed with cake!

I feel like I just spend my whole life ‘catching up’ with people that I don’t get to see enough of! I’m definitely learning how precious time is.

Thanks so much to those of you who pray for me, if you'd like some pointers this week...

- Pray for 'The Space' - a youth cafe I've recently set up, and that God will use it.

- Pray for my friend and her daughter who are both not very well.

- Pray for the young people I work with and for me as I try my best to guide them through life and teach them how much God loves them.

Freedom to be Foolish.

This week has been so lovely as I had Clare come to visit for the week. I dragged her around all the meetings and youth groups that I do, but I think she enjoyed it! As well as all of that, we also found some time to just go out and enjoy the sunshine(?) and the countryside together. Messing around running down hills in the wind, it struck me that it's been such a long time since I had just felt free and really had fun. 
Being responsible for other people is great, and it really is such a privilege to watch them learn and grow. What I'm starting to learn though is that whilst dignity is something that is quite important to me, its not something that I always have to have all of the time. Maybe sometimes I need to be a little less proud and a little more prepared to laugh at myself and just be free.

Clare and I up at the Pepper Pot

I once heard someone talk on worship, and they explained that when you really 'get' what God has done, and who he is, you just cant help but go crazy! It's so exciting and you just want to go crazy in celebration. I love when I get to a place when I can really let go in worship. When I stop caring, or even thinking about other people who might be watching, and just let go and celebrate God in freedom. I think he must love seeing his children looking so ridiculous because we're just so excited about who he is! God doesn't care if we look foolish for him, he loves it! 
What I really want, is to have that attitude in everything I do - not just when I'm singing worship songs, but when I'm just 'doing life'. Of course, often we have to reign it in a little - it would be a shame to frighten people! ... but I'm trying to be more prepared to be foolish for God, and to celebrate the freedom that I have in him.

Tomorrow (Monday) I'm going to Moorlands for our final block week of the first year, so I'll be at Moorlands having lectures all week.

Please pray...
- That all my youth work goes smoothly this week as my team run it without me.
- Pray for me at Moorlands - for energy and that what we're learning will be really interesting and engaging.
- Pray for me and my group as we prepare an assessed presentation on Chinese religions for Friday.

I keep a youth work blog which has much more detail about what I do in the week at www.gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.com

Still dreaming

I thought I would try to be a bit more honest with you in my blogs... Rather than simply listing the things I've been doing, I want to share my heart and what God is really doing in my life, instead of just telling you the practical things that I'm doing for him. My hope and my prayer is that somehow, through this, God will speak to you - the people who, for reasons I don't understand, continue to read what I have to write!

I've been so blessed and privileged to have had all of the experiences that I've had already in my life... and I continue to dream...

At Rock Solid last week, one of the girls asked about how we actually hear God speaking to us, which I thought was quite a profound question for someone so young, but it got me thinking. Personally, I often find that God speaks to me when I take the time to slow down and really observe what's going on, and what I'm thinking about, so I sometimes just write - about whatever I'm thinking about, and I often find that God will guide my words to teach me something new.
I had a few moments last weekend, and this is what I wrote... It's cheesy I know, but this is it...

"I've been thinking a lot about who I am, and what makes me who I am, and who do I want to be? I guess I realized that I don't know any of the answers, and I doubt I ever will, but I do know this... I want to be loved and I want to make others know that they are loved too. I never want to stop learning or growing, I don't want to stop dreaming or fulfilling my dreams. I want to travel, I want to meet lots of different people, I want to laugh and cry and sing and talk into the early hours. I want to see God do amazing things and be a part of it. I want to see the miracles in the small things, I want to appreciate the little blessings and the big ones too. I want to learn from the tough times and help to carry others through their own. I want to care for people and watch them grow. I want to have dreams, not just for me but for those that I invest in.

I may never be able to define 'me' in a sentence, but if I can get to the end of my life knowing that I didn't waste it trying to figure out who I am, I'll be pretty happy with that."

My struggle right now is to live in the moment. I want to give the work I'm doing right now my all. I don't see anything wrong at all about having hopes and dreams for the future, but I do see something wrong with always waiting for the next thing, and never just 'being' where you are at present.

Compton on Saturday

I've been able to see recently some of the things that God has been teaching me lately. I know that he is not only using me now, but preparing me for the future at the same time. Thinking about what I might do months from now, and also what I might do years from now, is so exciting. I've got big plans for my youth work here, and big plans for my life beyond that, but I'm sure that God's plans are even bigger still!

I'm looking forward to seeing my brother and Catherine who are coming to visit me tomorrow and then to welcoming Clare who is coming to stay for a few days next week. 
We're finally starting to see Rock Solid take off - it's been steadily growing in numbers for the past few weeks. We're hopeful that The Space (our youth cafe) will start to grow soon too.
If you want a few more details about stuff I've actually been doing, I keep a youth work blog at www.gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.com

Things to pray about:
- Pray for my latest project: The Space youth cafe, and that some young people will come along.
- Pray for me as I try to find new experiences and organize trips and days out with my young people.
- Pray for John and Cat travelling to the island tomorrow and for my friend Clare as she travels to the island to stay for a few days. Thank God that we have an opportunity to catch up and spend time together and pray that we will have a lovely time.

Spring is Coming!

I've just arrived back from school where we run a lunch club on Fridays. This week was the first one of the year when the weather was good enough to allow us to actually play games! 
The sun is finally starting to make an appearance, as are the daffodils which is beautiful.

Its been brilliant in the past couple of weeks to start to see my youth work here growing. We had more new people come along to Rock Solid on Thursday, and although we haven't had any takers for free cake at The Space youth cafe, its good to finally see it happening after so long just as an idea on a piece of paper, and the team are optimistic that if we persevere long enough, it will take off. This week I walked up the road with a tray of free cakes as the schools were finishing to encourage people to come in.

I preached in church on Sunday  on Joshua 1 and I've had lots of great feedback from that. Its really encouraging when people actually tell me what they learnt and what they're doing about it, so I know that they must have really taken something away from it. It was also used as my 'assessed preach' for Moorlands, and I got top marks which must be a good sign!

After looking at our 'vision and strategy' in our team meeting at YFC, I decided that I probably ought to do one for my youth work at Gunville. Its quite exciting to start to look at even more possibilities for the future and how we can take forward what we've already achieved here.

I rediscovered the joys(?!) of living on an island on Tuesday when Phil and I managed to miss 2 ferries in one day! Never mind - it was pancake day, so that made up for it. I made a start on the next essay - this one is on Exodus and might take me a while... I've also been to a bunch of meetings this week (although I did escape church council because it was the same night as Rock Solid!), I helped out at DofE and also made my youth group room comfy and pretty with sofas and fairy lights.

If you're interested in my work here as a YTP student, I keep a blog for GMC (Gunville Methodist Church) at www.gunvillemethodistyouthwork.blogspot.com

Thanks so much to everyone who prays for me...
This week I'd love some prayer for...

• The Space - pray that we get some young people coming along
• Thank God that Rock Solid is growing and pray it will continue to go well
• I have a few important meetings this week so pray that they will go well
• Pray for my Dad who is ridiculously busy at the moment

CAKE!

I spent the first half of this week at home. Mum and I had good fun making some silly cakes for a Fairtrade cake competition at church and we went out for meal with the family for my birthday.
It was lovely to be at Christ Church and to catch up with everyone - and to eat loads of cake after the service! 

Our entries to the Fairtrade Cake competition

I had a lovely day on my birthday and managed to spend about 5 hours on Skype... I couldn't really have asked for a better birthday present than to get to see so many of my friends in Uganda (and the UK, and even Canada!)

Birthday Skype!

I spent the evening with the family, and we had a laugh when it came out that my brother has convinced his girlfriend that they have a ghost in their garage... that was when this happened...

Dad - the 'Garage Ghost'!

We had a brilliant Hermeneutics lecture at Moorlands on Tuesday with a guest lecturer teaching us about inductive Bible study - basically a really in depth way of studying the text of the Bible. From there I returned to the island.

We launched a new youth cafe called 'The Space' on Wednesday. It was great to see it all set up and another youth worker from YFC brought his youth group along as a one off, but unfortunately no other young people came. Things like this are really disheartening when I've put so much effort into making this happen and I feel like I've done a lot of advertising too. Its difficult sometimes not to wonder why I bother.

The next day though, we finally had some new young people come along to Rock Solid, so at least one of my groups is starting to grow! We made pancakes as it's Shrove Tuesday next week and they were very yummy! 
In the evening, some of my friends from the island took me out for birthday celebrations which was nice.

We had Catalyst on Friday evening - our monthly youth event at YFC. The theme was 'sex and relationships' so we had a very entertaining talk based around the song 'bump n grind'!

Amidst all of this, I've also been writing a sermon this week as I'll be preaching in church on Joshua 1 on Sunday. I've been really enjoying it. Its great to have a responsibility for which I have to study the Bible to get it done and I've been learning a lot. God never ceases to amaze me with the way that he fits everything together and I'm looking forward to sharing all of this with everyone at church on Sunday morning.

As always, I'd appreciate your prayers...
- Pray for me as I preach on Sunday - pray that God would speak through me.
- Pray for The Space and that more people will start to come.
- Thank God that Rock Solid is finally growing and pray that it will continue to go well.

Blessings

Last Saturday I headed down to the beach at Compton with a few friends. The car park is a little smaller than it was the last time I was there before the recent storms (the rest of it is still there... just halfway down the cliff!). We had a lovely walk in the sunshine along the beach, and just as we turned around to walk back to the car, a storm rolled in so we got a little bit damp!
A dry pair of jeans and a hot chocolate solved that one, and I finally made a start on my essay! 

Compton on Saturday

The reason that this week's blog is titled 'Blessings' is because I've been so blessed this week to catch up with some of the people that I'm closest to. I enjoyed a long conversation on Saturday evening with two of my closest friends in Uganda. We couldn't use Skype, so we messed around with picture messages instead.

Messing around with Brian and Angello on Saturday

I was involved in leading the service again at church on Sunday, and I also lead the Rising Tide youth group as usual. I discovered that the combination of stress and tiredness doesn't make for the best morning when you've got a lot of responsibilities and to top it off, the technology doesn't want to play ball! Fortunately, other than essay writing, I was able to chill out (and eat lots of chocolate!) in the afternoon.

Being half term, this week has been a bit different in terms of youth work. On Monday morning I met up with a couple of girls in my youth group to bake some cakes for a coffee morning. They did really well, and Linda and I were pretty much able to sit back and watch and just give a few instructions. I did a bit of essay writing and spent some time with friends for the rest of the day. On of my friends had been inspired by Lego Movie last week, so his dining table was covered in an impressive Lego collection!

The girls got to sell their cakes at a coffee morning on Wednesday and they were keen to be independent of adult help, so I was banished! After the coffee morning I spent a few hours making preparations for 'The Space' - the new youth cafe that we're opening after half term. I got my weeks share of exercise lugging big foam cushions around to work out how to set up the room.

Another great blessing on Tuesday evening - I left the island and drove up to Esther's halls in Southampton to spend the night with her. I arrived just as her halls' Christian Union was starting, so she took me to join in with prayer, praise and a study on 2Corinthians which was nice. It was really good to just participate in a bible study and not to have any leadership responsibility. Later in the evening we Skyped Clare which was great fun and absolutely lovely.

Esther, Clare and I making silly faces at each other on Skype.

Wednesday was an amazing day.
Esther and I got up at 5am(!) because we had arranged to Skype Brian in Uganda at 8am (Uganda time). Unfortunately there was a power cut where he was, which meant that he had no internet so we couldn't Skype. Never mind; Esther and I decided to make the most of the early start by going out to watch the sunrise.

When I got home I was greeted by a big pile of mugs on my bedroom floor that have been donated by people from my home church for The Space youth cafe. Thanks!!!

In the evening my friends Angello and Brian in Uganda were together and they managed (after much effort) to find some power and internet to Skype me - wow, what an incredible blessing that was! Its hard to explain how much I miss them - in luganda I would say 'nkumisinga nyo nyo ddala' which directly translates as 'I miss you much much really'. To get to chat to them both together was just so special.

Brian and Angello on Skype from Kampala

So all in the space of 24hours I got to spend time with my 'sisters' Esther and Clare, two of my closest friends Brian and Angello, and also my wonderful Mum and Dad. After a tough few weeks, I just felt more and more whole and blessed as the day went on! I really do have some incredible people in my life... they're just quite spread out geographically!

I finally finished my essay on Thursday. I've been writing about 1 Corinthians and the problems in 1st Century Corinth which has been pretty interesting. Now I'm working on a sermon as I'll be preaching on Joshua 1 at the beginning of March.

Prayer Requests
- Pray for The Space - the youth cafe that I'm launching on Wednesday. Pray that we get a good turn out, and enough cakes and volunteers.
- Pray for safe travels down to Sopley and then back to the Isle of Wight on Tuesday.
- Pray for me as I write this sermon.

Studying, Climbing and Playing with Fire!

After such an intense weekend, I was glad to be able to sleep in and take most of Monday off before a meeting in the afternoon. I went for dinner with a family from church in the evening as usual which was lovely, and afterwards I headed up to a friends house to just hang out with friends for the evening which was great.

We took a couple of visitors to Moorlands on Tuesday - 2 young people from the island who are thinking about studying there, so it made a change to have them with us. We had some interesting lectures about the importance of context and about the geography of the Old Testament and the archaeology involved in researching it. I also got back my New Testament essay on the culture of New Testament Galilee.

Wednesday was very exciting because I got to go climbing for the first time in a very long time! We took the young people from DofE indoor rock climbing, so I got to train them in how to tie in, how to communicate properly whilst using the wall and how to belay safely for a climber. I also had a Steering Group meeting on Wednesday and I went to help out another youth worker with his 'Go Deeper' group where we did a bit of practical work - putting lots of tins away for the Food Bank, and we did a bible study on Acts 1.

By Thursday the tiredness was setting in, but I got all my planning and preparations for Rock Solid ready and I ran the session in the evening around the theme of love - rather appropriately for the time of year!

At YFC we completed our listening training on Friday and we said goodbye to Dan who left to spend 5 weeks in Canada for his Moorlands block placement. Afterwards we just about had enough time to grab some lunch before we went to school for lunch club where I gave out lots of cards advertising our new youth cafe - The Space which we're opening after half term.
We decided after school to go to the cinema to see 'Lego Movie' which was a laugh!
In the evening a bunch of us got together to spend the evening together. After watching the guys shooting zombies (on a screen), playing with fire, and then playing with knives (in real life!) I concluded that I just don't understand boys!

Lego Movie

Come Saturday, I definitely was in need of a lie in, which I was glad to take!
I've been thinking a lot lately about what I'm actually doing here... after running a seminar on God's plan for our lives, I had a think about my own life and what God's plan is in it. I think that this period of my life is definitely a time of a lot of growth and learning.  I face a lot of challenges in my work, but the biggest challenge for me isn't in the work that I'm doing, but in the fact that I feel so torn between where I am now and a hot, dusty but stunningly beautiful country 4000 miles away. So right now I'm just trying to do my best. I'm doing what I think God has called me to do right now. I'm training and growing and trying to become more like Jesus Christ. And all the while I'm trying to help other people to do the same.

So if you're up for praying for me this week...
- Pray for energy.
- Pray that I'll have enough time, motivation and efficiency to get an essay and a sermon written.
- Considering the recent weather, pray that I'll get off of the island easily on Tuesday.
- Pray for Rock Solid - I currently have no leaders which is less than ideal!