I am well aware that I should have posted on the internlog since September, but better late than never eh?
I have been an intern for 3 whole months now! Wow. Just 3 months...It feels longer- in a good way. I sort of feel like an expert now! (not in an arrogant way of course). I never realised what a huge field I was getting involved in! I am almost ashamed to admit my ignorance but it's true.
There are so many wonderful wonderful young people I get to meet and talk to about God. Some have such good insight! And the questions!Questions that keep you on your toes, questions masked as wise cracks of anger and hate to hide their thirst for the knowledge of God. I see it every week! That deep hunger for something more than themselves, but half the time they don't even realise it. Absolutely heartbreaking.
But on the upside, I am seeing young people engaging with and challenging the gospel Sam, David and I bring them. That really encourages me!
The invaluable spring that is re:generation church has been a place of fuel for me. I never realised how draining spiritually, as well as emotionally (hey, I'm a girl, we have a lot of feelings) youth and schools work can be!
(Definitely a big shout out to all those who do this permanently as a job!)
(Jamie and Ruth Poch, you guys count! :] )
I still have lots to learn (and hopefully lots to bring as well) this year and I'm having a blast doing it!
Iman
PS, I now know a bunch of random games! HA! XD
Monday 13 December 2010
Friday 12 November 2010
Internship so far
I'm Sam, one of the new interns for re:gen and Scripture Union for this academic year. I got involved with this internship because I have a heart for teenagers and want to see the youth [that makes me sound old - my peers I guess] changed and come into a relationship with God. I was born and raised in a Christian household but never understood that Christianity is all about relationship, not religion. In short, after a while I walked away from church but a mate dragged me to re:gen where this Good News was revealed to me: that I could know God and have a relationship with Him, and that Jesus had given His life to set me free. That changed my life forever. That was Febuary 2005, and since then life has never been the same. God has changed me, and looking back I have come a long way - but there's still a long way to go.
So it's been just over 2 months since the internship began, and it has been busy! But before that, Romania was a really powerful time - I think I got more than I gave in that mission. God taught me so much. [see earlier blog for more info on Romania trip]. A few days to recooperate and then straight to Soul Survivor - a massive Christian festival, with about 10-11,000 people! What an amazing experience. Camping out in the fields, worshipping God together in the Big Top [a massive tent/marquee where we all met and held 'services'], learning more about God through seminars, chilling out. It was amazing. In the 5 days of that particular week [they do several 5 day slots over the summer] around 900 people gave their lives to Christ. Awesome.
The internship involves a lot of schools work - taking assemblies and Christian Unions etc. So far I have really enjoyed it, although if I'm honest, working with kids can be draining! But God is helping me, so it's a win!
Some highlights so far:
1. Doing messy assemblies at a primary school - we made milkshake in our hands and it went everywhere - it was to show that all parts are necessary in the Body of Christ. We also used Mr Potato Head as an interactive illustration of the Body, and the necessity of each part.
2. An awesome prayer walk around Romford, where we saw German Lion Dogs - thay are amazing. And I ended up climbing a tree to retrieve a guy's kite while the other interns and our pastor, Jamie, evangelist to him.
There are more, but they can be a story for another time...
So it's been just over 2 months since the internship began, and it has been busy! But before that, Romania was a really powerful time - I think I got more than I gave in that mission. God taught me so much. [see earlier blog for more info on Romania trip]. A few days to recooperate and then straight to Soul Survivor - a massive Christian festival, with about 10-11,000 people! What an amazing experience. Camping out in the fields, worshipping God together in the Big Top [a massive tent/marquee where we all met and held 'services'], learning more about God through seminars, chilling out. It was amazing. In the 5 days of that particular week [they do several 5 day slots over the summer] around 900 people gave their lives to Christ. Awesome.
The internship involves a lot of schools work - taking assemblies and Christian Unions etc. So far I have really enjoyed it, although if I'm honest, working with kids can be draining! But God is helping me, so it's a win!
Some highlights so far:
1. Doing messy assemblies at a primary school - we made milkshake in our hands and it went everywhere - it was to show that all parts are necessary in the Body of Christ. We also used Mr Potato Head as an interactive illustration of the Body, and the necessity of each part.
2. An awesome prayer walk around Romford, where we saw German Lion Dogs - thay are amazing. And I ended up climbing a tree to retrieve a guy's kite while the other interns and our pastor, Jamie, evangelist to him.
There are more, but they can be a story for another time...
Friday 20 August 2010
Romania Trip
There have been few posts before now, and it's been simply a case of so much going on! From the Pentecost Festival through the SOLID Youth Festival and the wedding of Stephen and Kate Poch, it's all been go! However, I can now share my recap on our mission trip to Romania!
I write to you from re:generation Church itself on a mild Sunday afternoon to give you an overview of our trip to Romania. I would say it’ll be a “brief” overview, but given that I can’t promise that from the beginning, I won’t!
We left in the very early hours of the morning of Friday the 23rd July from the church to start the first leg of our drive to Romania in the recently purchased minibus (thanks to God and everyone who supported the fundraising financially and in prayer!) and in the Spearmans’ van. Heading down to the crossing (Le Shuttle) at Dover we met our first hiccup (which incidentally was rather significant) when the clutch in the Spearmans’ van gave way. This meant that Ross, Edd and Sam (Fowler) had to make their way back (with the majority of our luggage) to Essex and sort a replacement. The minibus made the crossing to France and continued on to Germany where we made our first overnight stop. The morning of the 24th of July (the majority of us) were woken by the sound of an air raid siren (which apparently was to warn local people of an accident on the highway!) After breakfast we headed on to our second stop in Austria, where we stayed in a beautiful cabin in the mountains, enjoyed local (salty) food and a lake. The less said about the latter, the better. Somewhere along the way, the DVD player caught fire and forced a roadside evacuation on the motorway! Our third stop was in Budapest, Hungary in a youth hostel building once owned by the KGB! We enjoyed the sights and sounds of the local area by day and by night before leaving the following day for our final destination: Minis, Romania on Monday 26th July.
Having settled in and had our first meal together on location – we settled down to bed before work (which as yet was still not entirely clear to us) the next day. We set of from a Networks’ (the charity we worked for out there) owned hostel in Minis to the office in Siria, Arad, for our induction and briefing on the work that we would be doing. The details of what we would be doing were thus:
The charity was bequeathed a plot of land by a local farmer in an impoverished Roma community known as Alpha and use of (lorry) containers for any purpose they saw fit. God gave them a vision to build a school for local Roma children. Such children would normally be excluded from school on the basis of factors relating to (but not directly with) their ethnicity, and the vision was (and still is) to see the school ready to start this September (in time for the new term this year.) Our job was to help this farmer (Mr. Jacob) in preparing his land, moving his livestock and and goods around to make the school a reality in time. In total, we had 5 days to do as much as possible. Previous teams had completed the construction of a new pigsty from scratch, and our jobs would range from stripping back the existing fence to prepare for the new one, levelling the old pigsty, carrying pigs to the new one (!) pulling out posts, moving concrete flagstones, clearing fly-tipped areas of concrete, burning excess tree cuttings and waste, making concrete blocks, ferrying sand, hardcore and waste, compiling materials etc. and generally being as helpful as possible.
And so it began, the first job I was assigned to was work (with Chris Ager) on the old fence, taking apart bits of television and asbestos (I didn’t break it or breath any in, promise) used to shore it up and clearing some of the trees/bushes growing near to future entrances. After this I was moved to the destruction of the old pigsty, which for someone with limited strength like me was an interesting challenge, but one that I took to with everything that I had!
I spent day 2 making a fire with Chris & Matt Ager and Callum making use of dumped firewood from the farm and bits of plastic (not advisable) in the middle of what appeared to be the street outside of the farm. Having completed the task (with a little bit of help from Nigel, the overall leader of the project at this stage) we moved on to moving flagstones from the old pigsty to the new site in pairs (as I did) or alone (if you were well ripped.)
Towards the end of the day, we were faced with a logistical challenge of a task that we as a team felt was not safe to do without either the correct equipment or the use of heavy lifting equipment – moving 5 concrete pipes (which must have weighed a good few tonnes each.) In the end we made it clear that we wouldn’t do it on the basis that going through with it might cost one or more of us our hands or our feet should we become crushed by it! This incident generated/added to some underlying tension between the team and some of the leaders, who didn’t necessarily show well developed traits of leadership.
On day three (Thursday) the team was split 12/8 with the larger portion going to Alpha to continue the construction work and the smaller one going on to do some youth work in a place near Siria called Sharia. On this occasion, I opted to continue working on the farm, and on this occasion I was involved in the construction of a patio for some of the pigs outside of the new pigsty and a pen to contain them. Other jobs that were going on during this time (as far as I can remember) included making cement blocks and shifting bits of waste from various locations as well as clearing out a (potentially dangerously) dusty old warehouse. By this point, the weather had gone from damp low 20’s to a sunnier high 20’s and rising.
Day four saw much of the same work, though (apparently) useful tasks appeared to be dwindling in the absence of the bulldozer for the land on site. All the same, a few of us were drafted in to building the dog house using scrap pieces of metal cage, and wire – eventually finding the door to the piece we’d used somewhere else on site to complete the job – and it felt good to do so! I was also hailed by local children as somewhat of an attraction, having been (probably one of) the darkest people they’d ever seen in their lives, I was hailed first as “Papi” (which is a term used like “love” in English but with a tone of respect and then “African!” which was amusing a 30-strong crowd of children began to chant this until I came to sing “I Stand Amazed” to them, highly amusing.
Each day, we headed to a lake to wash of the dust (and pig poo, amongst other things!) and found that on each occasion, irrespective of the weather, it was FREEZING! Nonetheless, on the longer, hotter days – this was just what was needed! That said, I suffered horrendous cramp on account of the water temperature, so I struggled to stay afloat on one occasion and was wary of going in thereafter!
We got the weekend off, so the Saturday we had the day to explore a market (where Ben P. bought a chick he called ‘Chimpy’) and then spend the afternoon climbing a small mountain. A couple of us had to retire during the climb due to health-related issues but for those of us who reached the summit – we were rewarded with some spectacular views of the local scenery!
Sunday was a more relaxed day, with space to reflect and rest before Church with Networks in the evening where Andreas, the Swedish member of the team spoke powerfully on the need for Christians to have vision in the lives that they live and to see what God sees as we go about them.
His words matched his encouragement to a team that he went out with (myself included) to Sharia on the following Monday to do the kids’ club. Most poignantly, after a day of work with children, some of whom were malnourished, others had little or no clothes, most were filthy and all were full of joy he said to us, “Today, you have served kings and queens in God’s kingdom” words which will most likely stay with me for the rest of my life. Monday also happened to be our last day of work in Romania and between thinking of games to play with the kids, putting together a mime based on the parable of the lost son and drawing various barn animals for the kids to colour in it was a busy day! Still, the kids were amazing and we were sad to leave at the end. I was humbled by the excitement and love the children had for us.
We left early on Tuesday (5am) and headed on the 3 day journey home. Driving back through Hungary, we ventured to Krakow, Poland where we stayed overnight after a visit to the city for dinner and a sample of the night life (I visited a class little underground jazz club.) From there, we visited the Auschwitz museum for a harrowing tour and deeply moving history lesson. Highly recommended, if difficult.
Our next stop on the trip was in the Czech Republic (Prague) where we had a wonderful meal (for a very reasonable price) where we had a bit more time to explore in the evening and the day – so we took advantage by doing a bit of shopping and wandering before leaving in the early afternoon for Germany and our final stopover in Wurzburg. The final leg was fairly rapid, though on 2 occasions coming back from Romania, the van was stopped by customs for them to ask Edd and the others if they had cigarettes or drugs! We all were required to get out at the French border to the UK (although by the way, we had given Chimpy the chick away to Romanians) and from there we crossed the channel back home!
I’ve surely left out lots of details, missed stories where people were ill at various points or things that were for others to tell! All in all, an amazing trip where God was with us all the way (caring for the sick, protecting our minibus when the tyre burst/was slashed, giving us favourable weather conditions etc.)
Please pray for Networks that they’d be able to get the work that was done completed to start School in time for September so that many of the children we saw whilst working would be able to go to school for the first time.
Thanks so much and God bless,
Jason.
I write to you from re:generation Church itself on a mild Sunday afternoon to give you an overview of our trip to Romania. I would say it’ll be a “brief” overview, but given that I can’t promise that from the beginning, I won’t!
We left in the very early hours of the morning of Friday the 23rd July from the church to start the first leg of our drive to Romania in the recently purchased minibus (thanks to God and everyone who supported the fundraising financially and in prayer!) and in the Spearmans’ van. Heading down to the crossing (Le Shuttle) at Dover we met our first hiccup (which incidentally was rather significant) when the clutch in the Spearmans’ van gave way. This meant that Ross, Edd and Sam (Fowler) had to make their way back (with the majority of our luggage) to Essex and sort a replacement. The minibus made the crossing to France and continued on to Germany where we made our first overnight stop. The morning of the 24th of July (the majority of us) were woken by the sound of an air raid siren (which apparently was to warn local people of an accident on the highway!) After breakfast we headed on to our second stop in Austria, where we stayed in a beautiful cabin in the mountains, enjoyed local (salty) food and a lake. The less said about the latter, the better. Somewhere along the way, the DVD player caught fire and forced a roadside evacuation on the motorway! Our third stop was in Budapest, Hungary in a youth hostel building once owned by the KGB! We enjoyed the sights and sounds of the local area by day and by night before leaving the following day for our final destination: Minis, Romania on Monday 26th July.
Having settled in and had our first meal together on location – we settled down to bed before work (which as yet was still not entirely clear to us) the next day. We set of from a Networks’ (the charity we worked for out there) owned hostel in Minis to the office in Siria, Arad, for our induction and briefing on the work that we would be doing. The details of what we would be doing were thus:
The charity was bequeathed a plot of land by a local farmer in an impoverished Roma community known as Alpha and use of (lorry) containers for any purpose they saw fit. God gave them a vision to build a school for local Roma children. Such children would normally be excluded from school on the basis of factors relating to (but not directly with) their ethnicity, and the vision was (and still is) to see the school ready to start this September (in time for the new term this year.) Our job was to help this farmer (Mr. Jacob) in preparing his land, moving his livestock and and goods around to make the school a reality in time. In total, we had 5 days to do as much as possible. Previous teams had completed the construction of a new pigsty from scratch, and our jobs would range from stripping back the existing fence to prepare for the new one, levelling the old pigsty, carrying pigs to the new one (!) pulling out posts, moving concrete flagstones, clearing fly-tipped areas of concrete, burning excess tree cuttings and waste, making concrete blocks, ferrying sand, hardcore and waste, compiling materials etc. and generally being as helpful as possible.
And so it began, the first job I was assigned to was work (with Chris Ager) on the old fence, taking apart bits of television and asbestos (I didn’t break it or breath any in, promise) used to shore it up and clearing some of the trees/bushes growing near to future entrances. After this I was moved to the destruction of the old pigsty, which for someone with limited strength like me was an interesting challenge, but one that I took to with everything that I had!
I spent day 2 making a fire with Chris & Matt Ager and Callum making use of dumped firewood from the farm and bits of plastic (not advisable) in the middle of what appeared to be the street outside of the farm. Having completed the task (with a little bit of help from Nigel, the overall leader of the project at this stage) we moved on to moving flagstones from the old pigsty to the new site in pairs (as I did) or alone (if you were well ripped.)
Towards the end of the day, we were faced with a logistical challenge of a task that we as a team felt was not safe to do without either the correct equipment or the use of heavy lifting equipment – moving 5 concrete pipes (which must have weighed a good few tonnes each.) In the end we made it clear that we wouldn’t do it on the basis that going through with it might cost one or more of us our hands or our feet should we become crushed by it! This incident generated/added to some underlying tension between the team and some of the leaders, who didn’t necessarily show well developed traits of leadership.
On day three (Thursday) the team was split 12/8 with the larger portion going to Alpha to continue the construction work and the smaller one going on to do some youth work in a place near Siria called Sharia. On this occasion, I opted to continue working on the farm, and on this occasion I was involved in the construction of a patio for some of the pigs outside of the new pigsty and a pen to contain them. Other jobs that were going on during this time (as far as I can remember) included making cement blocks and shifting bits of waste from various locations as well as clearing out a (potentially dangerously) dusty old warehouse. By this point, the weather had gone from damp low 20’s to a sunnier high 20’s and rising.
Day four saw much of the same work, though (apparently) useful tasks appeared to be dwindling in the absence of the bulldozer for the land on site. All the same, a few of us were drafted in to building the dog house using scrap pieces of metal cage, and wire – eventually finding the door to the piece we’d used somewhere else on site to complete the job – and it felt good to do so! I was also hailed by local children as somewhat of an attraction, having been (probably one of) the darkest people they’d ever seen in their lives, I was hailed first as “Papi” (which is a term used like “love” in English but with a tone of respect and then “African!” which was amusing a 30-strong crowd of children began to chant this until I came to sing “I Stand Amazed” to them, highly amusing.
Each day, we headed to a lake to wash of the dust (and pig poo, amongst other things!) and found that on each occasion, irrespective of the weather, it was FREEZING! Nonetheless, on the longer, hotter days – this was just what was needed! That said, I suffered horrendous cramp on account of the water temperature, so I struggled to stay afloat on one occasion and was wary of going in thereafter!
We got the weekend off, so the Saturday we had the day to explore a market (where Ben P. bought a chick he called ‘Chimpy’) and then spend the afternoon climbing a small mountain. A couple of us had to retire during the climb due to health-related issues but for those of us who reached the summit – we were rewarded with some spectacular views of the local scenery!
Sunday was a more relaxed day, with space to reflect and rest before Church with Networks in the evening where Andreas, the Swedish member of the team spoke powerfully on the need for Christians to have vision in the lives that they live and to see what God sees as we go about them.
His words matched his encouragement to a team that he went out with (myself included) to Sharia on the following Monday to do the kids’ club. Most poignantly, after a day of work with children, some of whom were malnourished, others had little or no clothes, most were filthy and all were full of joy he said to us, “Today, you have served kings and queens in God’s kingdom” words which will most likely stay with me for the rest of my life. Monday also happened to be our last day of work in Romania and between thinking of games to play with the kids, putting together a mime based on the parable of the lost son and drawing various barn animals for the kids to colour in it was a busy day! Still, the kids were amazing and we were sad to leave at the end. I was humbled by the excitement and love the children had for us.
We left early on Tuesday (5am) and headed on the 3 day journey home. Driving back through Hungary, we ventured to Krakow, Poland where we stayed overnight after a visit to the city for dinner and a sample of the night life (I visited a class little underground jazz club.) From there, we visited the Auschwitz museum for a harrowing tour and deeply moving history lesson. Highly recommended, if difficult.
Our next stop on the trip was in the Czech Republic (Prague) where we had a wonderful meal (for a very reasonable price) where we had a bit more time to explore in the evening and the day – so we took advantage by doing a bit of shopping and wandering before leaving in the early afternoon for Germany and our final stopover in Wurzburg. The final leg was fairly rapid, though on 2 occasions coming back from Romania, the van was stopped by customs for them to ask Edd and the others if they had cigarettes or drugs! We all were required to get out at the French border to the UK (although by the way, we had given Chimpy the chick away to Romanians) and from there we crossed the channel back home!
I’ve surely left out lots of details, missed stories where people were ill at various points or things that were for others to tell! All in all, an amazing trip where God was with us all the way (caring for the sick, protecting our minibus when the tyre burst/was slashed, giving us favourable weather conditions etc.)
Please pray for Networks that they’d be able to get the work that was done completed to start School in time for September so that many of the children we saw whilst working would be able to go to school for the first time.
Thanks so much and God bless,
Jason.
Wednesday 9 June 2010
byebye:(
okay..i'm not actually leaving.. but this is my last post as an intern...sad isn't it?
haha... alas i shall still be doing a fair bit of what i do now.. i'll still be leading GHD and i'll still be doing Fusion and Escape and i'm doing the toddler group till the end of the term...so basically i'll be doing all the cool stuff... no admin for emma.. hahahahaha...
anyway on with the update...
welllll.... me, jason and ben(a member of re:generation) as part of the impact team did a garden last thursday, we chopped down a tree and got rid of bushes, it went very well :). And on Saturday the impact team did another fundraiser for Romania, we did bag packing at Tesco's, which went quite well... we raised around £176... so well done team:):)...
Ahhh yesss Ruth & Jamie's 25th Wedding Celebrations... wow... i thought it was beautiful... like the whole service was lovely...(and then the day before myself and many others set up the hall... you guys did a fantastic job by the way.... ) yeah and then we went and had food in the hall although i don't recall having any as i was serving, but i don't mind as i had dessert:):)...and then afterwards we raved it up in the church... Jason was DJing for the event and he did a fantastic job... and i think alot of us didnt get home till the early hours of the morning...good times:).
That's about it from me....
but final prayer requests:
- Prayer for my future please(as i have no idea)
- Prayer that i can get some sort of part-time job in september as i need to stop asking my parents for money:)
-Prayer into every aspect of Romania(fundrasing etc)
I think thats about it...
Adios Amigos!
Em:)
xxx
haha... alas i shall still be doing a fair bit of what i do now.. i'll still be leading GHD and i'll still be doing Fusion and Escape and i'm doing the toddler group till the end of the term...so basically i'll be doing all the cool stuff... no admin for emma.. hahahahaha...
anyway on with the update...
welllll.... me, jason and ben(a member of re:generation) as part of the impact team did a garden last thursday, we chopped down a tree and got rid of bushes, it went very well :). And on Saturday the impact team did another fundraiser for Romania, we did bag packing at Tesco's, which went quite well... we raised around £176... so well done team:):)...
Ahhh yesss Ruth & Jamie's 25th Wedding Celebrations... wow... i thought it was beautiful... like the whole service was lovely...(and then the day before myself and many others set up the hall... you guys did a fantastic job by the way.... ) yeah and then we went and had food in the hall although i don't recall having any as i was serving, but i don't mind as i had dessert:):)...and then afterwards we raved it up in the church... Jason was DJing for the event and he did a fantastic job... and i think alot of us didnt get home till the early hours of the morning...good times:).
That's about it from me....
but final prayer requests:
- Prayer for my future please(as i have no idea)
- Prayer that i can get some sort of part-time job in september as i need to stop asking my parents for money:)
-Prayer into every aspect of Romania(fundrasing etc)
I think thats about it...
Adios Amigos!
Em:)
xxx
Saturday 29 May 2010
Re-cap of the Year So Far... (2 of 2)
Dear All,
As promised, here is part 2 of my substantial recap of the year so far. Again, apologies for the wait, but as you can see, the work here is ongoing and there’s been no shortage of things to do!
After the Soul Net weekend (hosted by Soul Survivor at Center Parcs in Nottingham) the leadership team took a week out to pray, plan and reflect on the past few and the next few months of church life. We made use of John Ortberg’s book “Everybody’s Normal ‘Till You Get To Know Them,” a fascinating read and an excellent piece on interpersonal relationships within the church. The week went remarkably quickly and the setting amongst the Welsh hills was just magnificent. I even got a bit of time to do my own arrangements of some Christian songs, whether they’ll see the light of day is another question though!
At the end of February, re:generation and other local Churches were involved in hosting another school prayer week at Cooper’s Company and Coburn school, Upminster. This was an amazing time where we saw lots of young people engaging with God and prayer in a way that was new for many of them. Since then, Ben Poch has begun chaplaincy with the school, which is yet more good news and answers to prayer!
During the 2nd weekend of March, some members of the church got the opportunity to visit the Worship Central event at Westminster Central Hall. This was an incredible event where God’s presence was tangible and in abundance. Aside from the worship, and keynote speeches (which were genuinely excellent) there were also workshops for those in the different disciplines involved in worship, from leaders, to drummers and bassists, songwriters, technicians, singers etc. They seemed to have most, if not all of the bases covered for the event. I attended the seminars for drummers and bassists and for songwriters. Both were pretty good, although my song writing question went unanswered, which disappointed me a little, but I wasn’t entirely surprised in this case.
As the time for some of us as a church to go to Romania on mission this year draws nearer, we’ve taken the initiative to raise money for the trip. Several events, such as a series of very successful bake sales, a boot sale (which proved slightly less successful) and various other events of a similar ilk. At the time of writing, we’re looking to do some bag packing at a supermarket on a couple of occasions in the near future, so please be praying for us!
One of the major fundraisers for our trip was the RTS (re:generation Thespian Society) production “OTT” (Old Testament Tales) which was written and directed by Rob Masters and Chris Poch and took place during the last week of March. The production ran for 2 nights to almost sold out audiences, with a lot of laughing, it was enjoyed by all. For a more in depth and detailed look into the event, see Rob or Chris! Thanks to everyone who supported us by coming to see it and gave up time and energy to make it happen!
As April rolled around, this year’s efforts for the Impact Project kicked into gear, and as the newly appointed HOD (head of department) for this ministry, I set about organising the various events and activities for this year’s and delegating the responsibility to various others too. The weekend kicked off (9th) with worship and a short devotion, before prayer for each other and a safety briefing. Once this was done, we split into various teams to do first contact (talking to people and giving out information about the team and the church) and gardening on the estate (Delta TMO/Durham Ave.) We had a number of interesting conversations with residents, including complete turnarounds in people’s approach and opinions of “church” which was a massive encouragement! After lunch we continued the aforementioned jobs to completion before setting up for the evening event: Experience the Supernatural at The Drill Pub. This was the creation of a prayer space within the pub’s bookable suite with a prayer tent, candles, walls of prayer and prophecy and various volunteers on hand to pray with people. Simultaneously, for those volunteers not old enough to attend the event a “boiler room” of prayer was held at the church to support those at the event. On the night, we saw a relatively small number of people come into the room, (although one man came in precisely at the point noted on a prophecy on the wall!) it became apparent that as we went out and spoke to people, there were plenty of conversations to be had about God, Jesus and prayer on account of the room (and we’ve since been asked when the next one will be!) Day 2 took a similar format, with landscaping work being done on the field at the back of the estate, and Scorpion football being run at the cage by Ben Poch and Katy Haywood. We made relatively short work of the field (albeit with some interesting encounters with brambles!) finishing a clear hour early. Saturday evening’s event “Come Dine With Us” was a sit-down 3 4?) course meal for local people we’d met during the course of the mission. Although the event was struck by an administrative error, it still came off. Sadly, I wasn’t there on the account of losing my wallet on the bus home to change.
Speaking of meals, I was re-introduced to the joy and pain of cooking a meal for 30 people with Katy Haywood for the Newcomers’ on the 21st of April. At a stretch, we covered the demand, (just!) and the night was enjoyed by all who attended (as far as I’m aware.)
Earlier on this month (May) the worship and tech departments met for a morning of worship and seminars led by Sam Parker (from Soul Survivor, Watford). We had a wonderful time and got the opportunity to get some insight on how a different church runs the front-of-house for worship meetings, and got an opportunity to do some songwriting too!
Finally, I must thank everyone who prayed with us for our youth worker, Mark Crawford. He is now back in the UK after his mission trip (and car accident in) Zambia, and gave an amazing testimony of God’s faithfulness and protection during his time out there a few weeks ago on Sunday. Again, if you want the full story on all that happened, I’d encourage you to get in touch with him!
Prayer requests:
Jamie and Ruth celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow evening (30th May) at re:generation, please join us in praying for and with them!
Continued wisdom for vision and the future of the church
Romania fundraising
Weddings (this summer and the beginning of next year!)
Thanks for reading and God bless,
Jason.
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Re-cap of the Year So Far... (1 of 2)
Good evening all,
The last time I posted was just before I left for New York for a family holiday. I won’t bore you with the details, but I had an amazing time and was suitably impressed with the city (and the phone bill that came with data roaming out there!)
Upon my return (20th December, and by upon my return, I mean literally 2-3 hours after we landed) I rushed to church with my gear and music in tow to play a set for the church’s Christmas Party/Club Night! It was a success as far as I could gather, Claire Foreman provided the UV glow paint to add to the ravey atmosphere and everyone got dancing to the funk, soul, hip-hop and drum & bass, even if it was a bit short lived!
On Christmas Eve, the interns hosted a guest service on the theme of “Gift” with a focus on Jesus being God’s greatest gift to mankind. All in all, the service ran well, but was not without its struggles and challenges for all involved – Emma, another of the interns fell ill during her talk and I had to cover for her.
Given the nature of my course, there is the (ongoing) requirement of journals, directed tasks (etc. for fieldwork) and essays related to my modules. During January, this occupied the majority of my time (as the word limit was 5000) and so a lot of time and effort went into it. Incidentally, it was on the topic of work with 9 – 13s in the church and how it could be developed. I’m still yet to receive a mark for it, so I’m not going to share any details, lest I’ve been royally rebuked by the markers! Towards the end of this time, Ben Poch organised another prayer room in St. Edward’s C of E School, which was yet another amazing time where young people really engaged with prayer and God!
The first weekend in February saw Jamie, Ruth, Mark, Ben Poch, Stephen Poch, Sam Tagg, Richard Shaw, Andy Stannard and the interns head up to Nottingham Center Parcs for Soul Survivor’s Soul Net conference. It was an incredibly powerful time of worship, prayer, teaching and fun (there’s a massive water park – I was never going to pass that up now was I?) The most memorable bit of teaching came from Mike Pillavacci on the nature of the prophet and the need for them to identify and share agony with those who they lead.
In Part 2:
Leadership retreat in Wales, Romania Fundraisers: Bake sales & OTT (RTS dramatic production), Coopers’ School Prayer Week, Worship Central, the Impact Project and the Newcomers’ meal.
Thanks and God bless,
Jason.
The last time I posted was just before I left for New York for a family holiday. I won’t bore you with the details, but I had an amazing time and was suitably impressed with the city (and the phone bill that came with data roaming out there!)
Upon my return (20th December, and by upon my return, I mean literally 2-3 hours after we landed) I rushed to church with my gear and music in tow to play a set for the church’s Christmas Party/Club Night! It was a success as far as I could gather, Claire Foreman provided the UV glow paint to add to the ravey atmosphere and everyone got dancing to the funk, soul, hip-hop and drum & bass, even if it was a bit short lived!
On Christmas Eve, the interns hosted a guest service on the theme of “Gift” with a focus on Jesus being God’s greatest gift to mankind. All in all, the service ran well, but was not without its struggles and challenges for all involved – Emma, another of the interns fell ill during her talk and I had to cover for her.
Given the nature of my course, there is the (ongoing) requirement of journals, directed tasks (etc. for fieldwork) and essays related to my modules. During January, this occupied the majority of my time (as the word limit was 5000) and so a lot of time and effort went into it. Incidentally, it was on the topic of work with 9 – 13s in the church and how it could be developed. I’m still yet to receive a mark for it, so I’m not going to share any details, lest I’ve been royally rebuked by the markers! Towards the end of this time, Ben Poch organised another prayer room in St. Edward’s C of E School, which was yet another amazing time where young people really engaged with prayer and God!
The first weekend in February saw Jamie, Ruth, Mark, Ben Poch, Stephen Poch, Sam Tagg, Richard Shaw, Andy Stannard and the interns head up to Nottingham Center Parcs for Soul Survivor’s Soul Net conference. It was an incredibly powerful time of worship, prayer, teaching and fun (there’s a massive water park – I was never going to pass that up now was I?) The most memorable bit of teaching came from Mike Pillavacci on the nature of the prophet and the need for them to identify and share agony with those who they lead.
In Part 2:
Leadership retreat in Wales, Romania Fundraisers: Bake sales & OTT (RTS dramatic production), Coopers’ School Prayer Week, Worship Central, the Impact Project and the Newcomers’ meal.
Thanks and God bless,
Jason.
Wednesday 6 January 2010
Good Evening:)
hellloooo:):)...
it's me again... and it's also the new year:).. and there's lots of exciting things in the making this year which I'm looking forward to:). The impact team is starting up, it's a team that Jason has put together to do some work on the local estate which includes sport and also tranforming a local field into a place the residents can use, so it's all exciting stuff. Oh and a few of us from the church are off to Romania in the summer to do some community work out there, which will be fantastic, I'm looking forward to it a lot:):). And I'm sure that God's gonna do loads more this year.
Anyway we had the christmas eve service, i would tell you how the service went but I shall leave that to Jason or Rob or Kate as I had another fit halfway through my talk so I wasn't there for the majority of it.
so yeah that's about it form me, except i'd appreciate it if you guys could pray for me as I continue this internship, that I would develop my leadership skills and also that my medical problem won't get in the way:)
Thanks:):)
Anywho, I'm off,
Bless
Emma:):)
it's me again... and it's also the new year:).. and there's lots of exciting things in the making this year which I'm looking forward to:). The impact team is starting up, it's a team that Jason has put together to do some work on the local estate which includes sport and also tranforming a local field into a place the residents can use, so it's all exciting stuff. Oh and a few of us from the church are off to Romania in the summer to do some community work out there, which will be fantastic, I'm looking forward to it a lot:):). And I'm sure that God's gonna do loads more this year.
Anyway we had the christmas eve service, i would tell you how the service went but I shall leave that to Jason or Rob or Kate as I had another fit halfway through my talk so I wasn't there for the majority of it.
so yeah that's about it form me, except i'd appreciate it if you guys could pray for me as I continue this internship, that I would develop my leadership skills and also that my medical problem won't get in the way:)
Thanks:):)
Anywho, I'm off,
Bless
Emma:):)
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