re:generation Internlog

A not so new beginning.

2010-12-13T08:31:00.000-08:00

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

Internship so far

2010-11-12T06:42:00.001-08:00

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...

Romania Trip

2010-08-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

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.

byebye:(

2010-06-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

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

Re-cap of the Year So Far... (2 of 2)

2010-05-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Re-cap of the Year So Far... (1 of 2)

2010-05-04T01:57:00.000-07:00

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.

Good Evening:)

2010-01-06T10:52:00.000-08:00

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:):)

Hi:)

2009-12-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

hey hey:)..
sorry i haven't posted for a while...it's been busy:)
as you may know christmas is next week!...
which i'm very excited about if you didn't know:)..I don't really know when the last post was posted.. so I'll just give you the update:)..
so after the prayer week me, rob, kate, jason and mark all went to the youthwork conference which I thought was pretty awesome.. I learnt quite a lot about being a young leader, it opened my eyes a bit:) which is cool:)
and then moving swiftly onto December, I've been running a sixth form christian union in the local girls school, which has been going well so far we've had an increase in numbers..it's gone from 1 to 4.. which may not sound big to you guys but i'm really excited about that, and hopefully the numbers will increase in the new year (please pray!).
On 22nd Dec, we're going carol singing on the local estate which surprisingly I'm looking forward to:)
Coming up is the re:generation christmas eve service, which the interns are incharge of, so there's been a lot of planning going on in preparaton for it, so please pray that it goes well:)
I"m into my third month of my internship at the moment and generally it's going great I'm really enjoying it, but please keep praying for me... your prayers are really appreciated:)..
speak to you soon,
God Bless
Emma:):)

re:wind

2009-11-22T08:32:00.000-08:00

Hey All,

Apologies for the sporadic nature of our posts, there really is so much going on, it's a constant battle to make the time to write about it all. I intend to use this rare Sunday night off from the band to share a little bit of my experience from over the past few weeks.

Last month finished in style with the Pinkery Bunkhouse residential in Exmoor national park (the South-West of England.) Running from the 26th to the 30th of October, it featured a variety of visits to places of interest for walks, beach games, devotions, food, worship, Land Rover, canoe and, err, a "weasel." Getting time away from home is a really useful and perhaps essential part of the Christian life as a body of believers. It provides time to reflect - something I find really difficult to grasp within our constantly hectic lives, it gives us opportunities to meet with God for longer, to "soak" in His presence and actually spend time with our Maker, Saviour and Friend. No good relationship exists if those in relationship don't spend time with each other, and I really believe that times like these are really priceless and shouldn't be taken for granted.

I suppose as we are all seeking to write about our experiences from the time away, we could end up repeating ourselves, so I'll endeavour to be brief and as unique as possible! On Monday night, Mark shared succinctly and powerfully on what it means for God to be "Mighty to save" and the challenge that this lays down before us as people who trust this God. I was able to go on one of the walks on the Tuesday (27th) and a climb up a ridiculously steep hill, for which I was rewarded with a fantastic view (and a cracked pumpkin to carry back down the treacherous slope.) After dinner that evening, Ruth shared on the topic of "saving yourself", which raised the issue of living like a member of God's family and understanding God's discipline as part and parcel of His love. Wednesday was my "study day" so I spent the day at the centre studying for an essay (which I have since handed in) and then doing a bit of impromptu cooking before giving the third talk in the series on "Savers" entitled "Saving Others" and I looked at the themes of the preciousness of life to God and the sense of urgency we should have in pulling others "out of the fire." Happy times :o) The final days of our time away were spent on a beach trip to Minehead (home of Spring Harvest) and Jamie's enigmatically titled talk (but extraordinarily useful) "Whobewhatee?" on the topic of listening and doing it well.
Ultimately I missed the final session (Friday morning) on account of needing to leave early, but I'm sure that the others will be able to fill you in!

On Saturday 7th November, the church hosted "MPower" by Mercy Ministries, a day of teaching and training about the work of Mercy Ministries and addressing issues such as self-harm and eating disorders in young women. This was a great day, with a lot of quality material delivered by the staff of Mercy Ministries and a lot to consider as leaders within the church. Although I was present at the training, Kate has opted to talk about this at greater length.

From the 9th - 13th, re:gen, in partnership with UK 24-7 prayer and other local churches and initiatives ran a prayer week in Frances Bardsley school. This involved the setting up of a room within the sixth form centre with resources (such as lights, cardboard for writing prayers, a gazebo, bean bags, lots of coloured pens, paper etc.) to enable the girls to make use of the space to engage with God. Again, this was a fantastic time where many were able to pray for the first time and perhaps express themselves in a way they may never have done before!

From last Friday (20th) until this very morning (22nd) Mark and the interns were at the 2009 Youth Work Conference in Eastbourne. Details will almost certainly have to wait for another post, but it's definitely worth mentioning the exceptional standard of the talks (in my personal opinion Pete Greig on Friday night was immense) in their depth and boldness in asking the pertinent questions we need to be asking of ourselves. Aside from this, I believe that having time to rest (i.e. not going to absolutely every seminar) did me a world of good in being able to recharge and reflect on the things God has been challenging me with over the past month or so. Similarly, finding out that friends from Durham, Basingstoke, Cromer, Sheringham, Cambridge, Bristol, Southampton and South London (to name a few) were at the conference and getting some time to catch up was truly wonderful. Anyway - this is probably far too long already!

God bless,

Jason.

Youth Work Conference

2009-11-20T03:30:00.001-08:00

Hi All,

Mark and the interns are off to the 2009 Youth Work Conference "Transform" in Eastbourne this afternoon, for the weekend! Check the website here: http://www.youthworkconference.co.uk/ and we'll let you know about it (and numerous other things) upon our return!

God bless,

Jason.

Isle of Man Training

2009-11-12T09:36:00.000-08:00

Hey,

A couple of weeks ago I was sent out to the Isle of Man to do schoolswork training and a leadership training course called History Makers. I stayed out there for two weeks in an ex-bed and breakfast, which is now a community house for the Scripture Union schools work volunteers, called Malmoor. The people there were really nice.

The first week was schools work. What an intense course. the teaching sessions were in the house from 9 in the morning to about 6 in the evening. my brain felt like it was going to explode, I took in soooo much information! But it was worth it. We did alot of practical role play. One of the exercises was to do a mock interview. In the interview we had to try to pursuade a "head teacher" and a "Deputy" why they should let us into their school. That was hard enough, but then to have Richard Shaw messing around and asking silly questions took the biscuit lol.

The Island is such a beautiful place. On the one afternoon off we had. A group of us went for a walk to the other side of the island to a beach. Sam Tagg and I went rock climbing. As we were climbing over a big ledge thing we found an abandond swimming pool!!! I was so exited, i felt like a little child again. So obviously we went exploring. Its amazing to think that people actually went to a swimming pool that was built into the side of a cliff. We left the pool behind but had to find out more, Sam decided to ask a guy sitting on a bench about it, turns out that his brother actually owned it at one point. His wife then told us that after it was a swimming pool it was converted into a lobster farming...erm...farm but that was a flop and didnt do very well.

The second week was a leadership training week called "History Makers". To get to this we had to travel across the island to a venue called "The Mill". It was once a mill, obviously, that had been converted into a conference centre. It was an amazing place. Even more amazing was the food. I felt like a king! For lunch everyday we had plates full of the most amazing curries, lasagnes (i cant spell), soups, cakes and more (obviously not on the same day).

The course was more intense than the first! Teaching from 9 in the morning till 6 and then we would usually do something in the evening. One night we had a question and answer session with two ministers from 2 local churches. It was like being back at school. Ive learnt all about the theories and models of leadership and the 8 core values of leadership. Ive learnt so much more than that, too much to put down.

Overall I had such a good time on the island, it was a real shame to go. But its going to be good to see the training ive recieved put into action.

Rob

update:) (yay!)

2009-11-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

evening all:)
we haven't had an update in a while so here you are... *drum roll*...
So, pinkery bunkhouse ,which was from 26th - 30th October, was awesome:)... it was a really nice time away as we were in the middle of nowhere. I learn't quite a bit to do with my own personal walk with God, God really challenged me that week about the lifestyle I was living and the person that I am in him. As for what we did outside of teaching sessions, we did a lot of walking which were quite tiring for me but the view was well worth it as I did a lot of standing in awe of God's creation which is always good:) Overall it was another fantastic residential :)

On to last week, another good week for me, although I am missing the weekly teachings lots (hint @ Mark)...I didn't really do much until Thursday, which was the sixth form christian union at Frances Bardsley School with Kate & Ruth, which even though we had one student and one teacher went surprisingly well, we're hoping that we'll get and increase in numbers after the prayer week, which I'll explain more about later. Friday was my busiest day, I started helping out at the toddler group which is on Friday mornings from 10-11:30am, so, I'm kind of getting used to what goes on there...After that I had a little bit of time before I had to help out at the year 7-11 christian union at Frances Bardsley, which went really well we had about 11 students which was fantastic:)... after that Me & Kate stayed after to set up the prayer room along with Rob, Mark and many other people, then after that got all set up I went on to GHD:glow (girls discipleship) and then onto re:fit and then i helped set up for Mercy ministries.

Saturday, I went to a conference by mercy ministries, which deals with girls who suffer from self-harm, eating disorders, sexual abuse and stuff on the lines of that, all of the interns went which was cool. And last but not least today(Sunday) where i'm not reallly doing that much except for typing all of this, whilst the band are practising, today's my more relaxed week, which I love because i get to spend time with God :)....

Next week, at one point or another all of the interns are at Frances Bardsley School helping with the prayer week, which is really exciting as God's starting to move forward in our schools which is a fantastic answer to prayer, so, we'd really appreciate your prayers into that:)

Also, we'd appreciate your prayers about organising the christmas eve service and also the newcomer's and footballer's meals as they're not far off :) and I, myself would love prayer for more of God's guidance throughout the year:)
Anyway, that's it from me:)
Take care,
Bless,
Em :):)

Pinkery

2009-10-25T16:58:00.001-07:00

Hey all,

Just a quick note to let you know as of tomorrow (Monday) we'll be away on our residential at Pinkery Bunkhouse (Exmoor) without mains electricity, phone signal and obviously, any form of internet connection, so blog posts may not appear for a bit, but Rob is going to update us on his trip to the Isle of Man and his conference with Scripture Union!

God bless,

Jason.

last week:) (12th-18th Oct)

2009-10-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

hey guys,
sorry I didn't get a chance to post this on sunday, I was taken ill:(... but all is well now:)
anyway... last week was a great week:) monday was my day off, so we'll start on tuesday. Tuesday there was re:think which is our church bible study, it was really good we have 2 seperate groups, one called blockbuster, which involves watching dvd's then discussing it and the other is lead by one person and is more bible focused, at the moment I'm really plunging into the DVD side of things:) and i'm learning quite a bit from the sessions.

On wednesday we had our breakfast meeting which takes place on the 2nd wednesday of every month. It starts at 7am, and we have a full english breakfast and then have a short talk and a bit of worship, the best way to start any day. And I lead the talk that morning, which people said went quite well so I had a pretty good morning. Also we were meant to have our weekly meeting with the interns which involves teaching, but we didn't have that this week, we ended up having a general meeting with Ruth, Jamie and Mark.

Then onto Thursday, when I spent the day working on the outstanding things I had to finish. Then Kate, Ruth & I run a christian union for the sixth form at a local girls school and no one turned up as another meeting had overlapped. Although it was a one off, I think it would be good if we could have prayer for more numbers there. Then onto Friday we had mine and kate's girls discipleship group which went very well and it's always great to see what God's doing in the lives of others.

Onto Sunday, I didn't make it to church as I have a medical condition to do with migrains, it doesn't happen very often but I'd really appreciate your prayers for healing as i've had it for 4 years. On other matters I'd also like prayer for God's guidance throughout this year.

That's pretty much it,
Take care,
God Bless
Emma :):)

Re-cap

2009-10-10T04:02:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

It's Jason once again, keeping you up to date with the interns' wheelings and dealings. Ultimately, we're looking to keep this blog fresh and regular. Clearly we've struggled to find the time to post over the past 3 weeks or so - this has been on account of a number of reasons, principally relating to our extraordinarily busy schedules individually and corporately. (You should see the our collective Google Calendar!) In any case, we have to do better and will strive to post weekly!

In the course of our introduction to being interns, we've had teaching sessions with Mark (Crawford) initially being shown the ropes (16/9), one session that I led on the mission of God (23/9) followed by sessions on time management (30/9) and mentoring (7/10). I think I can speak for all of the interns when I say that the sessions have been particularly useful and challenging to our thinking and practice as staff within the church. I think that for myself, personally, managing my time in a constructive fashion which makes room for both the tasks I need to do and the rest I need to function is an on-going battle and the teaching session has given me a lot to reflect on!

In terms of roles and responsibilities, we all have roles specific to ourselves as individuals. I won't "steal the thunder" of other interns, I'll let them share what roles they have and groups they're involved in. My roles range from co-ordinating Fusion, our Sunday evening work with 9-13 year olds. This term, we're looking at the grass-roots of Christianity, using games, drawing and discussion to explore topics such as, What is a Christian? What is Church? Why Pray? etc. In a session which I led with Iman (Djalloul) we looked at the church, played some ice-breakers to learn each others' names and laugh, drew/wrote what our idea of what church was, had a treasure hunt for puzzle pieces of a (paper) outline of a body and discussed what life would be like if parts of the body were missing, and how important it is for every member to be present! (Thanks to Rob for drawing around me on the previous Friday with the biggest marker pen ever!)

I'm also involved in the worship band on Sundays (so far, electric guitar and percussion), planning for development of our resources, planning for overseas mission, community work at the Durham Avenue estate, leading sessions of the Speakers' Corner stream of re:think and also I've been asked to speak at Trinity (Romford) for an all age service, which was a thoroughly new experience for me as I'm not easily coerced into speaking in public! Still, with new work comes new challenges, and I've been able to see how much God has his hand on the work we do, and how, when we're willing to listen to Him (a theme picked up on in re:think 2 weeks ago when we had visiting speakers, The Oliver's focussing on (peer) mentoring) and to be changed by His Spirit more into the likeness of Jesus.

In terms of prayer, we'd appreciate the following:

Time management - that we'd have the wisdom to manage our time effectively and get the balance between all the things we have to do, right
Energy - related to the above, we all have hectic schedules and really need God's strength to do the jobs we have
Peace - to know the truth of Philippians 4:7 and 13 in our lives, God's peace about the work and the means to carry it out

I'm personally very excited about what we're going to see God do through his people here, and the potential that there is for (more) lives to be changed by his work here.

Anyway, I've said more than enough for right now!

God bless,

Jason.

A New Beginning

2009-09-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to the re:generation Methodist Church internlog! This blog will be a conduit for us as interns to share with you, all of the activities we're involved with as we work for the church over the coming months. Week by week we'll bring you what's going on as we work away on the ministry and projects of the church!

First of all, we'd like to take the opportunity to introduce ourselves...

Emma Guise

Hey there, I'm Emma, I'm 18.. I love most music and i love lots of tv series... mainly American sitcoms and dramas :). I love going to the park and going for long walks.. I don't get to do it very often anymore, and that would be because i'm an intern! wahey! :) I'm currently doing a gap year at re:generation church involving quite a bit of youth work and a little bit of women's ministry, which can be a lot of fun and experience as i want to go into youth ministry full time :).

Rob Masters

Hey, my name's Rob. I'm just about to turn twenty, I'm an old man! I'm into music, indie, rock, classical, drum and bass, anything really. Also, I
love films. My favorites are both Transformers, The count of Monte Cristo, Hot Rod, many more.
For my internship I am working closely with Richard Shaw from Scripture Union, going into schools doing Christian unions, assembles and
prayer rooms. I'm also going to be working with re:gen doing leadership things like worship and leading RTS, the drama group.

Katy Haywood

Hi everyone, I'm Kate!!! (Pictured right.) This summer I finished my studies at Havering College - I got a distinction for my Legal Secretarial Diploma. I was
planning to begin work in the City as a Junior Legal Secretary, however I feel God has really been calling me to this gap year (or gap 6 months).
I really have a passion to develop the women's football ministry, the girls discipleship group (GHD) and get involved in schools work. I'm very excited to see how God will use me and the other interns in these six months!

Jason Piper

Hi! I'm Jason, I'm 24 and I'm studying for an MA Youth & Community Work and Applied Theology with the Centre for Youth Ministry (based in Bristol) and am working at Re:generation as my fieldwork placement. My previous occupations have included being a student at Durham Uni (studying Chemistry), an intern at King's Church in Durham and as a volunteer youth worker for Cromer Parish Church in North Norfolk.

I enjoy music (listening, playing, writing, DJing), dancing and sport. I'm really looking forward to this placement and am excited by the prospect of seeing God at work through young people here in Gidea Park!

Well, that's all for now, but stay tuned - we'll be reporting on our activities on a weekly basis!

God bless,

The Interns!