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.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Friday, 20 November 2009
Youth Work Conference
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.
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.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Isle of Man Training
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
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
Sunday, 8 November 2009
update:) (yay!)
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 :):)
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 :):)
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