Wednesday 15 July 2009

She's back

GREETINGS from England! Yes, I did indeed make it back to England. Interesting story, actually. It wasn't until I made the decision to step out in faith that God would provide...and purchase a ticket back to England with my own finances...that God did indeed provide the finances for me to return! What an amazing gift, and another testimony of God's provision in my life that I'll never forget. I still need to add a few supporters to my repertoire, but I'm really not worried at this point that the Lord will provide in His perfect timing.

I returned to the UK at the end of May. Since the moment my feet hit the ground, I feel as though life has been non-stop. Just to update you on a few things that have happened, read on, my friends!

THE POINT RETURNS
My team decided to do another short 'course' on the basics of God/Christianity, as we did last year (it's a program we call “The Point”). Last year, we met with teenagers at a local pizza shop. This year, we decided to meet in a home. We had quite a turnout! The first few minutes of the first week it looked like the kids were going to be too embarrassed to ask their God-questions, but once the discussion really started, there was no stopping it! We had an AMAZING time. One of the most thrilling things to come from the lessons was when two girls that have NEVER asked us about our faith in the past (in fact, they're the ones that usually change the subject when we bring it up) not only came to a few of the weeks, but actually stayed after one of these meetings to ask questions about God. Yessss!! What a huge step forward!! Please pray for us as we continue to pursue these important conversations with them. The Point will be starting up again in the Fall, so please pray that the momentum doesn't subside during the break.

TRENTSIDE HITS 100
One of our after-school clubs (Trentside Youth Club) had 100 attendees last week! Since our team volunteered to run this community club about a year and a half ago, we have managed to see an average of 5 kids showing up magnify to an incredible average of 30-40 kids each week. However, when we host special events that we advertise in the schools, we can get even larger numbers. Last week was what we call a “Cafe Night,” where we invite a couple local bands from the schools to play, and we have food/drinks for sale. Usually we have the time to promote the events in the schools quite a bit, but we really didn't promote at all this time around. Turns out, word of mouth must be working pretty well for us! We had about 84 teenagers show up (plus a bunch of parents, which took our total to 100)! A lot of the “newbies” that showed up were fans of the bands, which was really neat to see. We're hoping that a few of these might stick around with us.

LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL
This past Monday, my house/team-mate and I threw an 'end of school' bash in our home for the kids. I think we ended up feeding and entertaining for 11 kids...lots of pizza, brownies, and Wii play going on. It is a universal truth that teenagers look forward to the summer! This coming Friday is their last day of school, and it can not come too soon. Tomorrow, we are throwing a Hawaiian-themed party at another one of our infamous after-school clubs (called The Zone). We are hoping that through all of these 'end of school' parties, we will get out enough information about summer events we are hosting so that our relationships with the kids won't wane at all during the summertime. I LOVE youth ministry during the summer! Lots of opportunities with the kids that wouldn't be possible if there was the dark cloud of homework hovering over ever moment suddenly become possible - and, hopefully - with better weather!

PICTURES
It's true...there's no use hiding it. I've been on a few AMAZING short holidays lately! I think being away from England for a couple of months made me realize that I need to use my weekends and days off wisely!

Once I arrived back in the UK, I was sent on the Great Britain Field Team's retreat to Normandy, France. It was just before the anniversary of D-Day, and BOY what an incredible experience. On the way back to England, my team-mate and I stopped over in Paris for a couple of days. Not my favorite city in the world, but it's still pretty surreal to see things like the Mona Lisa and the Eiffel Tower.

A few weeks ago, my team-mate's parents came to stay with us. While they were here, we all went on a short trip up to Norway to visit some of their family (which they had never met). It was an amazing trip...and a ridiculously cheap one, since we stayed and ate with family. I will never forget that trip - - I met Walter Mondale (former VP of the US! How random is that?) there, had the freshest seafood every day (we were even served caviar for breakfast!), found the gravestones of my team-mate's great-great-grandparents, and got to take an incredible boat ride through the famous fjords.

I recently had a weekend away in the Peak District (a beautiful area just outside of Nottingham that is used as English countryside scenery in lots of British films) with my small group. During that trip, our group decided to take a trip to Haddon Hall...which, as it turns out, is the castle that is used in The Princess Bride! It's also used in Elizabeth, Jane Eyre, and Pride & Prejudice, but...c'mon people...THE PRINCESS BRIDE!! I was super-duper excited!! Afterall, “Mawwaige is a bwessed awwaingement...” Man, I hope you all know what I'm talking about here...

The final amazing thing I've seen since being back is Bradgate Park. I had a meeting there with some other teammates from my organization. Honestly, I'm probably the only person in the world who cares this much about Bradgate Park...but I was so honored to be able to visit, that I seriously got teary eyed. Bradgate Park is where Lady Jane Grey was born and raised! Again, I'm probably the only person in the world who cares this much about Lady Jane Grey...but I've been somewhat obsessed with her (and the entire Tudor family, really...Tudor is the family of Henry VIII, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth...) for quite a few years now. I wrote a paper about her when I was at Florida Christian College as part of the class I took which included my first trip to Europe! My paper was on European martyrs, and Lady Jane is classified as one since the only reason she was beheaded was because she refused to recant her Protestant beliefs. She was only 16 years old at the time, and had just been literally forced into being the Queen of England...for only 9 days. What an incredible story.

Pictures of all of the above places/experiences are either on my Flickr website, or are on their way very soon. :)



I think that will be all for now. Please pray for wisdom that I might know how to best use every moment of summer for the Kingdom. Please pray for myself and my house/team-mate as we prepare this week to move out of our house (I'm going to miss this house!) and into our other team-mate's house as they are in the U.S. for a short furlough.

Grace and peace.