Thursday 4 November 2010

My New House

Last week, I went home to Poole for a few days, and then onto Southampton to spend time with some friends. It was one of the weirdest weeks of my life, but also sooo lovely to see everyone again. It made saying goodbye again, until Christmas really tough but I know that God has got HUGE plans for the next 6 weeks, and they're probably going to flyyyy by!

So, for various reasons my journey back was a mission. Becuase I never seem to be able to go anywhere without it taking wayy longer then it should! But I got back.. and moved straight into my new house!
Just to explain, I live with host families from my church throughout this year. My hose family up until last week were an amazing family and I miss them very much, they showed me a lot of love and hospitality throughout my first half term here, and I wouldn't have settled nearly so well without them! Butt, due to a lack of space, I had to move out and now I'm living with a new family!!!
andddddddd
I'm having a blast!!! I came back to a newly painted room (special mention to Julie and Rachel for all their hard work, my room looks gorgeous), a cake with my name iced on ( a special thanks to Bethany) and an evening in with my new host family and some XLP friends... 7 women in one room... woahh!! So yes, I'm living in a solely female household, with Jill, Jessica and Bethany... and Rachel when she pops round! and I'm enjoying myself so much! 

It's been really lovely spending the evenings with the girls... watching Don't Forget the Lyrics, eating homous, cake, ice cream (with "fleshy" marshmallows") and declaring that everything is.. welll... "LOVELY!" 
so to summarise, my new host family and my new home from home? "LOVELY!" 

xxxx

Monday 25 October 2010

Blog Update Final!

My laptop broke two weeks in, which has made blog updating really difficult!
I'm on my half term after a really hectic, busy but enjoyable half term. I'm literally having the time of my life and really seeing God doing some great stuff. There is so much I could say here, instead I'm going to paste my newsletter here, which I've been sharing with a couple of churches at home. It gives a pretty rough over view of what I've been up to. Hopefully once my laptop is fixed I can give more regular updates. 

Schools Work
As a borough team we are mainly based within two schools, each week. XLP have worked within one of these schools, Trinty, for years, and each year they love us getting more involved. This year we are running a lunch club on Tuesdays, where we play silly games, have a short talk (this term we’re focusing on virtues) and generally hang out with the young people. We also run an after school club, called “Live Lounge” which lots of the students come along to, this is a little bit like a youth club, with a table tennis table, pool tabled and Wii, but we also cook a meal for them where we can sit down and have another little talky bit. It’s probably one of my favourite parts of the week, and we’re seeing lots of young people (around 15-20), usually boys, coming each week.  On Fridays we visit Trinty again, for Lunch time pastoring, this involved us wandering around the playgrounds, chatting to young people and generally just being around for anyone that needs us, It’s also a great opportunity to let them know what we do on Tuesdays. Half of our team also run a lunch club at Forest Hill Boys School on Thursdays, this is new this year but is really successful. Myself and two other members of the Lewisham team are hopefully going to start a lunch club at Deptford Green school over the next half term.
Yesterday, we took the “Fighting Chance” tour into a primary school in Sydenham, this school has been particularly affected by knife and gang crime, two of their students lost their brother to gang crime last Summer. It was a very moving session, with some young people as young as 11 telling stories of how they are pressured into gangs and the loses the have faced due to the growing gang culture in London. We’re really praying that the “Fighting Chance” tour and follow up lessons will impact the decisions and lifestyle choices those young people make.

Estate Work
This year we are working on two estates, Hazel Grove in Sydenham and Milford Towers in Catford. On Thursday’s we take the XLP bus onto Hazel Grove. This is a great resource, it’s a double decker bus kitted out with playstations, Nintendo wii, recording equipment, a nail bar and an area to run crafts. We’re on the estate for about 2 hours and we see loads of young people, between the ages of 1 and 18, in that time. One young person in particular was really difficult- he’s a very angry and aggressive young person and he barely talks and won’t give you eye contact at all. I was really struggling with him, but we prayed and the next day he came on the bus a different boy, he painted my nails for me and talked to me. Afterwards he was messing around and playing up a bit but it was incredible to see just a glimpse of God’s answer to our prayers. I’ve also learnt that I can play football this year, scoring two goals against one of the estates best players- a proud achievement!
We work at Milford Towers on Friday’s, it’s a really notorious estates, built on top of Catford Shopping centre, at the time it was built it won awards, but in reality, it’s not designed well at all! It has a pretty poor reputation due to some really nasty murders over the past few years, there were calls to tear it down, and obviously this reputation precedes any young people who live there. We take the bus there and then also have use of the community flat where we run a cooking group- this is great opportunity, as it encourages the young people to make healthy food choices and teaches them to cook too, there’s also space for some great conversations. Milford Towers is really where my heart is, despite it’s really bad reputation. It’s really encouraging to see some of the young people attending the local youth group and Soul Survivor in the summer, if this is the generation who are being bought up in “Terror Towers” then I can’t wait to see what impact they’re going to have upon their estate!

Church Work
I’ve been placed at a really lovely church called Brockley Community Church. We meet in a local primary school each Sunday for worship and then the youth leave during the sermon for their separate sessions. I adore my youth group, of around 15-20 young people between the ages of 12 and 17.
Otherwise, the church is keeping me busy, with a youth cell on Tuesdays, a local youth club on Wednesdays and Fridays and stuff pretty much all day on Sunday, but I am really enjoying it- although, obviously I miss my home church all the time!!
I was placed with a really lovely family, who totally made me feel at home, but have to move out in the next week or so. But already love my new host family, who’ve had me for lunch a couple of times, so am very excited to move in with them.


Love and Blessings
xx

Sunday 26 September 2010

Sunday, Sunday

Today was my first opportunity to get involved with my new church.
At first it felt a little weird, I knew there was a lot going on at my home church today which I would have loved to have witnessed, but at the same time, I was really excited to meet my new Youth Group and Church members.
One Sunday a month they have a home group Sunday instead of a normal service. So first of all, I had breakfast with the Youth, this was a great opportunity to get to know the people I'll be spending a lot of time with. They're a noisy bunch, but so awesome.. and apparently since Soul Survivor they've become all "holy", I think that's good! They all did a quiz about me, which was very funny. Some of them decided I had a dog called fluffy and enjoyed badger baiting, fox hunting and extreme water sports amongst my hobbies! They're honestly a really great bunch of people, and I'm excited to spend the next 10 months with them.


Afterwards I went to a church family's house for lunch, this gave me an opportunity to meet more members of the congregations, introduce myself and try and learn some names! Everyone is so warm and welcoming here and I think I'm going to settle in great. I'm looking forward to attending an actual service, from what I've been told they don't differ too much from what I'm used to, but it'll also be great to meet even more people and the church leader. 


Afterwards I met Kate and Katie and we wandered round Brockley, to get to know the area, and see eachother's houses. It's great to know that despite what Googlemaps says they're only about 5/10 minutes walk. We also found an amazing cafe which is basically central... prime meeting place!


Feeling pretty home sick today, missing my family & desperate to meet my new kitten.
But looking forward to seeing everyone at training tomorrow and catching up on their weekends!


Love Laura x

Saturday 25 September 2010

Induction Week

I have just finished one of the longest and most intense weeks of my life. I probably shouldn't start sounding so negative, it was also one of the best weeks of my life. I met some people who I hope to form lasting friendships with.
Now that I'm all settled in my new home with my lovely host family, I wish I could blog every minute of the last week, my first week with XLP. However, I don't think there are the characters sufficient for that and I don't want to bore you so early on in my gap year! 


So to summarise:
This week I have... (in no particular order)
Said goodbye;cried;prayer;laughed till I choked;ate;didn't feel full;felt full;introduced myself;learnt names;learnt facts;craved diet coke;missed home;missed my sister;missed my family;been disappointed;texted;check facebook;facebook stalked;regretted said facebook stalk;showered;slept;not slept enough;sneezed;been in pain; endured a wii remote related injury;felt my heart break for this City: fallen more in love with London; fallen in love with Canary Wharf; adjusted to public transport;used my oyster; sucked and bitten a jelly baby covered in madras paste; sat on what may have been a WWII bunker;taken pictures; eaten on a curry on Brick Lane;Kept up to date on my bible in a year; Seen God's incredible healing power; Marvelled at God's Grace; Fallen particularly in love with an estate; visited a museum; eaten copious amounts of  tuna sandwiches; unpacked; been drenched by London rain; regretted wearing jeggings in said rain; wanted to live on the XLP bus; met some incredible young people; felt my heart break for some of them; noticed the differences between London and home; noticed the similarities between London and home; crossed Tower Bridge; Crossed Millennium Bridge; walked Westminster Bridge; Been a tourist; felt rubbish when my doubts were proved right; talked and talked and talked; felt inspired; felt encouraged; realised I'm not a cynic...despite it all; drunk tea from small cups; been told we're getting a kitten; jumped up and down in the street with excitement; moaned; tried to be positive and show the best reflection of myself; hoped I'd succeeded; wandered if things could have been different; wanted to ignore the date; played "this time last year" far too often; gotten mad; been fed up; tweeted; re-tweeted positive/inspiring quotes; retweeted quotes to summarise how I felt; wandered how much I could get away with saying in a facebook status; wandered how much I could get away with saying in a text; Worshipped; Found out a bit more of my heart; grown; learnt that I do actually value time on my own; taken photos; filmed stuff; danced; thrown crisp packets; completed a cross word; played sardines; taken a personality quiz; disagreed with the quiz; admitted my weaknesses; been called precious; missed America; learnt to just be still. 




& I think.... that just about sums up my weak
pictures on facebook to follow.


Please keep praying, I have accommodation until end of Oct.. so the church are still looking for some more!
Also pray for the week ahead as we start our main bulk of our "doing".. schools, bus project, estates etc.


Loveee xxx

Thursday 16 September 2010

God in the preparations

2 days to go!
I'm stupidly excited, but definitely feeling the stress!
Finally got my ass into gear with the rest of my packing today, so think I'm pretty much there now! Trying not to worry too much about not having everything, because I'll be back in 6 weeks!
My dad described this as being like a holiday, the worst bit is always before.
On Sunday I really prayed that God would be in the preparations, and for the most part, this has saved me from stressing out too much!!! 


I've finally found out where I'll be living which is very very very exciting! I'm going to be part of the Lewisham team, but i'm still waiting on final details on my Church and accomodoation. It's really taken away some of my worries and made this move seem even more realistic!


Still feel like I've got  lot to do before I go on Saturday, so please keep praying that God will keep me calm, motivated and that he stays in all the tiny details and preparations, so nothing is forgotten!!


Saying some massive goodbyes today and tomorrow, to close friends and family. Sad to be saying Goodbye, but so very, very excited for my new adventure


Love & Blessings
xxx

Saturday 4 September 2010

Introduction

In two weeks I'm moving to London. 
To start my Gap Year, The eXperience programme with XLP-Urban Youth work Charity (www.xlp.org.uk) 
For those who don't understand how i'll be spending my next 10 months, here's an outline from the website: 
"The course provides training in Youthwork and Theology, which the students then apply, working in schools, communities and churches across London. In addition to in-house staff such as Patrick Regan, teaching is also provided by external speakers from organizations associated with XLP eg Soul Survivor, TEAR Fund and Street Pastors." 


This Blog will be updated with any news I have throughout the next exciting, challenging year. :)
x