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
