Emergency Stops and Squirrel Drops (dead)

A hearty 'Good Day' to you, welcome to yet another wonderful post. I've entered week 10 of Eastbourne, so naturally this is the 7th weekly blog.

The pictures this week are very animal related. The first is the house-cat (Kodak) licking the ears of the house-dog (Sophie). This is a favourite past-time of these two and makes me laugh every time. The second is not so funny, but it is still a dead squirrel winking at you. I found it in a local park so whipped out my camera-phone. This is where I'm going to sound fairly geriatric; it's pretty awesome having a camera my phone! I know it's standard these days, but until recently I've been back to 1999 (where a camera on a phone was seen as witchcraft) with my Nokia 3310. As a photography enthusiast, I love having a handy little camera with me at all times, rather than lumping a big ol' DSLR around.

MY WEEK.
I'm struggling to remember all the things I've done in the past seven days. Every single day I've written a diary entry (a mini blog on paper for those under 15) at the end of each day. Somehow, I've managed to forget to do it. I haven't done it for 11 days and I don't think I have the memory or the time to catch up and now I'm wondering whether to start again, ignoring the last week and a half. Either way, without being able to look back on my diary, I'm struggling to remember all the things I've done in the past seven days. I have been on the trains five times to various places near and far this week. My last journey (back from Southampton yesterday) was an interesting one. I got on the train. Then a hundred or so German kids climbed aboard. They were the same German kids that were at the cinema a few weeks ago (Julie and Julia - 8/10 for the feel-good factor). As we approached Lewes one of the boys next to me (I was stood by the loos with my bike) pressed the big red button and the train came to a sudden halt. He looked like a good kid and went as red as the button he so annoyingly pressed. A rather irritated guard came and reset it and off we went. As we approached Eastbourne Station a toddler in his pushchair the other side of me was obviously intrigued by the button. He lunged for it, his mother screamed "NO, DON'T PUSH IT!!" Too late. Metres from the station we came to a halt agin.

Diocesan Synod Meeting. If you don't know what this is, it's like a PCC meeting x 100. If you don't know what a PCC meeting is, lucky you. So this Diocesan Synod Meeting is a gathering of several hundred vicars and bishops in Sussex. Incredibly dull. Let me just emphasise the 'incredibly'. So I was attending with one of the girls from the YES Scheme as we were going to chat about what it is that we're doing this year on the scheme. The talk went well, and we got some applause. I love the applause from these guys. Hundreds of vicars all seem to look the same (black suit, dog collar, brown hair, slight bald patch starting up and glasses) and they laugh like an army of vikings. It was a mighty HAR-HAR-HARRR! It was the only thing that brought me through that meeting.

I'm off to Youthwork: The Conference this weekend (which is conveniently in Eastbourne) to hear how to do the job properly. Should be good, I know a lot of people going, including some from Littlehampton (cheer if that's you!) Also coming up is the start of Thirst, the new afterschool club I've started. It's been advertised to over 1000 children, so we have no idea how many are going to turn up. Please be praying for that.

"Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you."

Phillipians 4: 2-9

I look forward to speaking to you again soon,
Mikey x

Show Me All the Blue Prints.

Has it really been three weeks?
My sincere apologies, but I've been busier than busy. I took the half term week off and went home, as there wasn't much going on in the church that week. So I spent my first couple of weeks back catching up!
The photos are the following:

1. (and 2) Rehearsing for the recording session
2. (and 1) Rehearsing for the recording session
3. Gingerbread man-eater
4. My Dad and his new contact lenses
5. Sunrise over Eastbourne
6. Making blueprints for the new arts centre.

So half term was a week spent at home. The meat in my half term sandwich was the very first recording of my band Silence Sung. We spent the week rehearsing (as you can see in the photos) then on the Saturday we actually went and did it. It was fairly disasterous, we only came out with two complete songs. I won't go into wha went wrong, but a lot did. But. It was a learning experience, and we now know what not to do next time! And at the end of the day, we got a couple of songs out of it. I also spent a lot of the week seeing lots of friends and family, which is always lovely! Somehow, and I really don't know how, I got roped into doing my home-church's half term holiday club. Please bear in mind that it was my week OFF of children & youth work. But alas, it was still good fun! It was great to be back at Parkside (my home church) and to see everyone there. The Grand Finalé of my week off was the unbeatable Littlehampton Bonfire Night. A classic show and the usual planet-annihilating, mega-bonfire.

But then it was time to get back to the Bourne. Man-alive, did I have some work to catch up on. I got back and was in my first meeting within 25mins. What with it coming up to Christmas (time to admit it), it's all systems go at church. I have normal Christmas churchy things to organise (nativities, christingles, carol services, club panto trips) but I also have two clubs that are about to kick off! I've just started up a breakfast club and afterschool club which is being advertised to literally thousands of children. The breakfast club I am running in collaboration with a local baptist church which is perfectly situated directly opposite the biggest secondary school in Eastbourne, so they will be our target audience. The afterschool club will be advertised to all the local primary schools, including the biggest primary school in Europe. So a lot of work!

I've also been designing blue-prints (but not on blue paper) for the church as I start planning the new arts centre. It was originally a theatre/ballroom so rooms for things like box office and changing rooms are in the right place, just not in the right state. So I've been designing plans for this big change to the church, which should be amazing! It will be a great way for the community to get into the church as well.

I've been a leader at a youth group in the area for a few weeks now. This group has up to 100 children attending, so is therefore split into two sessions. It means that as a leader, I arrive at 5.30pm and leave at 10.30pm. Last week I had an opportunity to do the teaching bit. We've been looking at 'BIG Questions' and so I had to come up with a question and then answer it for them. I chose an old favourite, 'Was Jesus a Man or God?' It went very well, and I love having the opportunities to share my faith with kids and young people and to teach them a little bit about Jesus. I was asked at the end
"Did Jesus have a winkle?"

Sigh. I looked around the room at the other leaders. Some looked absolutely outraged, some saw the lighter side. I took it with good humour and emphasised my point that Jesus was 100% God, but also 100% man, so of course he had a... winkle. He seemed content with my answer. This is what I have to work with, ladies and gentlemen! So this group is an amazing chance to reach out to the youth of Eastbourne, and I have been offered the job of head-honcho of the first session. This will give me the responsibility of 50 kids and 15 leaders. So I need to decide now. It would be good training, but this group is not conncted with my placement church in any way.

I also had the opportunity to preach to a slightly more mature congregation. It was the mid-week communion service with a very small attendance, but it gave me a chance to give a sermon in an Anglican church. I talked about how our faith is incomplete without a relationship with Jesus. It got a good response and I felt it went well.

The scouts have asked me to come back to give another session and also to plug the Tuesday evening 'Impact'. Talking of Impact, they've taken to the new format very well, they enjoy the more study-based part of the evening and they also enjoy the more organised leisure part of the evening, with group games and organised craft. We've just taken on another two leaders, which is great for the team. We finally have the much needed female leaders! The group of teenagers was pretty much a group of individuals when I started in Eastbourne. It was a group that didn't connect with each other (except in particular friend groups) and did not open up or share thoughts. They are becoming much closer and obviously feel more confident with each other. I've been doing a Q+A session over the last three weeks where they can ask questions which I will try and answer, share any thoughts or feelings, testify or give prayer requests. So far, there hasn't been any of it, but this week we had loads of each thing. What's more, two of the boys prayed in the open prayer time which has never happened before! I hope that this will encourage the others.

M'Ladies and Gentlemen, a few prayer requests from myself, if you will;

• Continual strength during this mad time of year
• Children will hear about the new clubs starting up and will want to come
• Clarity on what to do about the offer of head-honcho
• The fellowship in Impact will grow and grow

And finally, a verse of encouragment for those who are as tired as I have been (which is very).

"Come to me all or you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Accept my teachings and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives. The teaching I ask you to accept is easy, the load I give you to carry is light."

I'm up for some of that.
It's been an amazing 3 weeks. Half term was great and the last two weeks in Eastbourne have been very fruitful and have made awesome progression. I hope and pray that this next week will be much the same!

Cheer-chap!
Mikey x