Doing the Do-si-do

I have returned to blog once again! It may only have been 2 weeks since I last scribed my various adventures, but a lot has happened.

The photos are (respectively):

1. My Delirious ticket.
2. The banner I made for the Youth Lounge®
3. A breakfast in Eastbourne includes a pint of lager.
4. This was an activity where we'd find prayers inside news articles by blacking out certain parts. This is one that I 'discovered'.
5. A Hama prayer request that I spent a good 15mins making.

Where we last left off, I believe I was on my way to Youthwork the Conference for Day 1. The whole weekend was an amazing time of spiritual learning, practical learning and amazing worship. I came out thinking "You know, maybe this youthwork thing is for me." I have a place at Southampton Solent Uni waiting for me in September 2010 doing a Film and TV Production degree. The beauty of the gap-year is that I have a year to really consider what it is that I want to do, but more importantly, what God wants me to do. I've worked out that out of the spiritual gifts, I have definitley been given the gift of evangelism. For those who are unfamiliar with spiritual gifts, they're like 'talents' that have been given to each person by God. We need to discover what each of our spiritual gifts are and use them. When praying about what God has planned for me, I turned to this passage -

"Use the gift you have, which was given to you through prophecy when the group of elders laid their hands on you. Continue to do those things; give your life to doing them so your progress may be seen by everyone. Be careful in your life and in your teaching. If you continue to live and teach rightly, you will save both yourself and those who listen to you."

1 Timothy 4 : 14-16

I can't argue with that, and it told me that whatever I do I will be reaching out to those yet to know the love of Jesus (which is a lot of people!) You can say that it is possible to do this in any career, whether it be shouting Revelation in peoples face whilst shopping or being a light in the office. But I think for me, it's more than this. I can pursue my film career and evangelise through the mega-powerful media. Heaven knows we need more people in the media. Though I could continue my work in youth ministry. I've been looking at different colleges for a degree in Youth Ministry and outreach. I'd love to work on the streets to young people. There's one final door that I can see. It's to take my music, the band, a whole lot further. Fame and money don't attract me, music that tells non-Christians about the Good News attracts me. But for that we need a Christian bass player and drummer that have the same desire. So I can see these 3 doors at the moment. Some, maybe all, will remain shut, I just have to chose the right ones to push!

Thirst, the afterschool club, has been running for two weeks now and has been beyond what I expected. Like I said, it was advertised to over a thousand 4-11yr olds. The first week we had two children turn up. We were not expecting that. We expected to start with maybe twenty/thirty and for it to then grow in the New Year. I was saying to some friends of mine that sometimes miracles don't happen as often as we'd like, and certainly not as quickly as we'd like. It's easy when praying for something which doesn't get answered to give up. This doesn't solve anything, it can chip off a little bit of faith as well. We just have to accept that God is working in us and we have to hold on to hope. The 2nd week, both of the children had brought one friend each. If they all did this every week, we'd have hundreds pretty soon! It was dissapointing, but I'll just wait.


Wednesdays are now officially my busiest days. This Wednesday went something like this:

• Early wake-up for assembly at infant's school
• Mid-week morning communion service
• Meeting with vicar
• Detached work in secondary school
• Afterschool club
• PCC meeting
• Meeting with mentor

But it's good to be busy! I'm just wondering if doing too much routine engagements will leave me with not enough time for bigger scale projects. I haven't had time to progress on this arts centre project recently.

The youth group that meets on a Tuesday evening (Impact) is growing in size and in spiritual strength. The fellowship is getting stronger which is fantastic. Some of the Tuesday evening attendees that previously didn't come to church are now attending, which is fantastic. And vice-versa. It's coming up to Christmas as I'm sure you're well aware. So this half-term at Impact we're looking at how can we bring Christmas back to Jesus. How can we make Jesus famous again? So last week they asked if they could do an assembly about Christmas/Jesus. We've also got the film equipment out and we've been making different adverts that we can show to the church. They were amazed when I said that even Christians can lose the focus of Jesus at Christmas! I will try and post the adverts in a next blog.

The passage we're focusing on this half-term is John 3:16
"For God loved the world SO much, that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in Him, shall not die, but have life forever!"

Things to pray about if you could:

• Wisdom, guidance and clarity on where to step next after this year
• That people who come to St. Elisabeth's and any other church for the first time this Christmas will see something they like and want to come back for more.
• That if the band is something God wants to prosper, we will find a bass player and drummer that have the same passion to serve and reach out.

Happy Advent everyone!
Mikey x