Bed time

As I have given up Facebook for lent, I am having withdrawel symptons of telling the all-hearing ears of the internet my uninteresting activities. Thus, I have brought my blog to this level.

So just to say -

It's now 10pm GMT
and it's 3.30AM in Kolkata
and my body clock is somewhere inbetween.

I haven't slept for over fourty-four hours.



Goodnight.

India is Great

It says it all really. The tatoo of a million vans, bikes and cars boasted this proud statement. And you know what - they've got it spot on. India is great. India is great, is noisy, is lively, is smelly, is colourful, is joyful, is sorrowful, is rich, is poor, is proud and is most certainly completely different to anything I've ever seen before. But what is it to live in India for a mere two weeks? It isn't like watching it on the news, or Comic Relief or in the papers. To see it in the media is hard enough, to see it alive in front of you is a different level. It attacks all of your senses. Everything looks different to what I'm used to. There are no white people, so you are stared at. There are piles upon piles of slums every single place you go, but a few metres away live some very content rich people living in very comfortable appartments. If the sights don't shock you, the temperature will. As soon as we stepped off the plane in Mumbai, the heat almost bowled us over. It has been over 40^C. After your body has accepted it's going to be pretty uncomfortable for the next fortnight, your nose gets a beating. Walking down any street, a new smell hits you every few metres. It could be the fish market, one of the thousands of rubbish piles, someone having a poo in the road, a fish market or a load of goat skins still dripping with blood, the smells are overwhelming. Some of the nicest smells over the fortnight have been where there has been no smell whatsoever, which is rare. The sound is non stop. As most of the cars in Kolkata don't have wing mirrors, you are legally obliged to constantly toot your horn to let people know you're there. If you can't hear a horn, you can assume there is no car. And there are never no cars. Even if it did stop at night, the sound of Hindi music, Indi TV and Bollywood blast all the way through the night, along with the fireworks. We were woken every morning at 5am by the Muslim's prayer callings. And finally taste. If, like the majority of my team, you don't like curry or spicy food, you'd better learn to like it or go hungry. I'm a big curry fan, but I had really had reached my curry limit before the end of the first week. You'll never guess what Mum and Dad have planned for dinner tonight.

So that's a little taster of what it is like to live in India as a guest, but even I can't imagine what it would be like to be a slum kid. But make sure you understand, what you imagine when you're reading this, is a fraction of what it is really like. Culture shock, something that we were told about by dozens of friends. I've experienced culture shock before, twice. Once when I went to Kenya last year and once again when I came back to the UK. But although India has so many of the same problems, they are so completley different. I was the only one of my team to have experienced a developping country before, but I was in no way less culture shocked when we all arrived in Kolkata. It is truly overwhelming.

Blah, blah, blah - that's enough of trying to get you to imagine what it's like there, I'm worried that I've lost half of my readers by half-way through the 1st paragraph. In short ("Why couldn't you just put this to begin with?") - it's overwhelmingly different.

Let me fill you in on the team.

Mikey - the kid with the second mouth. The only guy on the team.
Amanda - Best friends with Ruth, a real passion for God.
No-Henna-Hand-Root (Actual name - Ruth) - Best friends with Amanda. Super friendly, but hates those anti-malarial tablets.
Rhiannon (aka Jonny Two-Hats) - Possibly the loudest person in our group, but usually says the right things. She is our first-aider. She is herself, half-Indian.
Heather - my godsister in as much that we share a godmother. The queen of facial expressions.
Zara - she laughs. A lot.
Emily - our team leader, quiz master and resident wise owl.

So that's our brilliant team. For those more observant amongst you, would know - there is one person short of the Eight that are doing the YES Scheme gap-year. Unfortunately Laura couldn't come with us, but did some very interesting work in the Worthing Hospital Chaplaincy Team. So there were seven us. During our time, Emily played quiz master in a ferocious 19 rounds of quiz. The teams were the Toilet Buddies (Rhiannon, Amanda and Ruth) and the Leftovers (Heather, Zara and myself.) Every evening after dinner, we would plan anything that needed planning for the next day. Then one of us would lead the group in a time of discussion, bible study, worship and prayer, then we would end with a game of cards and a round of quiz before bed. If we were lucky, we might get an extra round at somepoint during the day. It was a very close thing, but we had our 19th and final round in Dubai airport early this morning. End result - the Leftovers won! Quite often, we would find ourselves sitting in quiz teams by chance, or if we had to split the whole team, it would fall into the two quiz teams. But we were still all under one banner!

I was very excited when we were told we were going to India (as we were told we were going to India, we didn't decide to. I am most certainly not complaining) And I was excited because India is a place I have always wanted to go. We had a bit of training, a lot of paperwork and even more vaccinations before we went. Then on March 8th, we left.

We had our first polava when our plane journey (which was a simple London Gatwick to Dubai, Dubai to Kolkata) was delayed by one hour. This meant that we missed our connecting flight. Which meant that we had a long stay in Dubai airport in the middle of the night, before we were told that we would be first sent to Mumbai. We were not scheduled for a whistle-stop in Mumbai. So we went to Mumbai. Waited. Then we finally got to Kolkata. We arrived not at the expected time of 7am, but in the darkness of the following night. Our one hour delay cost us a whole day. So we were exhausted and culture shocked (as you now well-know.)

The first week was a lot of introductions. We got to know the charity we were working for. We were sent by the YES Scheme, through Tearfund to a charity called Emmanuel Ministries Calcutta (EMC). The team there are AMAZING! They have set up 37 different projects in Kolkata (formally known as Calcutta) which do such a wide range of things. A lot (but not all) is focused on children and young people. They have several schools, including a very unique one. They have a school that is unique to the whole of Asia. It is a very high standard formal school, which is completely free for children living in slums. All other schools set up by charities do the best with a very low budget, which means highly gifted, but not highly trained teachers, small hot classrooms and a very informal teaching style. This school however could be mistaken for a private school in the UK. They are all taught by teachers who have degrees in their chosen field, in good quality classrooms with desks and very smart uniforms. It is so amazing that this is available for free to the steet-children of the slums. So often, I would forget that these well groomed children would be sleeping rough that night. Another project has been set up for the platform kids - children who work and sleep on the railway platforms. Up to 80% of these kids were addicted to drugs, which are so very cheap and easy to get hold of. The police would stop the dealers if they weren't too busy being bribed or even buying. Most of these platform addicts were aged 5-11yrs old. We saw projects which save women from being sex-trafficked, projects that put skills to good use with a fair wage, detox centres, rehabilitation centres, youth groups, hostals and so many more different things. EMC seems to be Jack of all trades, master of all. It really was incredible and amazing to be a part of it.

I spent most of my time teaching in one of the schools, which was great work. I found it very tough at first, as they really didn't speak English and I had no translator and no other superviser. But by the end of the week, I knew how to teach them and they knew how to teach me. Nearly every person that we have encountered through various projects have a lot to be angry or depressed about. Those in slums, those with addictions, those running from their past, those who have terrifying stories. Yet every person we encountered was full of joy. They were so grateful for the work that EMC are doing, they are amazed that people would come from the other side of the planet to help them, that there are people that care for them. Through these projects they have seen the love of God through His work through us. They could easily be angry with God, and some maybe are. But someone once said -

"You can't be angry with God without believing in Him."

These people belive in God and know God and love God. They have come to depend on him and let him work in their lives. It has been amazing to be a part of this.
So, where is God? He's there with them. He is working through people like the EMC team, through teams that travel afar, through teams that are working on their very own doorstep. He is where your prayers are. He is wherever lives are being changed.

"Each of you has recieved a gift to use to serve others. Anyone who serves should serve with the strength that God gives, so that in everything God will be praised through Christ Jesus."

1 Peter 4:10-11

You don't have to get on a plane to serve God. You don't have to meet someone that has come off a plane to know God. He is in the slums, he is in the UK.

Tearfund were pretty frightening with their guidance booklets. Better safer than sorry I suppose, but after all the information about humble illnesses and diseases that we will catch, it goes on to tell us about bribes, robbery, mobs, vehicle accidents, hijacking, bombs, ambush, rape, assault, kidnapping, shooting, ransoms, air crash, air attack, earthqaukes and finally mines. Agreed it is something to be cautious of, but not something to put you off! We fortunately didn't encounter any of these illnesses or dangers, but it did miss out on one danger that we could have done with being warned about.

I'm talking about pillow fights.

On the last night, I had a pillow fight with one of my team in a pretty dark canteen. By 12am I was in an ambulance. By 12.30am I was at hospital. By 1am I has six stitches and a whopping great white plaster on my chin. I got some good photos of it, and somebody videoed the operation. Talking of photos, I did take some (believe me) but the cable to connect them to my computer is in Eastbourne. I will put them up shortly.



So I've been home in Littlehampton for a couple of hours now. I'm exhausted. I haven't slept in nearly 36 hours and I have endured about 18hrs of travelling. I'm in an empty house (apart from my good self) and can hear absolutely nothing for the first time in two weeks. The air is fresh, the temperature is FREEZING COLD, I can eat without worrying or washing with anti-bacterial gel, I can drink water out of the tap. My home smells like my home, so naturally I can't smell a thing. I have a sigh, try to scratch my chin (then remember that it is under wraps), consider being sad and decide against it.
If you ask me, two weeks isn't long enough to really get involved, but I was ready to go home. I loved it whilst I was there, and I will miss it. I will miss the company I kept! It would seem that right now I am here on my own, but that would be a mistake. I am with the same person that was with me before I left, whilst I was there and with me now and always.

And if you don't mind, I'm now off to praise him.

I told you I'd be back

[Be warned, this is a long post. To be fair, I haven't posted in over a month! Also, sorry about the lack of photos, I've not yet put photos on my new computer.]

Ahoo-there!

I can not apologise profusely enough for taking so long to post this very blog. The first week back at work about a month ago was a crazy time catching up from my Christmas break. It was more like pushing all my work aside for two weeks, but worth it for a nice Christmas! Christmas did come with some challenges, but it was so nice being back with family, friends, Parkside and of course, Grace. So, after my swamping first week, my computer decided it was fed up of being my desk-slave and passed away overnight. Therefore, the next fortnight was a struggle with no computer. I left my wallet at a friend's in Southampton a couple of months ago. I actually found it quite a release being without money for a week or so (I probably wouldn't be saying that if I had rent to pay). So, when my computer died, I wondered if I would get that same sense of release being detached from the whirring and chugging that I had grown too accustomed to. I didn't get that feeling at all. One might say I went 'cold-turkey'. I realised that 1.) I depend on having a computer so much for work and everyday bits and bobs, and 2.) how much I took the internet for granted! I missed being able to watch programmes on iPlayer, catch up with friends on Facebook and write blogs! But here I am now, after nearly a week of rushing to the window every time a car went past, on the new computer that the delivery man heaved on to my bracing desk. It's blog time!

The past couple of weeks have been focused on the future. My many projects include;

• Moving my youth group, correction - my growing youth group, into a smaller room.
• Planning a big pancake event on Shrove Tuesday in half-term.
• Trying to find a suitable date to run possibly a series of youth services in the church.
• Start looking at which holiday club to prepare for the summer.
• Getting a group together for May Camp, between two churches 20 miles apart!
• Sorting out what the church is going to do around Easter time
• Starting up a film club
• Getting an Easter Play into the local primary schools
• ...

The Youth Lounge is currently in one of the many upstair rooms in the church. Work is being started on the church and it has started upstairs. You know how (men you may struggle with this - use your imaginations) when you are polishing or cleaning a desk and instead of taking everything off, cleaning it and putting it back on, you decide to move everything to one side, polish half of it, move everything to the other side, polish the other half, then put everything back. Well it's like that. The church is re-doing the whole of the upstairs, but we have no downstairs rooms left, so we're just shunting along into another upstairs room. It's smaller. A lot smaller. In one way, it's cosier and more homely, but in another way it's just cramped. I spent all yesterday and today moving furniture, TVs, posters and hoards of other random items that could only be found from a group like this. I don't know what they're going to say when they go up on Sunday morning and discover that their room looks like it's been raided. To go with the shrinking room, our Impact team is shrinking as well! One of my fellow helpers, Luke, has left for a 3-month working trip to Uganda this week!

Work is all very exciting at the moment. Everything seems to be growing in the church, the congregation has nearly tripled its average attendance since September. We are seeing lots of new faces in the various mid-week groups at the church. Students and general youth seem to have accepted me and are confident to talk to me about whatever is on their minds. The same children and teenagers are seeing me again and again, at school, at clubs, on my bike. Everyone seems to know me as the guy from church to ask the difficult questions. One 15yr-old girl told me the other day -

"I would be a Christian, if I didn't think that my family and friends would still be going to hell. I would rather go to hell with them than to hell without them."

I've noticed the same theme pop up again and again when I get asked questions; suffering. Why does bad things happen to good people?", "Why am I suffering?", "Why did God make my friend disabled?", "If God is real, why are my parents getting divorced?", "Where is God in Haiti?"

I've also come to discover that it is so much harder to try and explain to Christians than those without faith, and those who don't have a faith really struggle with any attempt at an explanation. But that is where the wall is between the two!

I attended the Oasis bible college open-day in London the other day. It was a fantastic place and the course looked great! It was the other side of the river, facing the Houses of Parliment. The course-leaders were really nice and looked very wise (a long beard and big ear-lobes would have finished the image). But, I had already decided not to go ahead with my application. After nearly two months or thought and prayer and a lot of advice from equally wise friends and family, I decided to stick with my Film and TV degree at Southampton Solent University. I felt as if it was expected that I go on to Bible college, though it wasn't the case at all. Even if it was, I think I would enjoy my original course much more. So, I really went to Oasis just to see what I would be missing, and I am suitably satisfied with my choice. I think Grace would be pleased as well, as there were just five other girls at the open day, and no other guys!

For those of the praying type, could you please include;

• My friend Luke and his family as he goes off to work in Uganda.
• One of my fellow YES Scheme team members, as she is finding things a bit difficult at the moment.
• My friends the Bellamys, as they take on the grief of losing the amazing Stuart Bellamy.

But in addition to the "I wants", 'I want' to praise God for all He is doing! You, are truly the only one that can be called 'awesome'!

"There is a time to cry

and a time to laugh.

There is a time to be sad

and a time to dance."

Ecclesiastes 3:4

Speak soon,

Mikey.

Just a Little Rest

What with it coming up to Christmas and the fact that I now work for the church, I thought I would be rushed off my feet. But no, I have been very low on work in the last week. It took me a while to work out, but the penny eventually dropped. Yes, work at church has definitely increased, but because so much of my work is in clubs and schools, they've all stopped for Christmas. I haven't had nothing to do, but I'm definitely not as busy as I usually am. It's just a little rest.

The photos are of the following:

1. The rather scary antenna that has sprouted from Benny.
2. The cake I got for a Christmas party.
3. Bread.
4. The annual decorate-the-church-for-Christmas (with a bit of spring cleaning).

I went for Breakfast with the Bishop last week. But it wasn't as bad as you're thinking that sounds! It was a meeting of all the youth workers in Eastbourne. A great time to get to know and get into contact with people doing similar things to myself.

Okay, this may or may not make sense to you, but here goes. I wrote that last paragraph this morning. It's as far as i got beofre I recieved a phone call, and then I got distracted and I forgot about the blog. It is now 10:45pm, about 11 hours later. There's quite a lot that's happened in the week that I haven't mentioned yet, and I won't because I'm tired and I just want to get on and tell my big news. Besides, a fair bit has happened since this morning.

I've been round to visit all my young people. A long and tiring activity, but I'm glad I did. I've also just been asked to do the children's talk tomorrow. That's all planned and ready. But here's the biggest thing. I haven't told anyone that I have done this yet, so whoever reads this first is the first to know.
I've just applied to Oasis Theological College in London to do a Youth & Ministry degree (BAHons). This is very exciting. I've been considering it for a while now, but tonight I decided to do it. I spent some time praying and looking at Bible verses that a secret* person gave me. These verses where amazing. They really spoke out to me. So I decided it was time to do it. So I've done it. *The secret person was a 'Secret Santa' thing we did with our home group, but instead of presents, we have been praying for the person that we were given. But they gave me a card with some bible verses on.

So there's my big news, and on that bombshell, I'm off.
Have a fantastic Christmas and hope to see you in the New Year!
Mikey x

P.S. - I'm home in Littlehampton from 23rd December to 5th January.

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

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