New Wine

I have returned from a very wet week at Newark - New Wine North in the Midlands... It has been a fabulous week despite the weather.

I have been working on team again, working in Boulder Gang, the kids groups for 10-11 year olds which joined up with Rock Solid (8-9s) in the evening. This year I was given some responsibility after 2 years of being a group leader and was this time round an age group leader - taking responsibility, along with another, for the 10 year olds and their leaders. In some ways I missed the daily contact with the same 30 children, learning their names and really getting to know them, instead I found I learnt very few children's names. A week is a very short period of time to get to know so many children even as a group leader when you fill in the register every morning and evening, but learning 4 times as many names without this advantage is somewhat of an impossibility. However, I did feel that I got to know the team this year. In previous years I have only turned up to do my bit, got to know the children and other leaders in my group and then gone back to the tent at the end of the session. I have never really felt to have been a part of the team before, and as such was most surprised to have been asked to take on an age group leader's role. It has been a real privilege to get to know other members of the team, where they are at and a small part of their story.

Most of all, though, I have learnt so very much from the children. As the week progresses you see them settle into the programme and the worship and can almost visibly see their faith grow. One girl in particular made an impact on me, I prayed for her in the morning as she was distressed about her home situation and at the end of the evening session she came up to me to tell me of how God had spoken to her that night with words and pictures of encouragement that he will always be with her. It bowled me away.

It has certainly been a tiring week, working on team doesn't leave a lot of free time and I have spent next to no time with my church at all, but I wouldn't have swapped it for anything.

Generous God

I volunteered myself to do the All Age Service at church this morning. Two weeks ago it seemed like a good idea, and it was, I enjoy doing them, but it didn't seem like such a good idea when I was still at the cinema at midnight last night!! I told the story of Zacchaeus using a few volunteers from the congregation to act it out as I read it. I particularly enjoyed choosing a little 4 year old girl to play Zacchaeus who then stood on a chair in the pulpit when she was climbing the tree. My volunteer for the crowd was hoping for an Oscar I think - he really put his all into the performance - it was fabulous!! I love storytelling, though I still very much rely on a script rather than being spontaneous, it keeps me on track! As part of my talk I gave a bunch of flowers to a random member of the congregation, I had been going to use balloons and children, but due to the lateness of actually finishing my talk and then getting to the corner shop half an hour before the service, they didn't have any balloons and I had to rethink - but actually I think it worked better with flowers, and I really enjoyed being able to show that lady a small snippet of God's generosity to her.

Busyness

I seem to have been ridiculously busy over the last few weeks, just when I thought all was starting to get quite boring back at home. I can't really complain because I hate it when I have nothing to do, but I'm starting to long for an evening in front of the telly...!!! Starting a new job in September seems to mean a lot of travelling up and down the motorway at the moment trying to sort things out, though even up until yesterday I still did not know what class I had so there wasn't a great deal I could do to prepare. Now that I know my class (year 4) I have very little time before the summer holidays in which to collect all the information that I am going to need to prepare for the new school year. Tomorrow afternoon I go to the new school in case any parents would like to know who I am before I start to teach their children!

In the morning I am going into a school that I did supply in before going to Kenya and I have been given a half hour assembly to tell them all about it. I'm quite looking forward to it, though I have to consider that there will be children in the room that are only 5 and then ones that are ready to go to High School - so quite a broad range to entertain for half an hour! I'm sure all will be well though.

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Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.