I wasn't really looking forward to New Wine this year, having moved churches and then towns. I planned to keep myself to myself, work hard on team and read and sleep in the afternoons. It was a good policy. As I'd only planned to do things by myself ,and I am now quite used to going places on my own, it was a bonus to be invited out for coffee with friends.
The most enjoyable part about the week was being on team once again. It's now the 5th year that I have been on Boulder Gang/Rock Solid team and it's great to see the same faces year on year. I love having the opportunity to chat to a different bunch of kids, get to know a bit about them, help them to make friends with each other... and then spend the evenings moving around the floor splitting up playfighting boys! Although I went to New Wine with every intention of it being my last, I left feeling less sure.
Still, I feel myself to be right on the edge of comfort (and often far beyond it!) with some of New Wine's teaching and the way things are done. This year there was a focus on prophecy. In one of the team times we had to get into 3s... pray for words or pictures for each other... 5 minutes each.... Sound familiar?! Anyway, this time I laid out my thoughts on the matter right before we began and didn't stress myself over trying to hear some obscure word from the Lord in my time limit and so avoided any Clover advert embarassments. We fortunately ran out of time before getting to the point where the other 2 would be praying for words for me.
I continue to wonder: Is God really all that bothered about giving individuals small words of comfort to already comfortable Christians on a holy holiday? I don't recall Him being like that in the Bible. It all made me think of Professor Trelawney from the Harry Potter books. She's an old fraud. And so I felt like an old fraud giving strangers words of prophecy that I'd pulled out of thin air. But, like Professor Trelawlney, that is not to say that God might use me as a prophet when He so wishes. Not when I wish. Professor Trelawney is an old fraud, but she's only in post because of a true prophecy she once gave, and she has no idea that she gave it.
As well as prophecy there was rather a lot of time spent praying for healing for children again, as last year, but I was glad that one evening was devoted to praying for children who were 'sad, maybe because of something from home or school'. I continue to wonder about praying for healing. I come with very low expectations, reluctant to be there and witness a child be disappointed as a genuine illness or disability remains when other children seem to be healed of minor complaints. One girl really touched my heart when, after praying for her, she said "Nothing. But I pray a lot for healing. I know that God will heal me one day." I told her how mature and strong she was and how proud I was of her. But how I longed that it would be she who would experience a miracle.
Showing posts with label New Wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Wine. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Thursday, August 07, 2008
New Wine N&E 2008
I have recently returned from another enjoyable week at that Christian gathering, New Wine (North and East). It tickles me that they have added 'East' into the name this year, perhaps realising that it gives the name some credibility; Newark not really being in the north....
*Warning: this post has become excessively long!*
I have been working on Boulder Gang again this year, the children's group for 10-11 year olds. In the evening they join with Rock Solid (8-9s) for Dream:Factory which is entirely led from the front with silly games, praise and worship songs, a talk and response and the inevitable gunging. As last year I took on the role of 'Age Group Leader' again for the 10s. Even more so this year I felt like I got to know my team and really tried to own my role. It is difficult to get to know the children's names when you don't own just one group of 30+ but are general overseer of upwards of 100 10 year olds. I really made the effort this year to sit in with the groups in the evenings and to try to engage with the kids. I did, however, get asked on more than one occasion if I was a yellow... or if I was a red... or whose group I was supposed to be in? Explaining that you're in all groups is a bit tricky! The children are quick to pick up on a hierarchy that I was keen to avoid - my role really is a whole lot less important than the group leaders who are the ones building real relationships, praying for and encouraging their group of children.
On the first day as everyone started to arrive I was overjoyed to be walking through the site when one of the children, recognising me from previous years, waved enthusiastically at me! What a lift it gave me! As the week progressed I remembered why I take this bus man's holiday each year. Although exhausting, I am convinced that I learn an awful lot more about God and about myself from the children than I would if I were an adult delegate going to the main meetings and going to seminars. Each day begins at 7.45 with a team meeting and worship before the doors open at 8.45. The morning sessions consist of a short together time with the 10s and 11s then onto rotations which take up the majority of the morning. The rotations are sport, craft, floating activity (this just means that it is different everyday, for example one day it might be learning a dance and the next day it might be science etc) and finally application. Application is the teaching slot which links into the evening talk and gives the group leaders a chance to talk to the children about their responses and to pray in different ways for what has been brought up. Finally the morning ends with half an hour of together time for 10s and 11s, some action songs and some silly games, finishing at 12.30. I seem to spend the majority of the mornings taking groups of children on toilet runs!! I think that in the morning craft is a very important time, that is when the leaders really have a chance to sit down on a table with some of their group, get to know them and chat to them about things that matter to them. I am convinced that craft time is vastly underrated in its value.
In the afternoons team members can do things like go to seminars and such like. I do nothing. Last year Sarah and I decided that we would not try to do anything extra in the afternoons - the children's work is tiring enough without trying to overdo it! Fortunately we were blessed with good weather this year which is so so very important when you go as a single person... sounds daft I'm sure, but it's mightily difficult to be sociable with the rest of your church when it is raining and everyone is holed up in their tents or else out at seminars. When the weather is good everyone congregates outside and it's so much easier to go up and join a group. This year our housegroup were mostly camped together slightly apart from the rest of the church group (not because they are antisocial but because the area we had been given to camp on was considerably too small for the number of people and tents we had to camp on it!) and so afternoons were generally spent chatting and lazing about outside someone else's tent, housegroup or not.
Evenings start again for the worker at 5.45 with another team meeting and worship time followed by doors opening for Dream:Factory at 6.45. This year our evening themes followed the story of Peter. There was also somewhat of an emphasis on healing this year, which I can't say I was entirely comfortable with. It seemed a bit falsely hyped as a result of the Florida thing (I suspect) and I was uncomfortable with so much focus on physical healing when I would suggest that most children suffer more from emotional scars like family break ups, bullying and friendship problems and feelings of self worth more than with their eczema. I did have to eat my thoughts, however, when a child who had fallen earlier in the week and broken their arm, had been to hospital and had a temporary cast put on it then was prayed for one evening and when they went back to the hospital their arm was no longer broken and they did not need to put another cast on it! I agree that that is an amazing story of God's healing power. Though as with many I struggle with why God heals some people and not others... a struggle I doubt will ever get resolved!
I was forever blown away by the privilege it is to pray with children, something that has been a growth in me completely over the last few years. I don't remember much about New Wine in Harrogate, but I remember being completely paralysed with fear 3 years ago when group leaders were asked to come to the front to pray for the children that had come forward in response to something. Then I didn't move and hoped that no-one would notice that I, a group leader, was still sat down. This year I had no such inhibitions and relished the opportunity to pray encouragement and strength into a child's life.
By 10pm my team worker's day was done. Just enough time to spend a little while with church people in the 'wine tent' for a drink and nibble and then it was time to go to bed ready to do it all again the next day!
I'll be back again next year. For sure.
*Warning: this post has become excessively long!*
I have been working on Boulder Gang again this year, the children's group for 10-11 year olds. In the evening they join with Rock Solid (8-9s) for Dream:Factory which is entirely led from the front with silly games, praise and worship songs, a talk and response and the inevitable gunging. As last year I took on the role of 'Age Group Leader' again for the 10s. Even more so this year I felt like I got to know my team and really tried to own my role. It is difficult to get to know the children's names when you don't own just one group of 30+ but are general overseer of upwards of 100 10 year olds. I really made the effort this year to sit in with the groups in the evenings and to try to engage with the kids. I did, however, get asked on more than one occasion if I was a yellow... or if I was a red... or whose group I was supposed to be in? Explaining that you're in all groups is a bit tricky! The children are quick to pick up on a hierarchy that I was keen to avoid - my role really is a whole lot less important than the group leaders who are the ones building real relationships, praying for and encouraging their group of children.
On the first day as everyone started to arrive I was overjoyed to be walking through the site when one of the children, recognising me from previous years, waved enthusiastically at me! What a lift it gave me! As the week progressed I remembered why I take this bus man's holiday each year. Although exhausting, I am convinced that I learn an awful lot more about God and about myself from the children than I would if I were an adult delegate going to the main meetings and going to seminars. Each day begins at 7.45 with a team meeting and worship before the doors open at 8.45. The morning sessions consist of a short together time with the 10s and 11s then onto rotations which take up the majority of the morning. The rotations are sport, craft, floating activity (this just means that it is different everyday, for example one day it might be learning a dance and the next day it might be science etc) and finally application. Application is the teaching slot which links into the evening talk and gives the group leaders a chance to talk to the children about their responses and to pray in different ways for what has been brought up. Finally the morning ends with half an hour of together time for 10s and 11s, some action songs and some silly games, finishing at 12.30. I seem to spend the majority of the mornings taking groups of children on toilet runs!! I think that in the morning craft is a very important time, that is when the leaders really have a chance to sit down on a table with some of their group, get to know them and chat to them about things that matter to them. I am convinced that craft time is vastly underrated in its value.
In the afternoons team members can do things like go to seminars and such like. I do nothing. Last year Sarah and I decided that we would not try to do anything extra in the afternoons - the children's work is tiring enough without trying to overdo it! Fortunately we were blessed with good weather this year which is so so very important when you go as a single person... sounds daft I'm sure, but it's mightily difficult to be sociable with the rest of your church when it is raining and everyone is holed up in their tents or else out at seminars. When the weather is good everyone congregates outside and it's so much easier to go up and join a group. This year our housegroup were mostly camped together slightly apart from the rest of the church group (not because they are antisocial but because the area we had been given to camp on was considerably too small for the number of people and tents we had to camp on it!) and so afternoons were generally spent chatting and lazing about outside someone else's tent, housegroup or not.
Evenings start again for the worker at 5.45 with another team meeting and worship time followed by doors opening for Dream:Factory at 6.45. This year our evening themes followed the story of Peter. There was also somewhat of an emphasis on healing this year, which I can't say I was entirely comfortable with. It seemed a bit falsely hyped as a result of the Florida thing (I suspect) and I was uncomfortable with so much focus on physical healing when I would suggest that most children suffer more from emotional scars like family break ups, bullying and friendship problems and feelings of self worth more than with their eczema. I did have to eat my thoughts, however, when a child who had fallen earlier in the week and broken their arm, had been to hospital and had a temporary cast put on it then was prayed for one evening and when they went back to the hospital their arm was no longer broken and they did not need to put another cast on it! I agree that that is an amazing story of God's healing power. Though as with many I struggle with why God heals some people and not others... a struggle I doubt will ever get resolved!
I was forever blown away by the privilege it is to pray with children, something that has been a growth in me completely over the last few years. I don't remember much about New Wine in Harrogate, but I remember being completely paralysed with fear 3 years ago when group leaders were asked to come to the front to pray for the children that had come forward in response to something. Then I didn't move and hoped that no-one would notice that I, a group leader, was still sat down. This year I had no such inhibitions and relished the opportunity to pray encouragement and strength into a child's life.
By 10pm my team worker's day was done. Just enough time to spend a little while with church people in the 'wine tent' for a drink and nibble and then it was time to go to bed ready to do it all again the next day!
I'll be back again next year. For sure.
Monday, July 30, 2007
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
