A few notable things...

Things have felt even busier this past couple of weeks. It's been a bit of a roller coaster as we try and figure out how to bring unity to our team and catch the vision together. I am both physically and emotionally worn-out but trying to find rest, peace and joy at the speed we are moving. I thought I would share some of the things we have been up to aside from the work with the kids because that is equally as important in my eyes! 

As we don't have a washing machine in the house, we all use the launderette down the road. I have personally come to enjoy the experience as they have a tv with cable and I can get an hour to myself where I can watch Ellen and wait for my clothes to dry. Last time I went, it was just after we'd had a load more snow and the owner wasn't particularly expecting anyone to drag a laundry bin through knee deep precipitation. He was wrong. I was out of dresses. We got talking and he enjoyed the fact that I was English, he was Polish I think and said that moving to America was the worst decision he made because it's crazy here. I didn't really know what to say so we talked a bit about me leaving a sock in the washing machine by accident and then watched a bit of the Winter Olympics together. 

I wanted to write about this a while ago, but just couldn't find the time! We are 'hosted' here by a local Church who wanted to offer extra support to us interns. The Church is Presbyterian, which is a popular denomination in the States but not so common in the UK. It is leagues away from what I'm used to, but I love it! The first time I went there, I had people running up to me after the service excited to see me because they had been awaiting my arrival. They quickly found the PG Tips and popped the kettle on, so I guess my reputation goes before me! We have dined twice at one families house, this Sunday was lovely because I went with them on a dog walk, we drank tea, played board games and I walked away with a huge pile of magazines full of recipes. I also got invited this week to join a lovely Canadian lady whose husband has just got a job that involves travel over to Sheffield, so we talked a lot about England. She put oxo cubes in our soup, so that was nice! We also drank tea. Not only that, but we go to a weekly group study at a couple's home not too far from us and enjoy snacks and tea. That time together has really helped us to grow as a team and I am grateful for that. Also, for all the tea I am offered.

Yesterday, we had most of the day off and decided to use that to go and have fun together. It just so happened that the fun was taking place in Philadelphia so it was nice for me to see some new scenery:

It was a bit rainy as you can see, but the weather is getting much warmer now so I'll soon be making the switch from boots to sandals in celebration. 

We went to a place called Dave and Busters which is a sports bar come amusement arcade come restaurant. We all ate together, watched some olympics and celebrated the fact that TEA WAS ON FREE REFILS:

Bravo, Dave. Bravo, Buster.

Everytime you won on one of your games, you were given tickets which turned into prizes in the store. We weren't there for that long but most of us managed to get some tickets:

 It was nice to get out of Delaware as I've not had chance to do much travel yet because there's so much work to be done. Which is fair enough, I'm here to do a job! I made the decision this week that I would cut down my hours at Urban Promise and use those hours to do more with YFC. As much as I love UP, I know that I could be doing so much more here at the Center as we try and put together solid programs and arrange summer trips. I'm just going to go to Urban Promise one day a week and they have asked that I help do some data-input which sadly, I love doing. I will miss 'Crafts with Miss Sarah,' though! The last time I did crafts, one of the kids asked if I was an artist! I loved it. 

Everything had to be made from hearts!

We're excited about where we are headed with our work here and I am looking forward to getting stuff on the calendar. Next week, we are having a whole day dedicated to planning and getting everything in place so I look forward to sharing with you all what that will look like. So many of our kids have hardly left Delaware so I am hopeful that we can give them some great experiences that could potentially be life changing. We have so much support which is very encouraging! 

As for me, I am feeling glad that it's the weekend and have so far today decided to do nothing other than wash. I have an engagement this afternoon to, guess what, DRINK TEA with a friend. Ha!  Have a great weekend!

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We're All In This Together...

Sorry to go all High School Musical on you but every time I think about this subject I get that song in my head. I had a great conversation today with a lovely lady about community. I think in society today community is something that we are losing. Young people are desperately searching for a place to belong, to be accepted and loved. Somewhere they wont be alone. Somewhere they will be listened to, where they wont be judged/prejudged and where they will be given help and advice on how to deal with their problems. Of course, isn't that what we're all searching for?

Community

My experience of University entailed being part of the most wonderful community I have ever come across. In my house, we all made sacrifices for each other. It may only have been small but one time someone would print something when I was out of ink or someone would be stood out in the cold at the train station and they would be picked up. Someone may have been out of chicken, so we joined together to cook. When one of my beloved wine glasses mysteriously disappeared and I moaned about it for the two years in which we lived together, it was eventually replaced so that I would have a set of four again, because who can use three wine glasses? When I was struggling, there was always a door to knock on where I could sit, cry, laugh, complain, offload and often people would pop into my room for the same things. When I had to shut myself away, people respected my do not disturb sign (most of the time!) People from outside of our house would always pop in on their way to somewhere, so we always had someone in the house who didn't live there. I loved that, and I truly miss it. I stopped caring that I was in my pj's at 8pm talking to a stranger in my own living room. Our house became much more than just us, it became a kind of hub that alsorts of people would join and would be a part of. They belonged there as much as we did and it was really special. Without that community, there is absolutely no way I could've passed that degree. We needed each other, and for that time we were all blessed to be placed with one another. This weekend, we are all to be reunited for the first time since we all left - I am VERY excited!

I've been watching this amazing documentary that caught my eye the other day. It's called 'The Audience' and is on Channel 4 (UK). What happens is each week, one person has a big problem that they can't solve on their own. So, they invite 50 strangers aka 'the audience' to come and assess the situation, see all sides of the problem and come to a collective decision that acts as the answer to the person's dilemma. There have been two episodes so far and I have found it fascinating. It's so interesting to see how the people make their first judgements but then as they get to know more and more about the pieces of the puzzle, their mind opens and they are able to come to a decision that they are happy with. Both of the people who had the problem had said they just couldn't make such a big decision alone and they needed the help of others to spur them on to make it. I love that. That to me, is how life should always look - that we all have a different viewpoint, a different point to make to add to the discussion but eventually all end up working together.

Teamwork

I now want to think about community in another respect. Throughout Uni, I had some great experiences of working with different people and different Churches. I learnt a lot of lessons that will stick with me for the rest of my life, as they changed me in a massive way. A lot of us fall into this 'perfectionist' trap. This idea that 'If I let someone else do this job, I'm scared it wont be as good as if I did it.' That 'only I can do this well, if I let them do it or change it, it just wont work.' If we let ourselves think like this, we become controlling over what is 'ours' and we begin to lose trust in the standards of those around us. I of course recognise that we all have different strengths and abilities, but we all have something amazing to offer. I think this links to what I've said before about being afraid of making mistakes. Of course, we need to be wise about who we delegate our work to as it would be pointless trusting someone to administrate a project if they obviously hated paperwork, but that is not my point. My point is that if we have made our jobs to be so that only we know what is going on, and in the case of leaving the job/going on holiday and nobody knows what we actually do then something is seriously wrong. I speak of this from a youth workers/ministry perspective as I have seen this all too often in Church work especially, but I think it can be applied to any role. If we, as an individual are depended upon too much then eventually the pressure will become too overwhelming and you are burnt out. It's too late. I've read so many books where people have spoken of working so hard that eventually their bodies literally just gave up on them. It reached so far beyond saving that they ended up on the sofa being unable to move so they were forced to rest. This is not ok. 

We need to begin to understand the notion of saying no. We need to stop thinking that 'if I don't do this, nobody else will' because that demonstrates a lack of trust and communication. If we don't ask people to help us, how will they know they are needed? If we don't let go, and be happy to let someone else do part of our job even if it's done to a standard that is different and not seen as 'worse' than ours then how can we ever operate as a team? If we don't trust people to get on with it and step out then how will they ever have the confidence to do it? Everybody within our community has something important to bring, and it wouldn't be the same without them.

When looking at the Church context, we are described as the body. As you can see from the picture, I included a Bible verse in this that states that though we are many parts, we are one. We are not here to be an exclusive community, but an inclusive one. Whatever your background, upbringing, current situation, job, relationship status - whatever, you are welcome to be a part of that community and you have something to give it that will better it. The more we work together, the more we will be the Church because Church has nothing to do with the building, it is the people that make it. Church is not about one person having a 'gift' or a ministry that is all about them, and we follow that individual because they are so 'anointed or blessed.' It is about what we can achieve together, as one using all of our gifts to reach a lost and hurting world. We sing lots of songs about 'coming home' which is talking about when, as Christians believe - we will return to Heaven to be with our Father. But I think walking into a Church should feel like a welcome home too. For we are to be a family, who love each other no matter what, who forgive each other, who make sacrifices for each other, who listen and help one another and who seek to put others before ourselves.

We need to understand that we might look messy, but we are messy people! God isn't asking us for perfection, He is isn't asking us to run ourselves ragged through 'serving Him and others' because we shouldn't be so worn out that we become ineffective. We need to say no, we need to rest and we need to serve others but also let others serve us when we need it. If God wants the job to be done, He will do it with or without you and he delights in you as much as if you did it yourself or if you stepped back and let someone else do it for we don't need to do things to 'earn' His love because Jesus made a way back already. I personally, would rather have fun as a team doing something with an imperfect messy outcome than work myself to the max getting stressed out to create something that constituted perfection on my own. 

Hope you have found this encouraging! 

Much Love xxx

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