well it's the last weekend of the gap-year-thing i've been doing. crazy!! i can't believe it's been almost a year, well 11 months, since i started. this isn't a reflective post... no time for that yet! and no chance to really stop and ponder. hopefully in september..... yeh this summer has been very hectic, with one thing leading straight into another - actually like the whole year has been then! and there's been so many good things but hardly time to process or appreciate them. (i hate how tiredness makes me see things from a less positive perspective). i guess that's reflected in my blog, i haven't written nearly as much as i would have liked, especially as there's been plenty of things to write about. i have lists of potential posts scattered around my room, but i know realistically they are unlikely to ever come into existence.
HOWEVER, i would like to mention what i was up to last week, as it was one of the hardest things i've done this year i think (still recovering). I helped out on something called "Re:act" in Warrington (between Manchester and Liverpool for those who, like me, had no clue!) which was run by Urban Saints and the local Youth for Christ team. Add in 9 DNA-ers (myself included) and about 30 or 40 teenagers, all staying in the same church building - which used to be an old people's home!! after quite an intense weekend of training we then set out to put on a free family fun day, complete with BBQ, bouncy castles, sports, facepainting, and great live music on a big stage by people from Nexus and a hiphop group called MJK (make Jesus known). ALL FOR FREE for the local community. and not just once, but 6 days in a row, in 6 different areas of Warrington!
so a day would include:
HOWEVER, i would like to mention what i was up to last week, as it was one of the hardest things i've done this year i think (still recovering). I helped out on something called "Re:act" in Warrington (between Manchester and Liverpool for those who, like me, had no clue!) which was run by Urban Saints and the local Youth for Christ team. Add in 9 DNA-ers (myself included) and about 30 or 40 teenagers, all staying in the same church building - which used to be an old people's home!! after quite an intense weekend of training we then set out to put on a free family fun day, complete with BBQ, bouncy castles, sports, facepainting, and great live music on a big stage by people from Nexus and a hiphop group called MJK (make Jesus known). ALL FOR FREE for the local community. and not just once, but 6 days in a row, in 6 different areas of Warrington!
so a day would include:
- setting up marquees (never want to see our disable gazebo again, which was mainly held up by gaffa tape each day)
- manning the inflatables (which got interesting when on one day the power kept failing!)
- painting hundreds of faces (definitely improved over the week... on the first day a few kids were traumatised by their reflections and may have wiped tiger-attempts straight off... o dear!)
- braiding many little girls' hair (difficult in wind!)
- eating a whole load of burgers (they were really tasty though thankfully!)
- chatting with people and offering to pray for them
- dancing like mad people to MJK's choons
- then packing everything down at the end of the day!!!
so not surprisingly we were pretty tired by the end. But it was so great to put on a quality event totally for free, and to represent local churches in a range of different communities. Everyone worked really hard and it was a privilege to get to know the young people from the area as well as others who came from further afield to help out.
crazy the things i've ended up doing this year that i never would have done otherwise. but i guess that was part of the point!!!
and now to enjoy a chilled saturday :-) before the final trip next week - up to inverness, on a bus, oh yehhhh....
No comments:
Post a Comment