Happy Days
Monday, January 08, 2007
I love that phrase made famous by Jamie Oliver. The last few days have all been good.
Thursday was preparing for and then running volunteer leader meetings with the different teams who run some of our mid-week groups. They seemed to go quite well - all the volunteers seem keen to develop the groups and see them grow, and ultimately to disciple the young people and help them in their spiritual journey. It has led to me doing some thinking on how we attract families as a church. We are good at getting a reasonable amount of children to our mid-week groups but struggle to replicate that on a Sunday morning. I am sure I will be posting more about my thoughts in the next few weeks.
The other thing that was really good is that many of them seem receptive to the training opportunities (Children's Ministry Conference and Junction 28). I am hoping in the next few days to finalise the funding applications needed, and the booking of my volunteers on various events.
Highlights from the weekend included the Junction 28 AGM with some changes in the leadership, which are both sad and happy at the same time. Mary who founded the group and has led it for the last four years has decided it is time to move on and so I and Steve Tinning have taken over.
Steve and Lauren came over for dinner on Saturday evening which was lovely. It was great to spend time with someone else who shares many of the same passions and frustrations and to see the way in which because of the work we do, our life is different to that of many other young married couples because our work is our calling and, to a degree, our life.
As a side point some of the local youth workers have been blogging. Tim from New Harvest Community Church has been blogging for a while, and Steve from Brentwood Baptist Church has recently joined the blogsphere, although seems to have stopped already!
Sunday was a busy day at church with lots of activities starting back. We made bread in younger church which was great fun – the kids seemed to really enjoy the kneading and managing to get flour everywhere! In the evening we had the first Doubt your Doubts of the year, which was great. The band seemed to be on form, and Tim gave a good short talk and then left all the young people 20 minutes to find some space and do some guided activities which were so well written.
Today has been a day of admin and trying to sort exactly how the £6000 grant that we got will be spent – the cheque is supposed to arrive this week which is great as we get to spend it during the sales and get more for our money. Tessa, my volunteer admin assistant, came in this afternoon and helped me beast a whole load of mail outs so I had a large sense of satisfaction.
This evening our two Monday night groups started back again. Both seemed quite chilled out, but it was lovely to catch up with all the young people. They are at the age, where at least some of the time, they seem to really appreciate what we do with them.
Even more exciting though is that tomorrow is my day off. It has been changed to a Tuesday because stuff get on cropping up on a Saturday that I had to do and so I would loose out on my day off. I am hoping to get lots of sleep, spend some time reading, do a bit in the garden, and play on Championship Manager which I have got back off Phil, my brother-in-law. As I said at the start happy days!
Thursday was preparing for and then running volunteer leader meetings with the different teams who run some of our mid-week groups. They seemed to go quite well - all the volunteers seem keen to develop the groups and see them grow, and ultimately to disciple the young people and help them in their spiritual journey. It has led to me doing some thinking on how we attract families as a church. We are good at getting a reasonable amount of children to our mid-week groups but struggle to replicate that on a Sunday morning. I am sure I will be posting more about my thoughts in the next few weeks.
The other thing that was really good is that many of them seem receptive to the training opportunities (Children's Ministry Conference and Junction 28). I am hoping in the next few days to finalise the funding applications needed, and the booking of my volunteers on various events.
Highlights from the weekend included the Junction 28 AGM with some changes in the leadership, which are both sad and happy at the same time. Mary who founded the group and has led it for the last four years has decided it is time to move on and so I and Steve Tinning have taken over.
Steve and Lauren came over for dinner on Saturday evening which was lovely. It was great to spend time with someone else who shares many of the same passions and frustrations and to see the way in which because of the work we do, our life is different to that of many other young married couples because our work is our calling and, to a degree, our life.
As a side point some of the local youth workers have been blogging. Tim from New Harvest Community Church has been blogging for a while, and Steve from Brentwood Baptist Church has recently joined the blogsphere, although seems to have stopped already!
Sunday was a busy day at church with lots of activities starting back. We made bread in younger church which was great fun – the kids seemed to really enjoy the kneading and managing to get flour everywhere! In the evening we had the first Doubt your Doubts of the year, which was great. The band seemed to be on form, and Tim gave a good short talk and then left all the young people 20 minutes to find some space and do some guided activities which were so well written.
Today has been a day of admin and trying to sort exactly how the £6000 grant that we got will be spent – the cheque is supposed to arrive this week which is great as we get to spend it during the sales and get more for our money. Tessa, my volunteer admin assistant, came in this afternoon and helped me beast a whole load of mail outs so I had a large sense of satisfaction.
This evening our two Monday night groups started back again. Both seemed quite chilled out, but it was lovely to catch up with all the young people. They are at the age, where at least some of the time, they seem to really appreciate what we do with them.
Even more exciting though is that tomorrow is my day off. It has been changed to a Tuesday because stuff get on cropping up on a Saturday that I had to do and so I would loose out on my day off. I am hoping to get lots of sleep, spend some time reading, do a bit in the garden, and play on Championship Manager which I have got back off Phil, my brother-in-law. As I said at the start happy days!
1 comments:
Nicky
said...
January 09, 2007 11:46 am
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Hey Chris, glad to hear that everything is going well. You still seem so busy though. Hope you enjoy your day off today. I also have a "day off" today. Have a lot of paper work for placement to do, and my next assignment to start! The joy!!!!! Take it easy. Lots of love, Nicky.xxx