Week Eighteen: Running in Faith and Colour...

Oh my goodness… I am twenty… What the heck! Gone is the excuse “I am a teenager”. Two decades down, unknown to go… This week, as you may have gathered is my first as a twenty year old, and I think I am settling into it well, and by that I mean absolutely nothing has changed. I still am working the same as I did, still am as (ill-)disciplined as I was two weeks ago, still interact with people in the exact same manor. I mean I knew I wouldn’t have any major epiphany, as I kept reminding my roommate Samantha, as she practically counted down the days till the house was teenager free. Though this birthday week has been very different, to start I haven’t had my dad calmly doing his tax return over it, of course I am joking. The lack of actual family was really weird at first though, but then I realised, I have a massive family here. I touched on my Wednesday birthday celebrations last week, and how Pedro and Andrew threw a Princess Birthday for me, but I didn’t mention the little things like my boss in children’s ministries, buying me a mountain dew (and even tied a bow around it) or Minister of Connection congratulating me, and giving me a hug. Really in life it is the small things that make things easier. Then my friend Francesca (one of those previously mentioned college students!) got me a card and candy, despite being broke at the moment, though how many students aren’t?  Then I did have that princess surprise party with my youth! I arrived home to find the house decorated by my roommates, with balloons and messages galore. We are all very busy, but the fact they took the time, and effort, to do all of that was just so warming, and loving. Honestly have struck it lucky with these guys. I came in knowing nothing about them, knowing I could be put in a house of freaks, and to be honest I have, but they are awesome freaks!

On Thursday I had the joys to come in for a meeting in mission development and I am serious when I say joy, I had been asking for this meeting since around New Year…. We got together, Lynette (executive director of missions), Miriam (Director of mission development), Kellie (Associate director of missions), and myself (director of squat all/intern); we talked on three points, Global missions, a Florida City intergenerational mission experience, and another intergenerational mission retreat. From Global missions we looked over the links I had made with a Floridian College, in regards to Public Health and our Jamaica mission, as well as the links I had made with this UMC Guatemalan mission, you know, the one I asked the stupidly difficult questions… Yea that one. We discussed how we were going on from there. Then for Florida City we talked over everything that needs to be done before the trip in  May, including producing an application form, going down to work out logistics, what exactly it was we were going to do. I will talk more on this next week, after we release all the information. Then I was given three different family mission based retreat facilities to look into, including ECHO, the global farm project I was at only two days before! The hope is to sort a family retreat, which will prepare families those who want to participate on St. Luke’s missions trips, be it local or global! I love being involved in the development process, as many know I have a rather… strong personality… which likes to have control, and leadership… and honestly (although I am not at all qualified to lead or have full control… at all!), this gives me some control over the content of these retreats, and over the development of our partnerships!

Friday was a day where I just chilled. I awoke to be invited by Francesca, to come round and watch Maze Runner with Pedro and the other students, though Pedro could not attend as he had DMV things to attend to, and the students ended up busy, so we watched Maze Runner, in glorious surround sound… which lead me to jump just a wee bit when weird sounds came from right behind me… totally kept my cool…

Then that night I had a brilliant experience, as I celebrated my birthday, with whom I can only describe as my American family, the Stiles-Williams. I mean they do mirror my home family in many, many ways. I did have a moment yesterday (Monday) where Jenn, did completely mother me, I will not give details, but it did make me laugh. They took me in, and cooked beautiful food, gave me some gifts, then took me out to the cinema to see The Hobbit (don’t get me started on that film…)(…I just question Peter Jacksons belief that his direction is more creative than Tolkien’s writing is…) (…That is all I am saying…)(…but can I also just say, Legolas is pointless and unneeded in this film series…)(…sigh…)Anyway, we saw the film, I got closure with the trilogy, then we returned to theirs for home baked (from a box) cake, complete with candles and ice-cream. There is no doubt that they are a blessing on my year here. They do everything to make me feel at home in this weird country!

So I got home around about midnight, and came in to be asked by my roommates “and where have you been to this hour young sir”. Now, I had told them, so knew they were joking, but I know that they do actually care on my where abouts and safety. They then proceeded to tell me we had to leave at 7am for the colour run 5k, which I had taken the place of Pedro on the team, this early morning wake did not fill me with joy… So 6:45 came, I woke, put on my white t-shirt and sports shorts and gym shoes, and forced myself into a vaguely conscious state, and we left for the Orlando Citrus Bowl, where the race would start and end. The race started at 8:30, but I didn’t pass the start line till 9:04, as they let people go in large groups. I started jogging at an even pace, only to find out my roommates decided (after 20m) that they were going to walk it, but not I. I decided before I was going to use this a fitness indicator, and was going to run it all, even if it killed me. I passed the first colour zone, which was Pink. I should say for those unfamiliar with colour runs, at these zones they spray powdered nontoxic paint on you. I should advise you, when going through these zones, close your eyes, and mouth, and just don’t breathe…. I couldn’t see for 10s, nearly taking out a small kid, and was coughing pink powder up for a solid minute… but I continued round, and went past each zone (learning from my original mistake) and finished in a time of 34minutes, which I was so happy with given: 1 I haven’t done any running in over two years now. 2 Intern life does not have the most healthy of diets… 

I arrived home, and stood in the shower a solid 30 minutes scrubbing…. The paint didn’t want to come off, and in fact I kind of gave up on some of it, didn’t care if I looked like I had some sort of skin disease down the insides of my arms…. Then I took a nap…. I needed it. That afternoon we saw Selma, that is Andrew, Laura (the one I dropped two pumpkins on her foot, and fired one at her face accidently in October…) Pedro, and myself went with the youth (and by that I mean two youth, one of whom was Laura’s daughter). Honestly Selma was massively educational and emotional for me, having known very little on the civil rights movement here in America!

That night I came home to my roommates, having to decide how to celebrate my 20^th… this took a solid hour and a half, as I didn’t fancy going to an 18 and up night club, where I couldn’t have anything to drink, mini golf was way out of an intern budget, so we settled on using house money to go to a nice dinner. Then we went through every option from American grill, BBQ, seafood (nope not for me….), buffet, Italian, Chinese, and finally came to the decision of Mexican! We went to this lovely place, Colibri, which was only a mile away. Lovely music, lovely staff, and food that was mouth-watering (you should know by now, I like my food…)We took an after dinner stroll down the gang walks out to the bridge, and around the local shops, it was very peaceful. We then returned home to play cards.

So not going to lie.... The next three days were very normal. Sunday was filled with Sunday school and Sunday evening programming, with the typical shenanigans after. Monday was a day of editing Sunday school videos, starting out out new programming plugged in, an after school programme, where youth come play games, do homework and just generally chill out!
Tuesday I wrote this blog, started work on a mission experience which I will be talking about very soon, and went to the Stiles-Williams.

Prayers

Of course continue to pray for the Stiles-Williams, with another Chemo week coming up, and Grace having two scholarship interviews this week, I am sure you can appreciate the stress that they are facing, but I am sure you can appreciate also, how despite all this, they have such kindness in them to still look out for me!

Prayers for Pedro, and his heart.

Prayers for my friend Fran, as she works out some stuff.

Prayers for Andrew, as he continues his path in ministry.

Prayers for my family back home.

Reflection

So here is the thing, last blog, I talked on Branches, and how it was amazing to see the service dedication, within their community. I commented how a huge percentage of congregant help in the service days, whereas at most larger churches, it is a tiny percent that actually is active in the community that the church works in. It got me thinking on what we as Christians are called to be.

You know, the bible says  Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples, and make disciples of all nations, and above all love each other as you have been loved. Now it is very possible I have some very dodgy theology here, but  how can we live into these commands  if we only go to church on a Sunday, or are only active within the walls of the church while at worship. Surely this means we should be out there, serving? I mean what better way to teach the gospel than to actually act through it! I am by no means saying I am good at this…. I suck at this… if it weren’t for the fact I am interning, I would not be well involved in the community my church connects to, but I am trying to use this internship, to put in place some foundations that will stick with me for the rest of my days, and I only put this out there to share my thoughts from processing all I saw at Branches. I did find this video helpful when exploring these thoughts.

Peace,

Owain