Week Seven: Social Justice, and Money, Money, Money... must be funny....

Finally I am (kinda) caught up, yes it has involved three blogs in one week, but no matter, I am caught up!

This week started off with a Wednesday meeting in Children’s Ministries, once again planning what we were doing that day, and also looking towards January programing. I then had two hours of trying to start looking at the youth Sunday school curriculum for the next six weeks. By that I meant I was looking at what needed to be done, we have to write and record video messages, pick verses, as well as write questions. There is a lot to be done, but thankfully we have two weeks off from Sunday school to prepare. I then had a meeting with my Boss-boss, Lynette,  and my two sub-bosses, Andrew and Jayne, to try clear up my timetable, so I would not be pulled in too many directions at once.  That afternoon I took children through the story of the shepherds, using scripture, and the book “The Donkey in the Living Room”, which in my opinion is a bit young for the eldest in the class, but perfect for the youngest. Then as the week was “Peace” we all did some painting in watercolours, to calm, peaceful classical music, that is if you can call “A Night on Bare Mountain” calm, or peaceful….

The evenings youth programing was small groups, as usual, in which my sports group played thirty minutes of Ultimate Frisbee, and thirty minutes Basketball…. As I now realise I am shocking at making shots…. I blame this on having an arm that has the careful controlled power, of a learner driver in a Ferrari.

Thursday first thing was a Missions Staff meeting in the new property in East Winter Garden, including a tour of the house. It was a lot better than I imagined, and I truly can see the potential there now. The meeting was basically the norm after the tour, we went through plans and movements up till Martin Luther King Jr Day in January. The rest of the day was devoted to database work, and getting ready for camp.

Friday, I awoke bright and early, to go shopping for a tie dye shirt. I was one of the leaders of Team Tie Dye at the Warren Willis Social Justice Youth Camp. So I got a funky shirt with a weird floating cat head on it… Tie Dye is hard to find, so I took the first shirt I could find…. Then Pedro and I headed to the church to help build banners for the three teams our youth group where part of, Pink, Yellow, and obviously the best: Tie Dye.

 This is where Andrew, the youth director, introduced us to his new nerf gun, with rocket launcher. It is dangerous. At around 17:30 we boarded the bus with youth, to take the hour and a bit journey to the camp. Once we arrived we had a worship service and communion, in which they introduced us to the topic of the weekend, focusing around love, and equality. That night, as a youth we sat down to go a bit more into depth on what we would be looking at, as well as trying to get across the message that we were to treat every opinion in our group with fairness, and non-aggressive responses.

Saturday, we all were awoken early, by the glorious sound of the Bagpipes, played by Andrew. It is definitely one way to get a teenager outta their beds, and I encourage parents to try it, on those days they’d rather not go to school. After breakfast we had morning worship, and then split into our rotation groups. St. Luke’s first rotation was to small groups, where each of our three groups, went a talked amongst themselves on the topic of the camp. In my group I found it very interesting to see their responses to the idea of loving everyone. It wasn’t just a unanimous response of yes we will love everyone, as to move the topic on, but they engaged well as to discuss the difficulties of doing so.

Our second rotation was that on a talk of equality, focusing around the stories of the “Freedom Riders”, a story I had never heard, on the groups of people of many backgrounds, who came to the south to challenge the laws on segregation, by sitting in the opposite area of the bus than was designated to their skin colour. It was a interesting talk, however may have been able to delve in a bit deeper into the topic.

Third rotation for us was a workshop on how we should focus on similarities rather than differences. We did a “power walk” where we moved to left or right side of the room depending on where we fitted in. For example one was “go to the left if you were born outside of the states, go to the right if you were born here.” I and two others were on the left. Then we started talking about feelings we show, or do not show in public, and it got a bit weird from there in.

Final rotation was that of colour-wars tug of war, in which it was a three way tug of war between Yellow, pink, and the great Tie Dye. All I can say is that it was rigged….

The final rotation was followed by the full colour wars, in which there were more games, and races, like a giant ski race, and wheelbarrow race, and jump-rope challenge. This finished in a group race through a bounce house, obstacle course. Team Tie Dye did well in the races, winning a number of them, and with the bagpipes blaring we fought well, but at the end of the day it was to no avail, as the games were rigged from the start, as a demonstration to how this world isn’t fair… Or so I was told, so the Black Team won.

That evening we had worship and communion again, and the sermon was interesting. It was focusing, as was the topic, on equality across all areas, race, sexual orientation, gender, all areas. However at times I felt the sermon became a bit more focused on anecdotes rather than any other content. Looking back on it I feel I got caught up in the moment, thinking it was great, but honestly think it was a bit thin, and could have pushed the issue further.

Sunday morning was much the same with worship and communion before we headed homeward.

Once back at St. Luke’s, Pedro, Andrew and I got Greek Gyro (Kebab meet to you and I) and then came back to the Attic youth hall and napped for an hour before youth praise band practise. Who knows why we decided having youth fellowship straight after camp was a good idea.

That night at youth in small groups, we were once again talking about who to invest in using a micro loan. I was taking the 7^th grade girls, which after organising them, so as not everyone was just shouting over one another, lead to great discussion over the topic. I arranged it as a mini debate, so they could raise a person they believed should be invested in and they had to argue their case, followed by opening it to someone against the case, then we voted. It worked well, however to keep things fair, I had to inform them when they said something that was factually incorrect, which to be honest only happened a few times.

Monday was very much a recovery day from camp. The house went shopping, and that was about it.

Tuesday morning was spent in a heart breaking staff meeting, where we found out people working at the church, above a certain age, where now being offered early retirement packages, as the church is now into the red to the tune of $250,000. This is not due to over spending by the departments, as they actually underspent, by around $140,000. It is actually due to the lack of offering from the congregation, as St Luke’s is an entirely self-funded organisation; it relies on its members tithing. I know many reading this can't really help St. Luke’s, but I pray that whatever church you may go to, you think about your giving, as we tend to be spontaneous, sporadic, givers, but charities and churches need, thought out, constant givers. So instead of just a couple of pounds or dollars in the charity box at Tesco, or the spare change in your pockets into the offering, why not actually look at what you give spontaneously, and decide to put than money to one cause? Why not look at your income, and look at the percentage you give to the church, and try to increase it by a tenth every other month, till you reach a percentage you believe is fair?

Tuesday night I cooked for the house, and Heidi, and enjoyed the joyful fellowship of roommates.

Forty-four games that I thought would end up with a child in hospital, but somehow didn’t….

#7 Ghost in the grave yard.

Get the children or youth to lie on the ground face up (they are the dead), in a darkened room, have a single ghost go around, and try make them laugh. If a child laughs, they two become a ghost and do the same. Aim is to be the last one on the ground, by keeping a straight face.

This Video is my Thought from the Week! I saw this wee lad for the first time, in this video which was used at camp. This Kid President, not only is hilarious, but raises the great point, of how we need to work together, regardless of differences, to create and try to make this world a better place.

Prayer request as always for my dear friends in the Stiles-Williams family, as well as all my housemates, and fellow interns working as YAMM, that they stay motivated and enthused by their work, and that they are shown all the appreciation the deserve.

Peace,

Owain.