Week thirteen to Seventeen: Too much stuff in it to think of a summary title...

So that was Christmas, and what did I do…. Okay I am not going to continue my blog in the writing pattern of John Lennon Christmas tune lyrics…

This Christmas was an interesting one. As you know I was away from my home for this Christmas period, and I will first off say, that it was difficult, however that didn’t stop me having a wonderful time. Since my last blog was general over view of the month, this one starts on a Saturday.

The Saturday before Christmas started with all the roommates leaving, bar Pedro, to their families. Then we went to a co-workers house to dog sit for them, for the week they were away (over Christmas). The house was beautiful, to say the least, and it was nice to spend Christmas break with the comforts of a Television, soft bed, a pool, and a ping pong table. Of course I had to look after three amazing dogs for this deal, a husky, retriever, and a terrier. All were very hyper, but very friendly.

Andrew And I Photo Bombing the four Abbies

The Sunday, of course was the candle for Love, and in the contemporary service Pastor Jenn Stiles-Williams preached a mighty powerful sermon on the matter. If you go on the St. Luke’s UMC website, you may be able to find it, and I do recommend you see it (Google St. Luke’s UMC Orlando). On Love Sunday in the Youth Sunday school we of course preached on Joy…. This was because we wanted the kids to experience joy in fellowship on the last day before break, and we did that through a short bible study, and then some group games, and of course (in my mind the key to joy) food! That evening we went to the Stiles-Williams for some lovely food, and the chance to watch some superb Christmas films. It was so nice to be able to spend time with them at this Christmas period.                        

    Oh yea I kind of lost the dogs for an hour, but eventually got them back…

Monday was spent working with Andrew, on what the next Sunday School series was going to be, and the videos we needed to record. It was a fairly relaxed work day where we went to lunch at an excellent BBQ joint, called Four Rivers. I then went back to the house I was looking over, to chill, before leaving for Amy Winslow’s house, for an open house Christmas party. This involved lovely food, a speed boat ride, and just generally was great craic all round (good fun, for my American friends).  This also include Amy sitting Pedro down with a doctor, whom she had instruct to scare him into getting the right treatment for his heart condition, and not just waiting till the internship finished.

Not a Christmas service, but the redefined contemporary.

Tuesday was known in the St. Luke’s Calendar as Pre-eve… yea I know a bit weird (to those back home), but the idea behind it, was to free up seats for the Christmas Eve services, for the people who tend to just appear at Christmas services, by having services on Pre-eve. When you have as many people come through your doors as St Luke’s does over Christmas, it sort of makes sense. Never the less I attended the contemporary Pre-eve service, and I have to say it was a very peaceful experience, the message was great, of course it was Pastor Bill who is always on his A-game; mind you so are all the Pastors at St. Luke’s from what I have seen so far. So much attention is put into every sermon, every prayer, every call to worship, it is inspiring….Not that my father doesn’t…. it is just great to see it isn’t just him who puts so much work into preaching…. I think I saved myself there….Any way, the service was brilliant, the music especially sent shivers down my back at times, it was so in tune, not just musically, but in tune to the feeling around the St Luke’s sanctuary, this feeling of anticipation.

Wednesday I had the joys of the Child participation nativity, which involved around 100-200 children singing and dancing, and dressed up as characters from the nativity. I would read the story of the nativity, and then Pastor Bill would invite the children dressed in the correct outfits to come up to the alter space, once they came up in the story. It was (vaguely) organized chaos, but fun none the less. I then went to Amy Winslow’s with Pedro for dinner, where we met her extended family, and of course had more excellent food. Then Pedro and myself went to the 11:45pm Christmas Eve communion service to see in the special day, in a way that I could convince myself I actually went to church on Christmas Day, as they rarely do that in Methodism here.

Christmas Day! I slept in….. First time I have ever done so. Then I got up and walked the dogs, and opened my presents, including a box of tuncocks tea cakes, and a dvd of the dead poet society. We then went to my friend Wendy’s house for Christmas day, which included food throughout the day, including Ham, green bean casserole, a potato dish, and pineapple pudding…which you eat with your main meal (shock horror), but was delicious. Then we had a tremendous banoffee pie for afters. It was very chilled and relaxing, just perfect for Christmas away from home.

On the Friday (American’s don’t do Boxing Day) Pedro and I made sure the house we were in was spotless, especially after all the mad parties we had been throwing (that is most definitely sarcasm, no parties were thrown…)We left and went with the College students to TGI Friday’s for dinner, followed by City Walk at Universal, then back to the intern house to chill. After the college students had left, Ruth came home with three of her siblings, all as equally mad as her…but also as equally friendly. I spent time talking with them, and catching up with Ruth, till the small hours of the morning….

Go sports team!

On the 29th I went to my first American Football game with Mike Jones, which was a College bowl game at the Orlando Citrus bowl. It was a true spectacle! Full of action, running, game food, and... television time outs. Yes the game is totally run by the television networks!

My New Years Eve was spent with my roommate Sarah and her friends till just before midnight and then I left to go to the infamous iHop, international house of pancakes, with the St. Luke’s College students. It was great… till the next morning where I woke bright and early to discover I had either food poisoning or some stomach bug. So was sick all day. Just the way I wanted to start my new year.

The first week of the New Year was spent mostly preparing curriculum for Sunday school for youth, and Wednesday Children’s ministry, this involved a lot of looking for videos, planning lessons and then making power points. It may sound boring, but with the number of videos I have listened and watched, I have so many more ideas for the bible studies I will be writing in the following months. The preparation also involved recording a lot of videos, with messages from Andrew, and small videos from Pedro and I.

The week after was spent writing the power points for the confirmation, which is the process that the United Methodist Church uses for youth to enter into full membership. It is involves attending at least ten services and Sunday morning classes, which cover everything from church history, the bible, trinity, theology, grace, sacraments, and more! This week Shakeria also had to leave back home, so as to have medical insurance that would cover for certain procedures not covered by the YAMM insurance. It is hard to understand for people back home, how health benefits from a job are make or break at times. It was a hard time for the whole house.

I also spent these two weeks with global missions development, starting a dialogue with a Guatemalan mission, as well as trying to get information from a prominent Floridian University on their public health programme. The questions I asked to the Guatemalan mission were brilliant according to the missions development director, but horrifically difficult according to the executive director of missions. They did however reply promptly, and in full, so we are kind of now five steps ahead of where we would have been had I asked the easy questions…. I guess.

This month of January, I went with my Youth to Florida City, home of Pedro, to his home church, and St. Luke’s missions partner, Branches.  This is a non-profit whose mission is “To serve, educate and inspire people through student, family and financial stability services in partnership with our communities”. I must say from what I saw there I was massively impressed, it is a mission which could benefit many communities in Northern Ireland.

A accident sees Andrew impaled... this was a joke.

We went down to join them over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and help with their service week end, and continue with keeping our friendship between St. Luke’s and Branches a strong and loving one. The youth socialized with the branches youth, and attended services. On the Saturday we helped do garden work on a locals garden, which needed a lot of TLC. It was great fun in the glorious sun! Sunday they helped with a family day at the church centre, including helping with face painting, sports, cooking, serving food, and leading arts and crafts. They did this while Andrew and myself built bookcases from scratch. You should never under play the ability to work with your hands in ministry, it is a massively useful skill; the bookcase turned out beautifully. Then Monday the youth went to paint a house, while Andrew and I put 1.85 TON bell, into its yoke, using “physics and redneckery” it all went well till I dropped an engine lift on my finger… it doesn’t feel right still… but hey!

We came home that day for us to have a day off on Tuesday, to then have Wednesday programming, followed by me house sitting again, for three days, lounging by a pool…it was very tasking…

This weekend the interns and I, went on retreat to Fort Myers on the Gulf of Mexico. It was beautiful. We had a lot of classes on Monday, looking at the growth within our houses, possible issues, and our own personal growth.

 Then on the Tuesday we went to ECHO Global Farming project HQ, which is involved in researching and implementing the use of suitable technology, to help with farming in tropical areas. They had numerous farms there, including an arid farm, a mountainous farm, and an urban farm. All were used to test out suitable technology, by which means using materials of easy access like tyres, and rope and sticks. 

The rest of the time was used to relax. I swam and sat on the beach the rest of the day. 

I came back Wednesday to jump straight into programing with the children’s ministry, and I should mention, it was my birthday. Then that evening we had youth, with small groups, which actually turned into a Disney princess party for myself, organised by Andrew and Pedro, because I am just a princess at heart.

That brings us up to now!

Prayers

Prayer I continue to find more, and more powerful each week, as I continue this walk of mission, ministry, and faith. 

Please keep my family in your prayers as my father changes medication, my brother has selected his GCSEs, and my mother has to put up with the two of them.

Keep my roommate Pedro in prayer.

Keep all the Stiles-Williams in prayer, they continue through dealing with stupid and ridiculous (aka cancer and chemotherapy) and with Grace being in her final year of High school, all the stress is getting larger and more real.  

Pray for Andrew.

Pray for my youth.

And pray for Keria.

Continued prayers for my strength, and passion in my current field of work would be appreciated.


"Forty Four games" will return next week...

 Reflection

I saw something this month at branches that made me think. At the service on the Sunday there were a solid 50 people, whom were actually from Branches, but at the times they were serving in the community on MLK Monday, every one of them was there and helping. But at other churches I have been to, including churches home and here, only a fraction of the congregants serve, and that is the norm. But one of our key callings as Christians is to go out and make disciples of all nations, and love each other as we have been loved, and one way we should fulfilling these two commands is by going out and serving! We can love on each other by working with each other, helping each other. This then will show others our faith ,showing ourselves as Christ-centric, which will help them with their own decisions, on their own fauth. 
What if we had all members of the congregation out serving either with church missions, or with other non-profits, imagine all that could be done!

Peace,

Owain.

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry

Dear one and all whom read my blog.

I am truly sorry for not keeping you up to date with my goings on over here state side. This past month has been madly busy with retreats and visits to mission partners, and then everything else that is usually in my week!
I am in the middle of creating a blog for the total of January, which should be along soon.
Once again sorry.

Peace,
Owain

An Open Letter to My Friends the YAMM-ers

Owain H. Campton

Yamm-lando

Florida

USA

YAMM-ers

St. Petersburg, Orlando, Jacksonville

Florida

USA

My friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ!

                I pray this letter finds you in a good place. The whole point in these devotions, and what you all have done in each of your carefully crafted pieces, was to motivate, support, and show love to each of us.

Let me say I love each one of you, whole heartedly, and you may say “but Owain you only know me from our winter retreat of three days” or “who is this Owain?!” as you have just started on this programme. I love each of you because I know what you are doing! You have intentionally started to serve in a mission setting, and either this makes you absolutely mad, or means you have a heart to serve, and care for others, in missions or ministry! I am of course presuming you are mostly the second, of these, and I love you for that!  (Though to be fair I am almost definitely a bit of both)

                               

I hope you all can see the effect of the powerful work, which should be enough to motivate you all to continue; If you cannot though, I want you to know that no matter what you do, no matter how small the ripple, as long as it is fully through the name of God, you will be making tidal waves somewhere, and you may not ever see it, but if you are working for the Glory of God, he will definitely have a plan, and you are most certainly a part of it!

Some of you are starting up, and may be worried; some of you have, and are leaving us early, and both groups will be feeling a set of emotions at this time. Be this the feeling you couldn’t see your work to completion, or be it not fully sure exactly how your work is going to unfold. Take it from me, it doesn’t matter what trials you may go through, but it is all going to be okay. I have in my mind been to hell and back, and I know no matter how hard it may get, God I always behind you, even if you do not think you can always see him, have faith, he is there for you.

Family in faith, Pray! Pray, for every single one of your concerns. From help in friendships, in work, or to finding those lost keys, God is here for absolutely everything. Prayer is our strongest link between us and God, because it is literally talking with our Heavenly Father! He may not answer in as direct a way as speaking to you with words, but he does always answer our prayers in the end.

Before ending this letter, and moving on to my reflection (as I do in all my recent blogs), I want to paraphrase something a Pastor, and friend said to the church, when questioned on why women are ordained. She (kinda) said, “I act in knowledge that when I finally meet our maker, it is only going to be me and him. None of the people who told me I couldn’t be a pastor because I was a women will be there, for me to say – they say I shouldn’t be a pastor- it is only going to be me accountable”. In your calling listen to God, don’t listen to those that put you down, who say you aren’t good enough, or can't  because you are a certain label. Listen to God, and if he says He wants to do something…. Do it, because he knows the plan he has for you. Think of it as we move through this year, in work, and all we do, and as we all start wondering, what next? God will lead, if you will follow.

Peace, love, and joy, and blessings to you all my friends,

Owain Campton.

Reflection
This week I was working on programming for Youth and Children's Ministries, and coming up to lent we are both looking at The Apostle's Creed, and I got all the videos for it, and after spending around ten hours on the children's ministry work, I looked at it last night, to check if it all was solid (aka Good)... At least I would have, if I hadn't lost the document... Ten hours of work gone... so after slightly panicking, I started trying to pull together some stuff together for it, and I stumbled across this video, which I now will be using for Youth ministry when the time comes. To think if I hadn't lost my work, I wouldn't have seen this, and wouldn't get to share it with my youth. Shows God works, amidst technical disaster.
It really got me thinking about what we really mean when we run off the Creed. Just like the Lord's prayer, we have a tendency to not even think about what we are saying. I hope this video gets you thinking as it did I.
Peace,
Owain.

Week Eight -Week Twelve: The Great Advent Blog.

So I have been real busy over the past month since my last blog, guess it comes with the territory of being a Churches Intern. So instead of doing my usual run through of my weeks day by day, I’m going to do a summary of what I’ve been doing in my separate departments, and my personal time.

Let’s start off with my work in Children’s Ministry.

Since the start of November we have been focusing on the advent series. Each week we would read scripture relating to a particular candle from the Advent wreath (Hope, Peace, Joy, Love, and the Christ candle). Then we would do some home baking with the children, from biscuits (American biscuits are like a scone with no sugar), to peppermint bark. I would then lead a story time, and a craft activity.

Recently the team has started onto planning the curriculum for children’s ministry Wednesday evening programing, between the start of January, and Lent.  For this I’m helping via finding videos relating to the elements of worship, to the Apostle’s Creed.

Also On Christmas eve, we had the Child participation Nativity pageant. This is where family bring their young children, dressed as Mary’s and Joseph’s (A roommate and I think the plural of Joseph should be Josephie), as well as other nativity roles, and some non-nativity characters (like dinosaurs). The children then participate by coming up to the Manger scene, as directed by pastor Bill, when their part of the Christmas story was read from the Gospel of Mathew and Luke. I had the honour of reading said story.

Let’s move on now, to my time with Youth Ministry  

Over the past month I have started to introduce my sports small group to tag rugby, they seem to vaguely enjoy it…. I have been starting to get a bit more involved in writing bible studies and curriculum for the Sunday school. Just before December we wrote our curriculum on the Advent series (what can I say we are adventurous), and currently are writing the curriculum for up till lent.

The adult Youth praise band have also had a number of performances including one where we did a cover of amazing grace, to the tune sweet home Alabama.

Of course from my time with the Youth, comes Forty-four games that I thought would end up with a child in hospital, but somehow didn’t….

#8 Escape the Fire

We got every youth in a group and surrounded them by a rope, which was raised up, representing fire, the group then had to get everyone out of the fire without them touching the rope, this is particularly tricky for the last couple of people. If someone touches the fire, then they and three others return into the fire!

#9 Blind dot race…

Get teams of three together and blindfold one of each team, and then place ten numbered dots (1-10) on the ground, at random.  The teammates must guide the blindfolded member, without entering the course, to hit every dot, in order. They do this by yelling left, right, forward, back etc… if they hit a number out of order, they have to start from the beginning.

#10 Elves Vs Reindeer

We also had our large Christmas game, Elves Vs Reindeer, which was a capture the flag game, where my team, the mighty mighty elves, destroyed those devilish reindeer. Of course we used marshmallow guns, to defend ourselves. We set out a field the size of a football (soccer) pitch, along with plywood Christmas trees to hide behind.

Along with our Elves Vs Reindeer we also had a bonfire (not like the ones on the twelfth… by a long shot) with smores, and hotdogs, along with a campfire sing-along which didn’t work out at all, because everyone was too involved in their own wee conversations.

Now we will move on to my time in Missions.

Through the month we spent time doing housing survey in the East Winter Garden area. This is what we will use to measure development over the years. We also had a massive Christmas shop, where we took donations of gifts we asked for, and sold them to families for $1-$5 depending on the RRP of the gift. At the actual shop I spent all afternoon in the kitchen cooking, and then the evening I did craft with the children as their parents went to the Christmas shop!

I have also been doing a number of research projects for the global missions department, in regards our Jamaican and Guatemalan missions. As always I have been doing a lot of database entry for them to help keep a register of all our volunteers, and to help keep people connected.

Now for something completely different, my time spent with Worship Team.

I did to worship related tasks this month; one was to take part in the lighting of the advent candle of Joy, along with the other four St. Luke’s interns. In this I had to write a small passage on how we bring joys to others, and I was told I could do it with a sense of humour, so I took this to the next level and rewrote the lyrics to “We Three Kings…”, this is what I wrote:

We four interns of pure joy are,

Bearing little we traverse a far,

One from Ireland, three from Florida,

Spreading Joy near and far…

OHHHHHH…….

We make people smile each day,

Smile from pranks that we do play,

Be it in missions or in ministry

We bring God Joy hear this day.

I also took part in the live nativity tour, where I was the tour guide, narrator, and the Angle Gabriel. The tour went through the whole St. Luke’s campus, talking on our different departments, arriving at different scenes from the nativity. What can I say, play the Arc Angle Gabriel, was the role of a lifetime.

Now, onto some of how I’ve spent my Free Time.

I spent thanksgiving with Andrew my boss, and had one meal at his family, and family friends, as well as one at his wife, Sarah’s, Family. The food was brilliant at both, and in all honesty the only two dishes I recognised, were turkey, and roast beef. My favourite new dish, was the sweet potato mash, served and cooked in a half orange, topped with marshmallow, (marshmallow I hear you cry, all I can say is welcome to ‘Merica).

The evening ended with Andrew and I, meeting up with Pedro, and then going shopping, from 8PM, till 10AM, this was the infamous Black Friday shopping trip. I must say the deals were impressive, for instance there were $600 suits for $100-$200, or xbox 360’s for $99.

Recently we had the Yamm-lando (the name we have given the Orlando, YAMM house) Christmas dinner, where we exchanged Secret Santa Gifts, and had a meal, and watched elf.

 No matter how much we may get on each other’s nerves at times, just like a family, we always do end up having a good time.

We also produced a wee reflection on what we are joyful for, to go to our leading lady Heidi (the Yamm-commander)

Reflection

After a powerful experience praising God with middle schoolers at a program we were helping run (Wildlife) where we also played Elves Vs Reindeer, I really took a hard look at how I worship and praise, which ended with me writing a bible study for Wednesday night youth on my personal and scripture findings. I ended on with this video, which I actually saw at my first St. Luke’s staff meeting, way back in October, and to be honest it says much more than I could possibly write down here…

Prayer Requests

Please continue prayers for my pastor, and in my eyes a friend, Jenn Stiles-Williams, who is still battling with what she now calls Stupid (Cancer), and is currently going through Ridiculous (her term for  chemotherapy)

Please pray for the health of Jayne Andrews, my Children’s ministry boss, as she recovers from surgery, and continues her battle with Cancer.

Please keep my roommate, co-worker, and best mate Pedro in mind, as he now needs more medical treatment on his heart, as it is continuing to enlarge. He will be at the doctors again on Monday.

Please pray for my other roommate and best friend Shakeria, as she deals with certain issues in her life.

Please pray for my father, that his health may be restored, and possessions stolen from him returned.

Please keep my in your prayers as well, that I may continue to see the guiding hand of God, through my work, and that I stay motivated. 


Peace
Owain

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.

Week Six. Christmas strikes back!

Week six, or as I apparently pronounce it “week Sex” due to my accent… they wind me up about my pronunciations a lot, but hey, such is communal living. Yet again I am a week late, so please accept my apologies.

Week Six started with the start Christmas… Yes, here as soon as Halloween is over, Christmas begins. Of course they have thanksgiving here (the last Thursday of November), but seem to overlook it and start playing Christmas tunes everywhere.  So I came into St. Luke’s to have a meeting in Children’s ministries, on what we were doing now the Genesis session was over, and also to start planning our topics come January, because we only had four weeks of programming before we finished for the two weeks off at Christmas, and with one week off at Thanksgiving, we had to start onto the Advent series… Yes I had to start talking about the Christmas story in November. So we agreed on the order of each week, in which I would take the kids who came in for the second half of afternoon programming, and those who remained from the first half (as many go off to the children’s choir), and I would read them a Christmas themed story, along with the corresponding scripture from Matthew and Luke, along with organising a corresponding craft activity, and either preparing games for them, or bringing them to the playground. Although I don’t yet feel in the Christmas spirit, I still love getting to read with the children, and talk to them about what they do at Christmas. Their wee worlds are just brilliant.

I went straight from that meeting to another, this time with global Missions in regards to the phone call script I wrote up in preparation to trying to set up a new missions partner with our Jamaica Health Mission. Apparently the letter was completely perfect, then we went on to change everything except four lines…. It was funny though, to see how some phrases I use are just not used here in the States, there are a number of cultural differences I have started to pick up on recently.

That afternoon I had children’s ministries, and youth ministries between three PM and eight PM.

Thursday started off with a staff meeting for Missions, where we went over the plans between now and Martin Luther King Day in January. Basically a lot going on over Christmas…. And I mean a lot…. More on that as it comes. But afterwards I worked a bit more on a Jamaica partnership and then went and did my first ground work in East Winter Garden.

In EWG Shakeria and I, went around rating houses by appearance, and maintenance needed to the roof, garden, and other structures. We did it by street so we could map out the assets in the community, to set down a general marker, which we can compare the community to in a year to give us an idea on how the transformation is going. It was another good experience to compare and contrast communities from back home with East Winter. After we just sat in the park, which consists of two basketball courts, and a play park, and I just sat and observed the people around. It was not that different to areas of Ballybeen, or Finaghy.

Friday I was off all day and did absolutely nothing… I just sat back and chilled.

Saturday was another Christmas experience, with the United Methodist Women’s Christmas Bazaar (I still stand by that it should be bizarre as it is so early). I was there for just after eight to sell doughnuts and coffee, for the youth fellowship scholarship fund, followed by selling pizza and soda at lunch. To start off, the doughnut guy never showed up, so Pedro had to pick up some from Publix (equivalent to a regular Tesco). Publix only had a dozen. They sold in a flash. Then as it was sports day, and Liverpool FC and Ireland where playing I was checking the score every so often under my small sub sales desk, leading to the Youth Director, Andrew, getting a picture of me looking as if I was asleep… I was not…

To wrap it up, the pizza was late, so instead of getting three deliveries at 10:30, 11:30, and 12:30, we got three around 12:15…. We still sold a lot, and made a good bit of money to the Youth scholarship. Within my time at the Bazaar I saw way too much Christmas, and also a scale replica of the titanic (pictured along with proud new owner), it was just mad!

I went home and watched the last ten minutes of Ireland’s glorious victory over South Africa, which I had sent my family back home to! After that I just did as little as possible.

Sunday started off with Sunday School, where I was with the 7^th and 8^th graders. I cannot stress how hyper they are… and this is at 9:30 in the morning! Still I love working with them!

I then had Sunday contemporary worship, where we looked at the How to Be Rich series on stewardship, particularly fitting, given St. Luke’s current financial status, due to a lack of financial donations through the offering.

Sunday afternoon me Andrew and Pedro sat down and designed a game, which didn’t require us to go by anything else, as to save as much as we can, so this game possibly was one of the more dangerous ones, please do see below for details. So at Youth Fellowship we played this mad game, and then we had a message from Miriam, whom I work with in global missions, on a task the youth were in charge of. The task was, they were to decide where $500, would go, out of a number of cases in Mexico and Malawi, who were applying for a micro loan, to develop their business, and to help local the community economy. It is a great opportunity for youth, to just sit down and talk over these cases, and to think about pros and cons on where this money goes, I love how they are actually given control over the money and where it goes, and not made to just observe what happens.

Monday I came into work, to help Andrew and Pedro, on the new Sunday school curriculum, along with some database entry. We discussed and planned the next four weeks, up to the Christmas, break, and we (as you could guess) are going to focus on advent, mainly joy, peace, and hope, Christmas break starts too early to do love. So we will be scripting, and recording videos for these classes over the next weeks.

Tuesday was another staff meeting where we looked onto the next How to be rich video, which was a very powerful message on how God is not impressed by the amount you give, not by the number of zeros after a number, but by the percentage you give, to paraphrase. Imagine how much the church could do if we all just gave 5% (never mind the tithing 10%). So much more could be done.

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

#6 The Mummy Obstacle Course

So this came about as we were looking through our youth store room, to see what we had to make a game out of.

Basically you need shaving foam, paper plates, baby diapers, and lots of toilet role, and things to create an obstacle course.  Split the youth into teams of six, five have to complete the obstacle course, to collect supplies, of one plate of shaving foam, one baby diaper, and three toilet roles. They then dress the sixth up as an Egyptian Mummy, by wrapping them in paper and putting shaving foam in the diaper, and putting the diaper on their head. Prizes for, the first group to finish, and for the best looking Mummy.  

In our obstacle course we had a wall of boxes for them to dive over onto gym mats, followed by two crawl tunnels made out of large boxes and hoola-hoops, ending in a wheelchair race, round a cone course.

I want to start something this week that I will try to do each week. I will post a video, or a post I have seen, that has made me go "hmmmm" with a brief thought on it. 

A Thought from the Week

This is a video which I first saw in my second week of my work here, and I recently saw it again in the past week, and I don't believe it has been seen back home that much. It especially speaks to me trying to move towards a life of following the teaching from John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
I feel there is little else I need to say about this video, as it already says so much.

So ends my sixth week, week seven, and prayer requests will soon follow.

Week Five, Run Through!

So the past two weeks I have been neglecting my blog. I have also been forgetting to take photos. so this week is going to be a lot of words, with little colour, I am sorry, I hope next week will be more exciting.

 To be honest the majority of the weeks were just work as normal, nothing to spectacular at all so in this blog I am going to just run through what I did in brief, and then I will expand on some of the interesting, or new things I have started on.
So Wednesday the 29th was business as usual. I worked with children ministries, then youth ministries, and it all very uneventful. That night however, Three college students, Pedro, and Andrew (youth director), and I, went to universal studios, to go to Halloween Horror Nights. Basically Americans take Halloween to a level I have never really experienced. In the park there where entertainers dressed in scary attire, all from films, like The Purge. There were also scare houses, which you would queue up to walk through a house filled with strobe lighting, dry ice fog, and entertainers dressed and acting to try make you jump out of your skin. I honestly would have found it relatively terrifying, if it weren't for the fact one of the college students (Francesca) was so freaked out, it was comical. She actually put herself in a head lock with her head buried deep into Andrews stomach, as to not see anything. Most amusing. We unfortunately only got through two houses, as we were given false information on opening hours, but despite that I had a great time.

The next day (Thursday the 30th) I had missions staff meeting first thing, followed by a meeting with Marian Megistie, who is currently overseeing Global Missions. We discussed a project she wanted me to help with. She wanted me to research University of South Florida's Public Health department, to get contact details for faculty in the different sections of the department. This is because we are needing to change the mission direction in Jamaica, due to suggestion by the Jamaican Government. Recently Jamaica has had to take on a loan from the world bank, and this was followed by terms that they'd raise taxes everywhere, including now taxing missionaries. So we have been working with them to find a way of striking a deal to reduce the amount the missionaries are taxed.
So that day I spent researching USF Public Health.

Friday 31st, I was meant to be off, but instead I came in to help with the final day at the pumpkin patch, then skyped home, and went to the UCF Wesley Halloween party.

Saturday the 1st of November, I spent the morning at a farmers market, in Winter Park, followed by lunch with Sarah, and a couple of her friends. The afternoon however, I travelled to East Winter Garden, to help with the running of a Dreams for our Community meeting. East winter is essentially a working class community, which is highly under developed in areas. I found it great listening to all the hopes the residents had, and just hearing their stories. It was a great to be able to compare and contrast the differences and look at similarities between some of the communities back home and EWG.
After East Winter Garden the St Luke's Interns went to Amy Winslow's house, as they were having a scary movie marathon, with food. you will find that typically, if there is food, the interns will be there.

Sunday was normal, we had Sunday morning bible school, then worship, followed by planing for youth that night. At YF we used the youth to clear the pumpkin patch of the remaining pumpkins.

On Monday the 3rd, I was off. However Jenn Stiles-Williams, was in surgery, so Sam, and I went to the Stiles-Williams residence with brownies. We chilled there for two and a half Harry Potter films (That is an official measurement of time). I also got to do some quantum mechanics, which was refreshing.

On Tuesday the 4th, we had the usual staff meeting, where we are all studying Andy Stanley's How to Be Rich, which I highly recommend to anyone reading this, it raises many great points on how we look at our finances, and how we look at our giving, and how we look at our priorities of what in life is truly important.

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

#5                Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors

Okay this wasn't that dangerous, at all, but still was a great youth game, which this segment is really about. Everyone starts of playing a game of R,P,S against an opponent, who ever looses ha to follow the victor around, and then you repeat, between victors, who ever then looses has to follow the new victor, with their entire team, until there is one victor, who hasn't lost a single game, and has everyone following them. 

I guess if you want to make it more ultimate, you could get them playing with real rock paper and scissors.... I am joking, don't do that....

And this concludes my late fifth week. Week six will follow soon. along with my prayer concerns.

Peace,
Owain