A Challenging Week

TYC went great this week. I spoke this week on the story of Jesus and the adulterer, where He said, “If you haven’t sinned you can throw the first stone.” I was anticipating a lot of talking and interruptions, so I planned a rather short talk, figuring it would spread longer. But the kids were relatively silent! I got through the talk and still had time to explain a little bit more about how Jesus loves the person, He just hates the sin; how Jesus didn’t come to condemn but to save! I was quite blown away by how attentive they were being and how involved they were in the story. I’m really praying that God will continue to bring up questions in their minds about Him. Questions that we know He can answer.

GYC was not nearly as successful, sadly. We’ve been having trouble with them constantly interrupting and talking over each other and us leaders, so I developed a game that would have only a few people able to talk, and getting them to use teamwork. Unfortunately, so many of the children had been misbehaving and loud that we couldn’t even give them all the instructions for the game. So the game flopped, and what was even more of a disappointment was the fact that nobody got the moral of the games. They  didn’t get to the place of understanding the value of their words and how difficult it can be not being able to talk. So I'm praying they will soon understand, despite this past week.

There was one boy in particular who was causing a lot of trouble.He would sneak off whenever he could, and basically reek havoc at every opportunity. But what has bothered me most about his behavior is the things that come out of his mouth. He is not especially cruel to others with his words, but he is able to turn even the most innocent action, word, or toy into some sexual innuendo. While I know the mind of a teenaged/preteenaged boy is not always clean, the way he brings stuff up makes me wonder what has he seen in his short life that he can relate nearly everything back to something sexual? I've tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention before, and he goes on to whine in a joking tone, "She touched me!" This boy is also a loudly proclaimed atheist. Please pray with me that God would do a work in his heart, and help help him through whatever he is dealing with. 

I have heard a lot of bad news this week and it was really starting to get me down. But then I have to remind myself that I don't have to constantly be carrying other people's burdens around, but that I can just give them to God to take care of. I have a hard time remembering that all the time.

Some good news though: Some of you may have heard, but the high school we were meant to go into to start mentoring some kids had shut it's doors to us a few weeks ago, but they called this week and said we can go in after all!!! Praise the Lord!!

Thank you so much for your prayers. They are much appreciated.

Prayer Spaces

What a week! On Wednesday and Friday some of us from Ignite joined a lady in running “Prayer Spaces” in one of the local schools. Basically we set up different places around this chapel where the kids can interact with different forms of prayer.

In one section we had a bunch of newspaper clippings glued to large pieces of cardboard and we let the kids read the headlines and write their thoughts and prayers on the subjects beside the clippings. It was very insightful as to the innocence of children. A lot of them wrote things such as “that’s not fair!” or “those people shouldn't
 have died”. 

We had a section where they could write down what they were thankful for, and while some of the answers were really silly, some were quite heartfelt. We had them write them on pieces of cardboard and pin them up on the hanging threads, creating a really cool effect.

We had places for them to imagine what they would do if they were to make a new world; what they would keep of our world and what they would do away with. Most said they would keep "Love" and "Kindness" and "Family". And when they wrote what they would do away with a lot of the kids said "Terrorism" or "hatred". 

You'll notice one child wrote that what they would want to keep from our world is "beds". Yes, I would like to keep those, too!

We had a space to write their cares and worries down, then they’d drop them in a box to symbolize giving them to God. Then we had a place with this tall bubble machine that lit up with different colors and sent bubbles continually upwards. With this we had the children write down their prayers and stick them to the tube as a symbol of their prayers going up to Heaven.








 
And one of the most popular spaces had a shredder in it. Here they could write down something they were sorry for and then stick it in the shredder to let God get rid of it. A lot of them said they felt relieved with it, while others said it was just plain fun to shred things. I found one little boy about to put the picture he drew of his sister down the shredder! Not quite what we were going for.

In both youth clubs we had our first week back, and both went really well! I tried introducing a “Question Ball” game where we had loads of questions written on a beach ball which (supposedly) would be tossed and whichever question your thumb lands on, you answer. Well, in GYC we only got one or two people to answer questions before they got bored and started kicking the ball around and we had fun just playing with the ball in the end. In TYC we had a spontaneous dance party and we acted out a few scenes of the Lion King!

All in all it was a great week. Thank you so much for your prayers and support for this mission. I am blown away by your generosity! We are seeing God work with these kids in the prayer spaces as well as in the youth clubs. God is good!

Miracle of Miracles!

When I started this adventure of moving to Wales to do an internship with a youth ministry I had no idea where the money was coming from to pay for it. I just knew that if God was calling me to do this He would have to finance it. I kept telling myself and others that God's pocketbook is bigger than mine, just to keep the faith. 

And now, He's proven it! I found out last week that the rest of my time here in Cardiff, Wales is paid for! I am FULLY FUNDED!! I still don't know where all of the money came from, but I do know that a lot of you have been praying and supporting me through this faith tester. I want to thank all of you again for everything you've done and given. It is so encouraging to be a part of such a large family of faith; my family in Christ that has been acting out their faith. You are all such a blessing to me and others. Thank you.

Things are still getting warmed up here after the new year. School started last week, but none of the clubs start until this week. We start in this week going full speed ahead with youth clubs, mentoring in the local school, and planning an upcoming retreat for some of our kids. And this Wednesday we were invited to run a prayer day in one of the schools! There is a ministry that goes into public schools and opens up interactive and creative ways to pray. It introduces children to prayer in a way that takes some of the mysticism out of praying and helps them realize that they too can pray to God.There will be different stations that the kids can go to to experiment with prayer without being told "you're doing it wrong".This is an exciting opportunity and I can't wait to get started! Please pray for these kids who might not go to church, but they can learn a bit about God in their own school. And pray for the leaders that we would be listening to what God's saying to us and to these kids. If you'd like to find out more about that ministry here's the link: http://www.prayerspacesinschools.com.

In church last Sunday, we had already started the service and a couple of boys of about 9 or 10 came waltzing in off the street! These boys are some of those known trouble makers, and while they might have come to disrupt the service, I believe that they were brought into the church for a reason. They ended up making some rude noises during prayer and they ran in and out of the church quite loudly until they eventually left. But for a short time, they were sitting almost quietly during worship. Most people had their eyes closed in prayer or were ignoring the boys, hoping they wouldn't make trouble, but I figured, if these boys were going to come into church on a Sunday morning, they were going to get prayed for whether they like it or not! So I sat there with my arm stretched towards them in prayer, speaking life over them. When they noticed my outstretched arm, they just look confused and they tried to mock me. So I went up behind them and leaned in to tell them quietly, "Do you know what me and all these people are doing? We are praying for you boys. We are praying for you because we know that you have a future and God wants to give you a hope. That's what we're doing." They didn't really know how to take that, and they started their running in and out soon after that, but I wanted them to hear that someone cares for them and prays for them. 

Tremorfa is a place where hope is scarce. We know many young people who before they've reached their teen years have already given up hope of graduating. They don't hope for a positive future or a good job. They best you can hope for is maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend who will stick around for a good while and maybe stay out of jail. So me and the Ignite team are praying for God's hope to be brought into this community. And I hope you will pray with me for these boys who unwittingly walked into our prayers for hope. That they will soon discover that they are loved by the Father and that they will find their hope in Him. I pray they will be the next generation of church leaders. That God would do a great work in each of them.

Again, thank you for all of your prayers and support. I am beyond blessed.

Nativity Goofs

Sorry about the long delay between posts recently. As some of you may have heard, I am in the States! Ignite has been extremely generous and has sent me home for the Christmas and New Year season! I am very grateful. The time I've spent with my family this week has done wonders for my homesickness. I was packing and boarding a plane last week, so I didn't get around to blogging.

So here we are in the middle of the holiday season, with Christmas over and New Years on the way. And that usually means a time full of parties and friends and loads of goodies that would satisfy even the hungriest sweet-tooth. It was wonderful having my mother's home-cooking for Christmas dinner and having 2 of my grandparents with us.

Back in Cardiff, the Sunday before Christmas we held the annual children's Nativity at church. We had angels and a star and one shepherd. We had Mary and Joseph and baby-doll Jesus. It was very cute, watching these children in their costumes trying to all get to their places while the narrators read. And of course it was ridiculously cute when one of the 9 year old narrators read about the "athletic host" rather than the "angelic host."

And during the second show when the narrator read about Mary having a baby and Mary would usually bring out the baby-doll Jesus, this time she froze. She realized that she forgot to bring baby Jesus up front with her! The narrators, not noticing the missing element of the show, kept reading as Mary pointed frantically to the back of the small church to where she left the baby Jesus. One of volunteers who had helped with the production went to the back of the church and was going through the back room that we used for a changing room, riffling through coats and costumes until she finally found the baby Jesus. By the time she brought the baby to his mother, the angels had finished their lines and the shepherds were already with Mary and Joseph, trying to figure out where to look if Jesus is not in Mary's arms.

Funniest nativity I've ever seen. It was hard to keep my laughter silent! It was altogether very sweet, and the pastor even managed to work the missing Jesus into his sermon, saying that we often forget to put Jesus in the center of Christmas, just as we forgot to put Him in the center our nativity.

I hope you all have had a magnificent Christmas, and I want to thank you again for all of your prayers and the financial support you've given. You are such a blessing. Happy New Year!

The Challenges

We had our Christmas party at GYC this week. We had a quiz involving music and famous people. It was a lot of fun, but it made me feel rather old. And I'm not old! But these kids were all born since 2000, so they were having trouble guessing or giving clues about people who were famous before then(or even after). The girls on my team didn't even know who Brad Pitt was! And for one clue they said, "Umm, He's an astronaut!".... It was George Clooney. It just reminds me how 12 year olds get younger every year.

We had some trouble with the TYC this week with this one little boy who has become quite infamous in the neighborhood. He goes places just to cause trouble it seems. He never seems to be in school, and is often seen running rampant through the neighborhood with friends with reputations not much better than his own. But he almost always shows up to our youth club. If he finds out that it's Thursday, he will be out in front of the building up to an hour early just waiting to be let into club. He's often told to leave in the first 20 minutes  due to his bad behavior, but the fact that he shows up so early so that he doesn't miss it makes me think that he almost wants to be better. You wouldn't be able to tell that from his actions once he's in the club, but he if he knows it's a Thursday, he is outside, just waiting.

I don't know much about his home life, but I do know that he's rarely there. I don't think he's had any positive male role model in his life.  So there he is, making it up as he goes or following whatever examples of men he is shown via TV or music. I know I've gone on a bit of a rant here about this boy, and I might sound a bit annoyed at this troublesome child (and I might be), but my heart hurts for him. He is so lost with no one better than himself to follow or to set up rules for him. I know it seems as if kids hate rules because they like to break them so much, but in reality, without rules there is no structure, no guidelines to follow. Then they are left with no boundaries and feeling insecure. With rules, they know what they can and cannot do, and they learn how to be successful in life.

Please pray for these little boys of 11 and younger who are lacking that structure and Godly influence in their lives. We all love them and want to welcome them with open arms, but with their behavior and language as it currently is, it's not possible to keep the club in good order while having them in there. Please pray that their spirits will settle so some groundwork can be laid for good relationships with these boys. We want to help them, but you need a mutual trust  and friendship first.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I am truly blessed by everyone who's given and is praying. God will make a way to build these relationships, so please join us in the prayer that this will happen soon.

Two (or Three) Different Worlds

We took the kiddos from GYC ice skating last Tuesday. And as the motherly person I am, I brought extra gloves, a hat, tissues, even an extra sweater, just in case someone didn't think to dress very warm for the cold. And as it turned out, one boy had left his winter coat back at the church building, so he was running around in a T-shirt! I kept offering him the sweatshirt, but he absolutely refused. Kids. What do you do with them?

But it was fun going out to the place called "Winter Wonderland" that was covered with lights, had little booths made out of wood that sold food, snacks, beer (of course none of our group helped ourselves to that), and cotton candy. There were different rides, from bumper-cars to the swings in the sky. Of course the kids wanted to go on all of the rides, but we only really had time for ice skating, so we had an earful of complaints from that.

 I had fun teaching some of the kids how to skate. This one boy had such a hard time keeping his feet under him. But even after falling down up to 10 times and I'd seen him wiping tears from his face (I'm not sure if he was hurt or embarrassed) he still got up and kept trying. He was still disheartened when he got off the ice, but all the leaders were cheering on his courage to try again.  

Wednesday evening was practically a different world from the night before. It was filled with rich gentlemen escorting ladies in evening gowns to a night of fine dining and entertainment. It was the annual fundraiser for the Cardiff Street Pastors. We sold raffle tickets, had a men's choir, and some big shot sports person I can't remember the name of. At the end there was a live band that did excellent covers of popular songs so that people could dance.

We also had an auction to sell some of the goodies that had been donated towards the cause. Things like a lunch for 8 at a fancy restaurant or a free night at a nice hotel in London. This auction was nothing like the ones I had grown up going to. The ones that usually had some homemade quilts and Amish made furniture and an Amish man standing up front prattling on so fast he could talk circles around any rapper. This was a much slower paced and a bit more refined kind of auction. Not as much fun, though.

We had our faithful church attendee come on Sunday. She brought a friend as usual, and neither of them have quite gotten the hang of being quiet and respectful at church, but we are still glad they came. I don't know that these girls have ever had to respect something or someone like we do in church. I don't know how they are in school, but I doubt they're completely quiet there either. So we have hope.

Please pray for the wellness of our youth workers. We're dealing with illnesses again. And on a more personal note, please pray that I can be a bit more positive in thought. I know you might not believe it if you've only seen me in public, but I do tend to be a pessimist and I think it's really bringing me down.

Thank you for all of your support and prayer. Please keep them up. Merry Christmas!

btw, in case anyone reads to the bottom of this, I'm coming home for Christmas. 

Caring Through the Chaos

Well, we survived play practice last week. I'm not sure how or if we'll end up doing the play, but we survived the last practice at least. We had a guest come to give a talk and some samples of the beauty products she sells, and with a crowd of mostly girls in the youth club, they thoroughly enjoyed rubbing in the lotions and perfume samples. Some of the boys enjoyed it as well. One boy had so much lotion on his hands that he started smearing it all over his face and neck. His reasoning was "if it's free, it's fine". Needless to say, we all smelled very good at the end of the night. After the "Body Shop Party" we had tea and cookies and some children helped themselves to enough cookies for the next 2 weeks!

We had a crazy night at the Tremorfa youth club as well. We had some boys playing xbox in one room and some of the girls were doing some crafts and some karaoke. We ended up with a very noisy room. We had some younger boys who were bored watching the older boys playing xbox, so they started running around and causing a bit of a ruckus. 

Like I said: a crazy night. I felt like a lot of the time was just spent in crowd control, so it was difficult to try and make conversation and build relationships with these kids. Even if they don't know me very well, I love these kids more than they will ever know. I've asked God to give me His heart for His people and I believe He's given it. I'm glad we have so many kids who want to come in, but things can get a bit overwhelming when they start misbehaving. Please be praying that we would find more opportunities to talk and share God's love with these kids.

This Saturday I'm inviting people to join me in praying for the Father's Love to be shown to these children. Not all of them have fathers, and a lot who do don't have a good relationship with them. I will be having a prayer day once a month and I am inviting all of my family in Christ to join. 

Please pray that once His Love is discovered, it will shine from His children, lighting up all of Tremorfa and Grangetown and God's light and love would spread to the rest of Cardiff and Wales. We are praying for revival to take over this country again.

Thank you again for your continued support. I am funded through March!!! Praise the Lord!