Last night (well, this morning really) we took a small group of 12 young people to take part in the All Night Bowling event organised by the Chichester Diocese of the Church of England. Starting at midnight, around 150 young people literally threw the night away getting in as many games as possible before 6am!
It was a fantastic night and we had great fun entertaining ourselves by coming up with the craziest way to bowl a ball. Highlights included forward rolls, using heads, and spinning on the spot! Amazingly everyone stayed awake throughout and we’re all keen to go back again next year.
I have now completed my first week in my new job and it’s been fun! On Monday there was no desk or chair so we spent some time moving furniture around and I’ve been allocated a ‘hotdesk’ for when I’m hanging around (lucky I’ve retained a desk at Wickbourne too). I’ve also now ordered my shiny new macbook and am awaiting it’s arrival with great anticipation.
I am very grateful for the wisdom of the church elders who have suggested that I don’t commit to anything for a time and instead research, listen and dream. Although there are a number of practical issues that require my attention, I am no longer rushing around from one thing to another trying to fit in activity after activity. Instead I can sit and enjoy - which this week included attending the 15-18’s youth group for the 1st time.
Over the next month, I plan to visit various churches and agencies to see what work they are currently doing in schools and to spark some ideas for what the church could create and deliver here. If you’d like me to come and visit, get in contact. I’ll let you know how I get on!
I’m currently away at a youth retreat, my first duty as youth and schools worker for arun community church. It’s the hottest day of the year and we’re in glorious countryside doing team building activities! What a great way to start a new job!
I’ve added a couple of wordpress plugins to this site today that relate to blogging and browsing on the move.
WP-Cron works with a pop3 email account (and the built-in wordpress functions) to post any emails it recieves straight to the site. This means I can write a post on my phone and email it to my secret address, knowing that it will soon appear on my site! Handy for blogging at a youthwork conference or in church
WP-PDA is an excellent plugin that reformats wordpress pages for PDAs and mobile devices. It needs absolutely no configuration and means I can now view my blog perfectly on my Sony-Ericsson K800i while out and about (Not that I’d want to read my own blog, but you get the idea…)
Alongside the ability to email photos straight to my Flickr account, upload videos to youtube, and syncronise my Google Calendar, I can now get a lot done with my humble mobile phone!
Watching the end of the news on TV tonight, I was struck by how much the ITV weather girl’s hair looks like it was cut straight out of an anime cartoon! While searching the web trying to find an appropriate photo to prove my point, I discovered that someone has already noticed the similarity and pointed it out on their blog! Oh well, can’t be original all the time.
First, an explanation:
I wrote this silly song on a youth retreat around 6 years ago because I was bet that I couldn’t write a song about an Orang Utan in 10 minutes. It became one of those collective moments that the youth group remembered and has never quite been forgotten. Needless to say, I never expected to perform it on stage at Spring Harvest to 500 teenagers!
And the lyrics:
I had a friend who was an Orang Utan
I asked him if he would like to join my gang
His name was Bob and he was hairy
When he pulled a face, he was scary!
He was an oo oo oo oo oo oo orang utan
An oo oo oo oo oo oo orang utan
Oo oo oo oo oo oo orang utan
And he was my best friend!
Bob always liked to do a dance
He even ate my mum’s plants
His favourite lesson at school was art
When he ate baked beans they made him… SMILE!
He was an oo oo oo oo oo oo orang utan
An oo oo oo oo oo oo orang utan
Oo oo oo oo oo oo orang utan
And he was my best friend!
Sadly Bob swallowed a balloon
I don’t think he’ll be back too soon
He floated up into a tree
And stayed to raise a family
He was an oo oo oo oo oo oo orang utan
An oo oo oo oo oo oo orang utan
Oo oo oo oo oo oo orang utan
And he was my best friend!
Last week we were down in Minehead running Distinctive, the 11-14’s venue for Spring Harvest (Week 1). This is the sixth year I’ve been involved in the 11-14’s programme and yet again I absolutely loved being part of such an amazing and talented team! Sim has already posted on what we were up to here, but nothing can quite explain the reason for this…
It was an emotional and tiring week with my personal highlight seeing many young people prayed for about being ’sent out’ (this was in response to a talk on being Apostolic People). One young lady sticks in my mind for knowing that God wants her to go to Mozambique and spread the Gospel! Amazing, yet I know there were many more.
A big THANK YOU to all the young people and the team that made it such an exciting time. Please let us know your testimonies or experiences of what God is doing in your lives.
My name is Jon and I'm a full-time Youth & Schools Worker in Littlehampton, UK. This site reflects my thoughts, ideas and experiences of working with Young People. I hope you find it useful!
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