Jon Jolly

I can’t remember the last time I was able to go out and play in the snow! We don’t normally get any down here on the south coast and when we do it doesn’t normally settle. Today while still away with the young people at Lodge Hill, the cold spell brought an amazing blanket of white which covered the south downs. From the vantage point of the house, we had beautiful views across the countryside.

Obviously, when the young people saw the snow it quickly escalated into a crazy snowball fight. When I went outside to get some photos of what was happening, I shouted “Don’t shoot! Man with camera!” Immediately everyone turned around and pummelled me! It was a great way to round off the weekend and helped to make it even more memorable.

This post is a response to Dave talking people who have had a significant impact on him personally. I originally planned to write this a while back, but never got round to it and Dave’s been nagging in the comments!

So here is a short list of people who have had a huge impact on my life and my walk with God.

• Ishmael: the famous children’s worker was a part of our church when I was growing up and I learnt a lot from the way he included kids like me in the wider church services. His songs also taught me a lot of scripture that I remember to this day!
• Jez & Kirsty Wong: Kirsty took over the kids work at church when I was 11 and allowed me to ‘help’ out. She suffered each week at my over-enthusiasm, and both her and Jez became a constant source of encouragement over the years. I now return the favour as youth leader to both their children and I am proud to be able to call them all my friends.
• Dave Boniface: When I was 17, I went on a short-term mission to South Africa that really opened my eyes to the power and responsibility of the gospel. Dave led the team and showed me a humble and gracious model of leadership that I had not experienced before. We have laughed and cried together ever since!
• Paul Sanderson: Paul gave me my first real job and spent those first few years encouraging and inspiring me in my youth work. It’s impossible to summarise what I learnt from working alongside such a passionate and visionary man. I now have the pleasure of being Godparent to his fourth child Promise.
• Kirsty: My beautiful wife has taught me so much about life and friendship. She’s constantly keeping me grounded and realistic when I get carried away or fed up, and she helps me to be a little less selfish every day.

So there you go. There are plenty more people who could fit into this list, but I want to keep it short and focused. Who would you say has inspired you?

One of the many clubs we run is called Launch Pad, a free breakfast club for primary aged kids on the local estate. Although I manage the workers who run the club, I only normally attend on a Tuesday morning and have breakfast with the kids.

Yesterday was April Fools’ Day, something that I don’t normally think too much about or participate in (because I always forget to do anything)! Having been away for a few days I came back from Egypt to an invitation through my door. It was to “all” the volunteers at the club telling them that this week is a superhero special and that everyone must come dressed in their favourite superhero costume. By going in on Tuesday, essentially this meant that I would be dressing up as a superhero on the 1st April.

The sad thing is that I almost fell for it! It was by sheer coincidence that I looked in my diary to check about a meeting I was having and noticed the date. I then re-read the invitation and started to get a bit suspicious. The team know I love superheroes and why would they be dressing up every day for a week?

Thankfully, I didn’t dress up. But I did get load of people asking me all day if I’d fallen for it. Obviously a lot of people were in on the joke. I’m really pleased though that the team have enough disrespect for me to try and stitch me up. Next year I’ll have to get in there first!

So we’re back from Egypt and the photos are up on Flickr. We had a great time away and really enjoyed spending time with our friends Dominic, Claire, Rebecca, Joshua, Brian and Liz by the seaside.

Apologies if you’ve tried to comment on the blog in the past few days, access was suspended due to the huge amount of comment spam coming through. Although none of it got live on the site, I returned to a spam folder of around 17,000 comments! Things are back to normal now though.

Oh yes, and I bought a Canon EOS 400D Camera! I’ve wanted an SLR for a looong time and with the income from Dj-ing recently, felt it was finally viable. Although Tim Abbott preferred the Nikon D40x, there was a good deal on the Canon in Duty Free with an 8GB Compact Flash Card thrown in. I’m really happy with the outstanding picture quality.

Anyway, now we’re home there may actually be some interesting posts coming up soon…

Hey, this is Kirsty not Jon! I’ve decided to post on my wonderful husband’s blog as mine is so infrequently updated I fear all who may have read it have since lost hope a long time ago.

So we’re in Luxor and sitting in a Wi-Fi enabled McDonalds (which speaks volumes about the standard of Egyptian food as I would not go near the joint in the UK!!!). There’s a builder in the kitchen doing some impromptu building work and we’re becoming McFrozen from the aircon outlets we’re sitting under. However, it’s still kinda nice to get out of the afternoon heat.

We arrived Tuesday night via Cairo Airport, where we spent 4 hours sitting in domestic departures waiting for our connection down to Luxor. This was suitably long enough to be ripped off by the cafe staff, and we’ve taken a steep learning curve in the art of bargaining since then! We’ve also learnt that Egyptair can’t be bothered to label their check in desks. Oh, and that security staff are more interested in playing with their phones than looking at the X Ray scanner.

Since our arrival, we’ve been on loads of adventures! Our first outing was to Karnak Temple, which was amazing (see photo taken on Jon’s new Canon EOS - ooooh - I’m sure he’ll post more). The sheer scale of the Temple was awesome. The following day we then crossed the Nile and went to the Valley of the Queens and Old Gurna - 2 areas containing a large number of tombs from Ancient Egypt. Back-sheesh (or tipping) let us into a lot of places we probably shouldn’t have been and we also managed to get a lot of forbidden photos! Then today, we went to the Valley of the Kings and hiked over some of the desert landscape. This all sounds so simple and laid-back but we have so many stories to tell about how difficult it is to get between A and B without being hassled out of our life savings! Jon has also learnt from all the locals that he is a “very lucky man having beautiful wife”…

Anyway, gotta go, Jon is threatening to snatch the laptop off me :-). Next stop today - Cairo! Can’t wait to see our friends and enjoy the Easter weekend in somewhere warmer than the UK!

Kirsty x

Happy Good Friday! Youth work related posts will resume shortly.

So I’ve taken up the challenge from Andy at Issues For The Christian Youthworker to think about the young people that have impacted me and my work.
There are quite a few who I could name for a number of reasons, so I’ll try and be concise.

Rosie, Anna and Emily have all taught me a lot over the years. I’ve been really blessed by the way in which they have chosen to serve others by becoming leaders and how they now give of themselves week after week. I count them a privilege to know as they’ve suffered through all the mistakes I made as I figured out how to do this youth work thing! Dan and Josh also fit into this category. I’m proud of the men they’ve become!

In a different context, there have been some young people that have taught me invaluable lessons through the horrendous circumstances they lived in. I worked with ‘PJ’ over a number of years through his drinking, smoking and thieving which started aged 10. Seeing the life he led and his home situation opened my eyes to the reality that many young people have to put up with. Nathan and Paul were other examples where I worked through issues of neglect, physical and emotional abuse with the various authorities. I rarely see any of these individuals now as they’ve moved elsewhere. I only hope that I was able to sow some positive seeds into their very difficult situations.

There are so many more that I could mention, but don’t have the space! A big thank you to all those amazing individuals who I have had the pleasure to get to know over the years and have shaped my work. You’re amazing!

I have to be honest; I just don’t get dancing in church!

That may be a strong statement to start off a blog post, so let me elaborate a little here. I do understand the medium of dance as a creative expression, and I appreciate it in things such as ballets or stage performances. I understand it as a response to the rhythm in music and I can comprehend how people enjoy and participate in dance. I even understand it as an expression of joy and worship to God in the same way that I love to sing. But what I don’t get is why in some churches, people insist on spontaneously running up on stage and twirling around before gracefully bending over double and lying on the floor in front of the congregation! There are times when this is totally right and it is clear that God is working through the dancer, but there are times that it isn’t and that can be very distracting.

I remember a few years back standing at the side of the main stage in the big top at Spring Harvest ready to go on and talk about what the young people were up to. While I was waiting, the band were leading worship and three dancers were taking it in turns to do their thing on stage while the others waited at the side. As one dancer finished her move (with a flag), she came to the side of the stage. Realising her two partners were also off the stage, she urgently whispered: “Quick, there’s no-one dancing! Someone get up there now!”

Up until that point, I hadn’t taken much notice of the dancing. But I then watched as one of them sprang into life and launched herself onto the stage in a complicated spin, twist, dive, stretch-arm-out, bow-head manoeuvre simply to fill out the space on the platform. If the dancer’s role was to worship God in their expressive way, why was it so important that one of them was always seen on the stage?

I don’t tell that story to dismiss the medium of dance as worship, nor to criticise those who do it, but I do sometimes question the motive. If you’re worshipping God, do it wherever you are in the congregation. I don’t have to go onto stage to be able to sing!

Last week at church we started with a choreographed dance involving some of the young people. I didn’t really appreciate the complexities of what they were doing, how they moved, or even if it was any good. Rather, I loved seeing their faces filled with excitement and joy as they used their skills. That’s the best kind of dancing for me!

I made a new friend and found a new personal hero last week in a man called Jason. I met him because a friend had suggested that I give him a call: “He just needs some advice on raising teenagers” she said!
Although I have no children of my own yet, I arranged to meet up because I few years ago I adapted a parenting course for dealing with difficult teenagers. I went along to meet him, pack under my arm, ready to dispense some wisdom and change this guy’s life. I came away humbled and inspired.

Jason is a regular 23 year old guy. He’s funny, has a big grin on his face, talks a lot and seems to enjoy life. Last August, Jason’s mum died from a heroin overdose. His dad is no longer on the scene and his two brothers live elsewhere, so as well as coping with the grief of her death, Jason was left to care for his twelve year-old sister at home. He gave up his job so he be around before and after school, and he is working hard to prove to Social Services and the courts that he should gain full custody of his sister while also negotiating the benefits system, housing and schools.

While talking with him, it became clear that he is doing amazingly well. He’s passionate about caring for his sister and although it’s obviously a burden at time, he wouldn’t have it any other way. During my time there, I made a couple of suggestions but mostly listened. He’s really got it together and just needed to talk with someone about the situation.

Part of our conversation was about God. He says he knows there’s ’something there’ but hasn’t decided what yet. It’s funny because Jason has such a positive and hopeful outlook, I could sense that God was present with him anyway! I’m going to meet up with him again in a couple of weeks to see how he’s getting on.

I have a couple of other people who have become my personal heroes:
Claire went been through a really horrible experience with her husband and yet has remained hopeful, joyous and loving throughout it all. She is a real inspiration to me.
Zoe has coped with horrific trauma in her personal relationships and struggled to raise her children on her own. She was timid and fearful until she became a Christian a few years ago and has now been transformed! She is just not the same woman anymore and stuns me with her talents and abilities that were hidden before!

These amazing people serve to remind me of what can be achieved in the most difficult circumstances and challenge me to have a loving and humble attitude in my daily life.

So a while back I bought these expensive noise cancelling earphones with the different buds on the end which you use to fit your ear perfectly. I was listening to my iPod on the train up to London this morning when my phone rang. As I pulled the ‘phones out of my ears to answer the call, I realised that the changeable bud had come off my left ear and was firmly stuck right inside!

Running late for my meeting, I went straight there and spent most of the day in mild discomfort trying to adapt to being partially deaf while working out if I was actually shouting at people when I opened my mouth. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone there.

I ended up going to Boots, buying some tweezers (along with some manly aftershave so I didn’t seem too odd) and then carefully fishing in my ear until I managed to liberate the little rubber bung. It took a long time. From now on, I’m carrying a full vanity case with me - or maybe just using the earphones that came with the iPod. I haven’t decided yet.

Happy New Year!
This time last year I posted my favourite stuff of 2006, and there’s already been a whole slew of bloggers doing the same thing for 2007. So to jump on the bandwagon, here’s my top 3 of everything…
Books
Although I’ve read quite a few books this year, most of them have been around a while and are nothing new, so these 3 are the ones that have influenced me most this year.

1. Contemplative Youth Ministry: I found this a really inspiring and helpful challenge to get back to ‘being with’ young people instead of running programmes.
2. Purpose Driven Youth Ministry: Although quite programme driven, this is an excellent resource for planning and understanding what you do with young people.
3. The Radical Reformission: an excellent call for Christians to be relevant to our culture.

Music

1. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible: great songs with deep themes laid over giant, sweeping orchestral sounds.
2. Block Party - A Weekend In The City: I missed Silent Alarm, the original release by Bloc Party, so this album was an eye opener. Strong melody and beats with quirky lyrics.
3. Tim Hughes - Holding Nothing Back: simply one of the best written and produced modern worship albums.

For more music that I love, visit my Last.fm profile.

Movies

1. This Is England: (released last year but only watched recently) gritty, but beautifully shot in the north of England, it follows one young lad’s friendships and struggles.
2. Ratatouille: a gentle and fun animated movie that follows a slightly different story to the usual Pixar fare.
3. The Bourne Ultimatum: a good ending to the trilogy and much better than the second installment, Bourne finally finds out the truth about his past.

Websites

1. Facebook: the all-conquering social networking website that brings together various elements from around the web under one playful roof.
2. Last.fm: a revolution in music sharing and discovery where you build a profile simply by listening to your favourite music and then share it around the web (including Facebook)!
3. Netvibes: an alternative homepage to iGoogle that has a lot more options and works faster too!

TV

1. Heroes: gripping story of people finding out they have super powers.
2. Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares: He’s rude and arrogant, but he makes great TV! You watch it because it’s terrifying!
3. My Name Is Earl: Season 2 really developed the characters and it was funnier than ever!

So what was your best? It’d be good to see some posts from friends who haven’t written anything for a while (Mumf, Kirsty, Ben, Pete).