Snowdon

I walked up Swowdon today and it was mint! The weather was great, it was so warm and sunny that it felt like summer had arrived early. We where also surrounded by some amazing views and the higher we climbed the more I was made aware of how small and insignificant I was. To look around and see how huge and amazing God's creation is and then to think that he still loves and cares for me, completely overwhelms me.

It was also a good chance to get to know some of the people from Christ Church a bit better. I had some really interesting conversations with people about things ranging from cricket to the colour of my hair ( I'm happy to settle for Auburn, I assume that's somewhere between ginger and brown?). I also found it really encouraging to talk to some of the youth workers from the year above and hear about how they found their first year. It was a really good day!

'For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse' - (Rom 1 v 20)

I felt we where lacking a few pictures, so here is a picture of me and my wonderful room mate charlotte on my birthday, which she made really special!

CCD - Thailand

As some of you may know, I'm planning to go to Thailand over the summer to work with a charity called CCD. It's a christian organisation that cares for abandoned children and young people that have some kind of disability. If you'd like to know more about them, here is their website;

http://www.ccdthailand.org/

Dry Slope Skiing

Today I went dry slope skiing for the first time with my young people. It was a bit of a painful experience but if you forget about the bumps and bruises it was mint! I'm sure that by the end of the session we could of all passed as pros! :p

Placement

Two posts in one day! I don't know what's got into me.

I thought I'd tell people a little bit about my placement, as I'm now into my fifth week. I'm working with an organisation called BYPP, which did stand for Blacon's Young People Project but now stands for Building Young People's Potential. BYPP reaches out to those young people that are probably the hardest to reach, and it offers them an alternative approach to mainstream education. I work with three different groups; Hand in Hand, which is a group for young mums, Alternative Curriculum, for those who have been excluded from schools and ISSP (Intensive Support and Surveillance Programme) which is designed to reform young offenders as an alternative to serving a custodial sentence.

Working at BYPP has been a completely new experience for me, and I think I'm learning so much from it. I find it hard to believe that some of these young people have committed some of the crimes I hear about. We see such a different side to them and it makes me sad to hear about the kind of lives they are settling for. However we are trying to 'Better these Young People's potential'. I think the thing I've found the most difficult during placement is how I view myself. I feel like I look soo young and this has given me such a lack of confidence. When it comes to building relationships on a one to one I'm fine but ask me to take charge of a group and I struggle.

Anyway, I think I've rambled on enough for now so I'll go.

Blogging!!!

I'm sure blogging is a great idea, I'm just very poor at keeping it up! (sorry Dot) This year seems to have went extremely fast and I feel that so much has happened. I've had some really high points but also a lot of low points, as I'm sure most people have.

I know I'm going off on a bit of a tangent here but one thing I dislike about blogging is that it's all about me and my life, which I leave open for anyone to read! That may sound silly and obvious but it feels a bit weird and I sometimes struggle with knowing what to share.

Anyway, another reason I thought I better blog is for you Scott! I know you like to read my cheesy blogs. I'm not sure whether this will satisfy really, so I'll make sure the next one is extra cheesy!

Why I am blogging

As everything I've wrote so far on my blog is linked to my course and aimed at those on my course, I thought It would be nice to let all of those people who randomly stumble across my page know a bit about why I am actually blogging. I'm in the middle of studying a christian youth work degree at Chester, where one of the lecturers has adviced us to start blogging regularly(haven't quite grasped the regular bit yet!) A huge part of working with young people involves being able to comunicate well with them, and one way of doing this is by using the technology they are likely to use. Blogging is also going to be a useful way of seeing how we commnicate with each other as class mates, which Dot(our lecturer) happily pointed out. Hope that makes things a bit clearer for anyone who isn't on the course. :D

Putting yourself in someone else's shoes

Well, today's lesson was a brilliant way of not only seeing what it would be like to work with young people facing various difficulties but also to understand how these young people may feel! I was given the role of a 16 year old, who was from a single parent family as a result of having a dad in prison. When I put myself in this persons shoes, I initially had two particular feelings, firstly the fear of being judged and secondly the pressure of having to grow up pretty quickly, helping my mum out with a lot of things. It was also really interesting(and at times entertaining) to see the problems of people around me. Some people were given physical difficulties such as, blindness and deafness and had difficulties in getting involved with things and being able to communicate with the rest of us,. Although it didn't even come close to what it would really be like it gave us an incite and helped me to think about how we would go about making these people feel included. It was a helpful activity!

We don't always know the full story!

'Creator God, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. That it is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. But those for who, on first impressions, make us shudder, or sigh or grunt with irritability.'

Tonight me and Hollie experienced something that was both sad and exciting at the same time. We met a homeless man who was genuinely hungry and in need of somewhere to stay. We took him for food and offered to pay him into a place for the night, he was so thankful I don't think I could begin to describe it. I think he was also amazed that we were willing to listen to his problems. He even gave us the contact number of someone who we would be able to contact him through, and being the second Christian's he had met this week, he even asked if we would take him to church with us sometime! God works in amazing ways!

'Don't store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves can break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. '

Matt 6:19-20