All the Nuts and Bolts...

WOW - so much information in such a short period of time.  Monday was my first day of work with St. Thomas, and I got so much information!  I just wanted to introduce you to the activities that I will be helping with, planning, and leading in a normal week over the next year. 

Sunday:  St. Thomas has three services available.  There is a 9:00 Communion service, a 10:45 Family Worship, and a 6:30 Evening Prayer.  During the 10:45 service I will be helping with “Sunday Club,” or Sunday school.  At the beginning of the service, after the welcome, confession, and the first hymn, the youth leave for their own teaching time.  I will be helping with the planning and leading of the Sunday Club for those 11 to 16 years old.  On Sunday evenings there are a multitude of things going on that I will be involved in, but this will change weekly based on which group is meeting.  First there is Duke of Edinburgh.  This is a national award that involves service, skill, sport, and an expedition.  There are three levels that the youth can achieve, bronze, silver, and gold.  When they meet on Sunday nights, they are there to plan their activities so that they can achieve the next highest award.  Second there will be a group of young people, 16-18 years old, meeting once a month for a bible study of sorts.  I will be helping with the planning and leading of this group.  Lastly there is another service that is put on by St. Thomas called Refresh.  They do this service once a month, and it is led and planned by congregational members, not the clergy.   My first one will be September 25, and I am very excited.

Monday:  Monday mornings I will be helping out with assemblies in the primary schools.  These will be for children seven through eleven years old.  The assemblies will not be occurring every Monday, but I will be helping lead and plan these.  Also, Monday for lunch I will meet with Jeremy, the vicar, and his wife Sue, theunder-18s coordinator.  We will talk about the past week and the upcoming week.  Monday nights I will be helping with Monday Club.  This is for children from 8-11.  I will only be a helper for this program, but it is for the children and their parents.  They will have games and crafts that are connected to a Bible lesson that they do at the end.

Tuesday:  For lunch on Tuesdays I will be eating at the local high school, Brychall, with their special needs students.  High schools in England are from “year 7” through “year 11” (11-16 years old).   The way schools are divided here are a bit different from the average school in the states.  Anyways, I am very excited about being able to work with this group of students though, I’m very glad we were able to find a place to fit it in.  The hope is just for me to form relationships with these students and become their friend – I’m totally ok with that!  Tuesday nights we will be having a Youth Discipleship course for those youth that are looking at getting confirmed in the church.  This will not start until October though, but I will be leading and helping plan with this as well.  The youth will often be year 7 through about year 9, 11-13 years old.

Wednesday:  My day off.

Thursday:  I will be having lunch again in Brychall, but this time we will have an area set up for any of the students to come and eat.  We will have games and activities set up for them that will have a connection to a bible lesson and scripture.  Once a month on Thursday afternoons St. Thomas puts on what is called Messy Church.  It’s for children 4-11 years old.  They have a theme for the night, a story from scripture, and then they have stations set up around the room with crafts and activities that are related to the story.  This is a great way that St. Thomas has been able to get involvement from children that don’t normally come to church.  Thursday nights we are looking to start a get together for the 18-30 age group.  St. Thomas has not previously had anything for this age group, so this is one of the new initiatives that we are looking to start this year.

Friday:  Every Friday night St. Thomas has a Drop-In.  This is for youth 11-16 years old.  This is really just a time for them to come hang out.  They have air hockey, ping-pong, some video games, and areas just set up for the youth to chill with one another.  I was able to attend the Drop In this past Friday and it was a blast!  A lot of the youth had brought their friends, so we had a really nice turn out or about 30 youth.  It was so much fun for me to start to get to know some of the kids that I will be working with and getting to know over the next year.  We had a lot of fun talking about things that were different in the States and the word of the night was "dollar."  I was asked to say this word at least 50 times.  They were enamored with the American accent, but I was ok with it, because I loved hearing them talk as well.  Also, their American impersonations were priceless.  Side note:  I have encouraged them to start using the word “y’all.”

And finally Saturday is my second day off.

All of these programs that St. Thomas has going on are really exciting.  My schedule is very sporadic, and has time set for planning activities as well, but I’m so excited to really get started this next week.  This past week was a great deal of planning, meeting people, and learning about the programs I would be helping with - now I actually get to go to them.  This week will be my first “normal” week of going into the schools and planning upcoming events.  I am so excited and really ready to get to work.  All of the kids at the Drop In were blown away that I would be in Ashton for a year, but I have a feeling in eleven months it’s going to seem like yesterday that I was meeting them all for the first time.  It all starts tomorrow, and won’t slow down for a while.  Here we go!