Some days don't you just feel empty?
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Prison
Yesterday I helped take 13 year 10 and 11 pupils to a prison. It was a strange day for many reasons. Firstly I was quite looking forward to meeting real inmates and seeing inside a real working prison. Secondly and the rather scary reason was that these pupils had been hand picked because it seems that they are in risk of ending up in prison!
It was a very insightful day. We were taken on a tour, shown the shower block, a cell and the common room. We then went to the chapel and were shown what you would receive in prison i.e. clothes, bedding and your ration pack, either chocolate and sweets or a smokers pack. Next they talked to us about prison life, the violence, loneliness what it is really like. This was an eye opener, most trouble happens in prison because of debt, what ever you borrow you pay back double. We saw pictures of injuries received from violence in prison.
After this we saw a drama written and preformed by the inmates themselves. It depicted the life of one person and the choices they made along with what could have happened had they have chosen differently. It was interspersed with their stories. At the end we were able to ask them questions. It was something different, most of the 25 inmates we met had got to prison because of drugs.
I came away deeply affected by the whole day, these men knew that they had made bad choices in their lives, many of them had been dealt a bad hand in life but they said that it was still themselves who had made the choices to put them in jail. So often we pass blame to others for the reason why we are in the crap, but sometimes we put ourselves there.
I am not saying that they are innocent, as they would agree that they are not, but they say that they have seen the error of their ways and are hoping to help young people make better choices for their futures.
It also made me think about how they must get treated once they have left prison. WOuld I give them a job? Not sure? I would like to say yes, but in reality not sure I would.
Jesus was and is an amazing person, being able look past all this stuff, I know that in God's eyes I have sinned just as bad if not worse than those guys in that prison, but God still gives me chance after chance, shouldn't we do the same?
It was a very insightful day. We were taken on a tour, shown the shower block, a cell and the common room. We then went to the chapel and were shown what you would receive in prison i.e. clothes, bedding and your ration pack, either chocolate and sweets or a smokers pack. Next they talked to us about prison life, the violence, loneliness what it is really like. This was an eye opener, most trouble happens in prison because of debt, what ever you borrow you pay back double. We saw pictures of injuries received from violence in prison.
After this we saw a drama written and preformed by the inmates themselves. It depicted the life of one person and the choices they made along with what could have happened had they have chosen differently. It was interspersed with their stories. At the end we were able to ask them questions. It was something different, most of the 25 inmates we met had got to prison because of drugs.
I came away deeply affected by the whole day, these men knew that they had made bad choices in their lives, many of them had been dealt a bad hand in life but they said that it was still themselves who had made the choices to put them in jail. So often we pass blame to others for the reason why we are in the crap, but sometimes we put ourselves there.
I am not saying that they are innocent, as they would agree that they are not, but they say that they have seen the error of their ways and are hoping to help young people make better choices for their futures.
It also made me think about how they must get treated once they have left prison. WOuld I give them a job? Not sure? I would like to say yes, but in reality not sure I would.
Jesus was and is an amazing person, being able look past all this stuff, I know that in God's eyes I have sinned just as bad if not worse than those guys in that prison, but God still gives me chance after chance, shouldn't we do the same?
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Soul Survivor Pictures
I have just uploaded the pictures form Soul Survivor 2005. Hopefully this will keep Gill quiet for a bit as everytime I have seen her she has nagged me!
It was a great time as I have posted before. Hopefully now you will be able to see for yourself!
It was a great time as I have posted before. Hopefully now you will be able to see for yourself!
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Horizon
Saw this picture this evening and it seemed to capture a lot that I have been thinking about.
The horizon! What is on the horizon? What does the future hold? Who knows? Well one person knows but as yet he has not told me.
It feels rather funny adn weird at the moment. So much is happening as I prepare to take my next venture. It feels strange preparing to leave LCET. That has been a place that means a lot to me, more the people than the place. Over the past 4 years I have grown and learnt so much. We have just been preparing some training days for YFC and it has been quite hard to put down what I have learnt. The 2 sessions that I am part of are 'Issuses in taking lessons' and , wait for it ....... 'Story Telling'!! Not sure I could have got a better 2! So all week I have been trying to work out about story telling. It is just something that I have always done. Joys of an over-active imagination!
At first I was thinking 'I am not sure if I have anything that i can teach anyone?' But as the planning time went on I realised how much I have learnt! It was really cool! So really all I have done this week is tell stories!
I will let you know how it goes!
The horizon! What is on the horizon? What does the future hold? Who knows? Well one person knows but as yet he has not told me.
It feels rather funny adn weird at the moment. So much is happening as I prepare to take my next venture. It feels strange preparing to leave LCET. That has been a place that means a lot to me, more the people than the place. Over the past 4 years I have grown and learnt so much. We have just been preparing some training days for YFC and it has been quite hard to put down what I have learnt. The 2 sessions that I am part of are 'Issuses in taking lessons' and , wait for it ....... 'Story Telling'!! Not sure I could have got a better 2! So all week I have been trying to work out about story telling. It is just something that I have always done. Joys of an over-active imagination!
At first I was thinking 'I am not sure if I have anything that i can teach anyone?' But as the planning time went on I realised how much I have learnt! It was really cool! So really all I have done this week is tell stories!
I will let you know how it goes!
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Best Job Ever!
SOmething that I mean to write about recently and have only just got
round to is the fact of how privileged I feel to be able to work with
young people.
So much happened over the summer holidays to make me think how
grateful I am to do what I do! First of all there was Face the Fish,
which was awesome. The time I got to spend with different kids was
great, being able to run the Soul Cafe and see kids giving each other
chance when maybe usually they don't!
Then it was Soul Survivor, this was cool as I got to catch up with
some guys that i had not seen in a while, some of the first young
people I started to work with. Over the week we had great chats. By
the end of it all 3 of them had decided to get baptised!! This was
so cool, I was invited to the service, and as I listened to their
stories of how they came to know God 2 of them said that i had played
a huge part in their journey! I was amazed and so grateful to God
for where he has placed me and who he has made me to be, also just
felt humbled by the whole thing!
After this I had some other guys from Newman that I have done some
stuff with call me on the results day and asked if they could pop
round to share their results with me! This was 10 in the morning and
they woke me up calling me! Again I felt so privileged as they had
only just got them and then they wanted to come over and show me!
Also I drove some 6th formers to the back of beyond to go sky
diving. They were staying over and they wanted me to stay too! I
was gutted that I could not, I had to tell them that I would have to
ask them not to drink etc, so I thought it best I did not stop their
fun, but hey I went back the next day to collect them and it was great.
As I start to prepare to go, it is things like these that I will
really miss, the joy of the job I do is when I see something happen
in them or I see a real change in our relationship.
God has been so good to me and has let me see so many great things, I
pray that over the coming year and beyond that that I see even more.
Not sure what he has in store for me but I am sure that it will be
awesome!
Face the Fish
Just trying to upload photos via flickr! Hopefully this will work.
If it does then you should see a picture of Tim and I hard at work in the Soul Cafe! Well not quite hard at work as it had finished and this was us reviewing whay we had done. The funny thing is that we spent more time reviewing than we did planning! It was great to work with him, Tim is a top man with a great sense of humor and fantastic at performing skills. I will miss the fact of not being able to do this with him next year as I will be the other side of the globe! I am sure he will find a suitable replacement!
Photo uploading, here goes!
If it does then you should see a picture of Tim and I hard at work in the Soul Cafe! Well not quite hard at work as it had finished and this was us reviewing whay we had done. The funny thing is that we spent more time reviewing than we did planning! It was great to work with him, Tim is a top man with a great sense of humor and fantastic at performing skills. I will miss the fact of not being able to do this with him next year as I will be the other side of the globe! I am sure he will find a suitable replacement!
Photo uploading, here goes!
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