I have since watched series 1 and 2 as well and I find that with Skins I become more attached to the characters than with other series. Skins has this trend of focusing an episode on a character and whilst the other characters appear in that episode it gives you a chance to get to know that character and it’s always struck me as clever that whilst you focus on a character a wider storyline is going on.

Having said that I’ve felt disappointed with series 4 as it’s aired over the last 6 weeks, the characters haven’t developed much and whilst the writers have aimed for a darker side they seem to have lost the merging of characters within the episodes. However my urge to blog on Skins comes from watching episode 7 where the series have suddenly got good and back to how Skins should be.

So who’s watching this series of Skins? What are your thoughts so far?

Anyway today has been good and I have thoughts to blog on it but a brain of mush so crazy day post it is and tomorrow there’s some serious stuff coming! Stay tuned!

Over the last few months I’ve managed to put together quite a nice keynote presentation for the trust which works as a way of reminding me what to say and although I didn’t use it tonight I did print off the presentation as notes for myself.

The thing I like about having to do plugs for HCYT is every time I use the presentation I find that I need to move things off my ‘in the future’ slide onto the ‘what we do slide’ which is really nice….reflecting on tonight’s presentation it’s also nice to be in a position where I actually haven’t filled my hours yet because it means there’s space for new things!

All in all it’s nice visiting places and talking about HCYT

This afternoon I taught my first lesson in South Hunsley…whilst I am not a teacher I’d been hoping for some RE opportunities and today the first of 2 opportunities came to pass.

I had the pleasure of teaching year 13 RS on the Amish Christians…a bit of a bizarre topic for a schools worker but it was funny how it came about. I’d spent a while trying to gain contact with the RS department with no real fruit and then happened to bump into the right person at the right time, met them for lunch and happened to mention that I was reading ‘Amish Grace’ and it turned out that the sixth formers were going to be looking at fundamentalism.

So a couple of months on I’m here at the end of a week have spent the majority of my time planning lesson 1 of 2, trying to make it vaguely engaging and nicking videos off YouTube and all in all the lesson seemed to go well. A nice small group and some good discussion so all in all other than a very dry throat afterwards it was a success!

The last retreat I went on was when I was in Peterborough and CROPS organised a day out in the sticks with Paul Wilcox as a retreat and reflection day and I remember finding it a really useful time.

Today was also useful!

It was nice to have a day aside to reflect and think about what’s been going on, reflect upon God both personally and within my context as a youth/schools worker and to spend some time with others who do a similar role to myself. There was also a time of silence which I very rarely have as whenever I’m working itunes is usually on in the background.

Finally on the way out I bumped into Archbishop Sentamu, however sadly I could not have a conversation with him as him and his colleagues were having a silent retreat…maybe next time!

(I have some more retreat thoughts which I’ll blog tomorrow)

A brief guide for what is maybe the dullest blog post ever!

I have my Macbook set up on extended desktop so I have the screen across two monitors giving me a nice large workspace…on the small shelf I have my very beautiful Apple Keyboard and all-singing-all-dancing Apple Magic Mouse.

Also on my desk is my retro e-mac (right hand side), a USB Whack-It game which I got for Christmas and is very amusing, a selection of junk including a gym leaflet, notepad and capo and finally my ‘Joke a day’ calendar which works as a list of things for me to do each day…in case you were interested here is today’s joke:

Two snowmen in a field. One turns to the other and says ‘Can you smell carrots?’

(Suitable joke I feel…serious blog post coming later!)

I very rarely get to go on conferences and things like this and so it’s good to have some time away, the sessions are useful and the food is really good however with so much to take in and a brain close to bursting I’ve decided to take some time out before tea.

Having done bits and pieces of schools work before it’s been interesting to hear what others are doing and also interesting to hear that the sorts of things I’ve been thinking of for Hunsley Christian Youth Trust seem to be along the right lines, it’s also been great to network with other people doing similar things this week.

There’s so many things I could blog on but I feel a blog on schools work perhaps isn’t what I’m aiming to do here…although I don’t think I’m doing anything as such by this post more updating.

On a complete side-note there’s been some really interesting comments on my blog on John Sentamu and Prostitution (link) and the question of ‘is it safer for prostitutes for it to be legal’ has been discussed. I think it’s a very interesting topic to consider, as a Christian I cannot possibly agree that prostitution is ok and in some ways I feel that legalising it would make a statement suggesting that it is ok however on the flip-side legalising would give us a variety of benefits.

The most important of these benefits would be that we would be able to protect the girls who are prostitutes in far greater ways than we can at the moment, police would be able to monitor and visit brothels without being a threat to those who run them and potentially helping the girls out would be far more accessible.

The real question is really one of asking ourselves whether legalising something in order to regulate it and to provide more safety for those involved should happen when the thing we’re legalising is wrong…discuss!

I’ve been in South Cave for over 6 weeks I think and working exactly 1 month tomorrow and it’s been a laid back yet intensive month!

I started off with an induction which became a ‘get my heard around the trust’ day and it’s took up until now to really understand it…it seems that only in explaining to people you’re role do you realise what it is properly!

The three focuses in my first month have been branding, understanding and school.

The Hunsley Christian Youth Trust is new and I am their first and only employee (we’ll have more in a couple of years!!!) and because it’s funded by 4 churches it’s important to brand it and to keep those supporters updated so in the last month a newsletter and website has been produced (you can view the website here and also download the newsletter on it!).

Secondly I’ve been working on understanding what I’m meant to be doing, who’s in charge of what, who’s who and what’s where. This has involved meeting other youth workers in the area, chatting to various people in South Cave church and chatting to those involved from the other churches (my job is half time youth worker at South Cave and half time schools worker).

Finally making contact and meeting with the secondary school has been a massively important part of my first month and other than waiting on a CRB (bringing me up to 9!!!) all is more than good on that front, they’ve been really positive and seem really excited about having me in the school which is a real testimony to God being at work.

Anyway I think that’s a very brief update on the trust, I’m excited about what’s coming up and tonight we had a prayer meeting and about 25 people came along to pray for the trust so it’s always good to be supported!

I’m also at Brough church sunday morning plugging the trust…exciting times!

(Forgot to mention that I’m beginning to learn names and get to know young people!!!)

Next Monday I move to South Cave ready to start my new job as the Youth Facilitator for the Hunsley Christian Youth Trust from September…summer seems to be flying by and I’m feeling a little sad to know that it may be a while before I see everyone I know in Yarmouth but I’m excited about the new job and having a house and being able to moan about bills and council tax!

This week contents insurance is on my to-do list alongside getting some telephone numbers to phone electricity folk next week…today I arranged for the Post Office to re-connect the phone line…and for free…cashback! (If you want a phone line re-connected the Post Office don’t charge and don’t have a contract which makes them way better than BT!).

I haven’t just been packing boxes and avoiding Italy blogs I’ve been busy working on our wedding website which is getting near to being finished (markandjoanna.co.uk) and I have done our first wedding blog on their and in the next few days will update it more as we lay down deposits on venues and churches…how exciting! If you don’t know the Mark/Jo wedding is next year on the 17th July…this time next year I’ll have a wife!!!

I think so far I have 5 friends getting married next year so it seems to be a good year for weddings…2010 makes it easy to work out anniversaries!!! I have also been asked by Dave to be his best man for his wedding two weeks after mine and Jo’s which is pretty awesome and I’m looking forward to that too…all if good!

Street Invasion

Last week I was lucky enough to be involved in Street Invasion in Peterborough. Street Invasion saw 80 young people come together to serve God at 8 bases across the whole of Peterborough, doing social action, training/learning illustrations and inviting young people off the streets into an open youth club. Myself and Simon Campling (who is a genius at Newton Faulkner covers!) headed up the City Centre base and although we had less youth than the other venues what we had was perfect for St Mary’s! In other parts of the city over 50 young people would turn up to just one venue…how crazy is that? God was doing some awesome things in the lives of young people on the streets and those who were street invaders!

Anyway until I remember to blog on Italy later this week…goodnight!

Other than my radio slot for Slum Survivor which lasted about 5 minutes it’s the only radio I’ve done and it was good fun (although I felt a little like Alan Partridge!). It was an interesting discussion which they’d picked after reading a Daily Mail (eugh!) piece on a Christian charity doing relationship lessons in school and also several articles suggesting that marriage is back ‘in fashion’.

It was a good opportunity to think back to my marriage blog from a while ago and also think on the things which influence young people’s views of marriage such as broken homes and constant bad press with various celebrity marriages ending, often in a very messy way.

It was also good to re-explore the subject now I am in the position to be getting married rather than thinking about it in a hypothetical sense and I’m sure this blog will have lots more marriage things in the next year (hopefully later this week markandjoanna.co.uk will launch too!), the interview made me reflect on the positive view of marriage the church promotes to young people too and I hope God uses that message which I tried to get across this morning

If you would like to listen to the discussion listen to the last hour of this programme – link

Finally Italy posts will appear over the next week, I’m going to schedule them so I don’t post too much at once!

Last night was my last Doodles and it was perhaps the worst of all the goodbyes…most of the young people at Doodles I’ve known since day 1 in Peterborough, I’ve seen them grow up, mature in their faith and been lucky to have been able to share in that and I hope they’ll go on doing so.

The final Doodles organised by Vicki wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, my visions of finishing off by dripping my way into the shower were a bit extreme but here were my tasks (mostly from games I’ve used in the last few years)

1 – Eat a baby-food covered piece of bread in under a minute (I failed)

2 – Drink coke through a used sock (I won, beating Chris who managed to pour half of it down himself and didn’t have a used sock)

3 – Eat custard and chocolate from a nappy (Vicki one)

4 – Not a task but get covered in flour!

During all of the above I was required to wear a large pair of ladies pants over my shorts which for one game young people had to spit jelly cubes in!

It’s been a awesome 4 years and packing up really is the final thing…other than a small group/close friends bbq tonight which I should prep for at some point soon!

On a side project I’m building a new website for St Andrew’s Church in Gorleston which is nearing completion too!

This week is becoming a week of lasts…at the weekend I led my final youth camp for Park Road with a very funny, inspiring and sunny weekend in Trimmingham, tonight was my last band practice and the next few days see things like last church services, youth groups and all sorts of other send-offs….it’s bizarre with 4 years in Peterborough coming to an end but I’m looking forward to some time off and the challenges South Cave has to offer.

Last night Clive and Florence came over for dinner and in july Jo and myself head off to their villa in Italy…driving to Italy through lots of places, spending 2 weeks in their villa in the Umbertide region before driving back again, sitting around last night talking about Italy over a lasagne whilst drinking red wine really makes it all sound seem that little bit closer….it’ll be my first break in years and I’m looking forward to exploring and chilling and perhaps finally getting around to reading some books!

I suppose that’s all I have to blog on this evening, I’m hoping to blog on a Christian-type subject later this week….especially as I’m at some kind of bible thing tomorrow daytime!

I was invited a while ago to lead the June all age as it would be my last all age…the same day the young people of one of our groups said they’d like to lead a service and so the power was handed over.

A few weeks ago we sat down at a youth group and asked the question ‘what do you think church is?’ and of course the standard answers were there but more so the idea of community emerged, it seems that for the young people at Park Road Baptist Church community is a key thing about church and so with the aim of people experiencing community and breaking down the age barriers the young people planned a community themed Cafe style service based on ideas from the early church in Acts….one young person even remarked ‘we’re not trying to change things, we’re just trying to get things back to how they used to be’.

So I spent yesterday re-arranging the church to a more cafe-style look and one young person took the sermon on board and others took other aspects of leading, we asked Graham and Carolyn to lead some laid back acoustic worship and with the help of so many people at Park Road the young people pulled off an amazing service.

Challenges

Of course the biggest challenge in all of this as a youth worker is letting go of the power and empowering the young people to lead and it has been scary but encouraging…all my worries were washed away by a fantastic sermon and a confidentially led service.

The second challenge for me came during the table discussions, one man in our group recently lost his wife and shared how in the two months she was ill every lunchtime his neighbours provided him with a meal (they are Christians) and just hearing about his story and the difference the simple act of a meal has made to him was amazing. As Christians we need to work on community if church is just about a sunday morning service then Christianity is a waste of space and worthless but if Christianity is as Christ described it when he talked about us feeding the hungry and clothing the naked then it’s the most important thing anyone could ever become part of…we just need to accept the challenge of investing in community and showing Christ’s love.

Anyway here’s a photo of the re-arranged Park Road!

During the beautiful weekend a lot has happened…firstly in the beautiful sunshine I took some photos of the village which are in my photos section and scattered through this post.

Secondly on Sunday we went to All Saints Church in South Cave (where I shall work part time with the other half in the local secondary school) which was a lovely church with the most comfortable pews ever! It was great to be there and I know it’s gonna be a fantastic church to be a part of. We had lunch with the Rev from the church and met around 20 people who joined us for lunch and then had tea with another family, met a lot of people from other churches involved in the Hunsley Christian Youth Trust (who will employ me from September). This was followed by meeting around 20 (or more) young people at the youth club which was great and it appears they have all been on my blog…so hello South Cave readers (feel free to comment my blog).

Finally and perhaps the most exciting news from the weekend is I have a house!

Originally I’d planned to look at a few South Cave houses however all but one cancelled within the week before so there was one place to look at and one place outside the village…I have to say too that I didn’t really expect to be able to let a place this weekend with it being so soon before I want to move in however God is good!

The house I looked at in the village was ideal, just the right size, 6 minutes walk from the church and in the heart of the village…plus as a bonus a huge ideal-for-youth-work size garden…so 15th August is the date…I move to South Cave…how exciting…here’s some house photos.

As I’ve been saying for the last few blog posts I will do a more serious post soon when my brain begins to function again!