Outreach #2 ( i'm a little tired)

Soooooo.. Today was super duper awesome :) If wasn't good enough that it wasn't raining, but the sun was also out! It has been a really beautiful day.
 I started off the morning at a bit of a slow pace.. I forgot to wake up to my alarm, so rushed to get ready and out the door. Then again, that's nothing different to my usual, average day. I got dropped off at Jemma's and then she took me and Michaela to another one of the churches where we will be working. This one is in the centre of Burnley. It has a cafe, and a youth club attached to it too which was pretty cool. We looked around and then headed into the town to have a look about. We then took a walk along a canal, it was such a pretty walk. We went down through a park too which was sweet. 

Eva was clearly confused by something..

Again, we now have Rachel looking confused or perhaps angry at something?

A picture of Rachel, showing her true beauty.

I had been totally built up to expect a dirty old town, but certainly in the city centre, it's far from that. Though you really can see the change when you just a short way out of the centre. We grabbed some lunch at Mcdonald's and looked around a few shops and then headed back to the church. I have decided that McDonald's really isn't all it's cracked up to be. It was better than Capernwray food though. Haha. After lunch, we headed back to the church and discussed some parts of what we'll be doing on our ten day which got me super excited, and a tiny bit nervous. I hadnt really thought about the fact that at one point we'll be working with kids roughly around our own age which is a little be crazy to think. But I'm so excited for this opportunity, it's going to be so great! After we'd had a little chat, we all left and went to our host families where we had some chill out time for a couple of hours.

I have such a sweet family! They are a young couple with the most adorable little two year old. They are so welcoming. I ended up having to write up the music for tomorrow's service, but hung out in the lounge playing with Joseph too. The most adorable thing happened though. We were playing with his trains and train set, and he tells us that Thomas as the other engines are talking. When his mummy asked him what they were talking about, he looked up and said "Jesus." It was honestly the cutest thing EVER! 
ANYWAY, I got my bits and bobs done, and then it was time to head out for dinner. We all went to a really yummy restaurant. ("All" being our whole team plus one of the hosting families, another couple who are at one of the churches we'll be working in, my host family and then Jemma and Anne.) The food was about twenty time better than Mcdonald's!! SOOO GOOD. I had the most amazing chicken burger with chips and as usual hundredddds of mayo. Yumyumyum. It was just really nice to chill out and eat a relaxed, yummy meal altogether. After we finished our dinner we headed to out and went bowling. It was a lot of fun! 

The thing I don't get is, none of us won. Me and Zach made up silly names for the rest of our team, but yet, we had an extra spot, so we  just took turns in playing for that round. When it came to the end of the game it turns out my bowling skills arent as skillful as they used to be, apparently, but the strike on the nobody's game was by me. But that's not the point. The point is, mr nobody over there managed to win!! HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!?! It was a good laugh getting to hang out with a couple of the kids we'll be with, and also just hanging out as a team too. We didn't all really talk as a group before we were put on the team, so I think it's really awesome how we've all came together and can bring different things to the team as a whole. So yeah, I have an awesome team!!

 Anyway, just a few other pictures of our evening. The first one shows one foot from each of the team. So we have Rachel, Eva, Phillip, Zach, me and then we have Michaela. For some reason, I don't think she got the memo on the brown shoes thing, but it's alright, we still accept her in our group. Even when she asks the bowling ball fixer lady if she is joing us for a game. 

Next up (on the left) we have the beautiful Rachel Jordan, pulling and ever so beautiful face. Of course.. 
Then (on the right) we have our team leader, Zach, looking some what demented? That can't be a good start to our outreach, surely? And Eva, possivly looking like she's upto something? Perhaps her look on her face has something to do with the look on Zachs face? Nonetheless, it's obviously a beautiful picture. *ahem*





Anyway, onto the next picture.. Up next we have Michaela doing a casual peace sign. This sign can be a very dangerous sign to those sheltered Americans (Lucas Franklin) Who aren't aware of the meaning a wrong way rounf peace finger sign can have. So before we came on our weekend we were briefed very quickly on what to do and what not to do. Whether you're doing it on purpose or not. Annnnnd back to people, on the right we have the Fantastic Phillip. Showing his superb strength with a very heavy (probably a 7) bowling ball. If he keeps it up he'll be ripped in no time!

Once the bowling was over, I then came back to my hosts, and have just finished having a really great chat with them. They also have another dude living with them so it was cool getting to chat to him too. Overall, today has been really great :) And now it's time for bed!! Tomorrow I'm doing the worship at one of the churches we'll be working in, and also giving my testimony. So I'd appreciate prayers for that! Also, minor point on the prayer list, serious big people teeth coming in pain! 

Outreach #1

Okay, so i thought I better get back onto this. I'm currently on my weekend prep for my ten day outreach next month. How crazy that it's already February!? MENTAL. Anyway, I guessed some people might like to know what I'm getting up to while I'm here! 

So, it turned out I was going to Burnley. Which is in England, and about an hour away from Capernwray. The best part is, my friend Jemma is incharge of us. Plus, I met another one of her friends during my stay on staff at Capernwray at New Year, and he's been hanging out with us too which is fun. SO. There is six of us, and we're all pretty different, but I think we are all going to gel together really well which is fun! We got here around dinner time today, and we had a yummy meal at the church. Then we just hung around, and chatted to some of the people who we were going to be working with. Then we had a quick briefing as to what would be happening this weekend. Sounds like it's going to be a fun weekend! I'm still at Jemma's hanging out just now, but I'm really looking forward to meeting my family, though they arent the same people I'll be with for ten day, but that's cool. 

So once we left the church we came back to Jemma and Anne's. Now, I LOVE "God things" and one of them happened, in fact, I'd say two things happened. Firstly, it turns out that Zach, who's our team leader noticed a picture of his friend here. He had been encouraged to come to Capernwray by this friend, but he had no idea that they now shared the same outreach,  just a year later for him! So that's the first really cool thing. The second was as soon as Jemma's house mate, Anne, walked in the doors of the church. I KNEW I knew her, but I had no idea how.   It turns out, the summer of 2011, she had worked at Capernwray over the summer while I was there. That was the summer before I would say I really came back to Christ. So it was kind of weird to know where I'm at now, as to where I was when I first met her. Anyway, back to after we left the church.. We came back to the house, dumped our stuff and then headed out to a community which is basically all Asian. We went to a youth club and hung out for about half an hour, it was just crazy to see such a busy youth club! 

We came back to the house, and now I'm just chilling on the couch. I'm so excited to get to know my team more, and spend some time with some cool people! 

Pray for us this weekend that we can begin to build relationships with the people here!

Thanks! x