Matthew 5:41
If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.
So update on my life! I am in Billingham, England working with Tees Valley Youth for Christ. I am serving in New Life Church in Billingham and with the Billingham town council! My first work week was last week and we have done a lot! On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I work at “The Hub,” which is a building in John Whitehead Park that provides Youth Workers and activities for the kids that visit the park. Our main goal for “The Hub” is to promote sports in the park! Which I am excited about because I LOVE SPORTS!!! They especially want us to encourage the girls in BIllingham to play. On Thursday night my friend Shelby and I had the opportunity to teach 5 girls how to play volleyball! They caught on really quick and were really excited when they found out that we would be coming back on Tuesday with a real volleyball net. Girls playing sports is really not a big thing over her so it was reall encouraging to find some girls willing to play with us!
On Wednesday nights we work with the students at New Life Church. We have two groups the younger youth (5-11) who are called TrailBlazers and the older youth (11-16) who are called Xchange. The younger kids are so cute and they have been so fun to get to know! To learn their names we played the picnic game... and let me tell you they LOVE the picnic game. This is how you play- you get all the kids to sit in a circle and tell them that they are going on a picnic and they have to bring something that starts with the first letter of their name. For example I would say, “My name is Tracey and I am going to bring Tomato’s to the picnic.” As of right now it is their favorite game- we have played it at least 3 times. The only issue is that they spell differently here than they do back home. Instead of just saying "T" for Tracey, they would make the "T" sound. Older youth is going really well too! We have about 10 regular kids and they are awesome! One of the kids, Micah, is one of my favs because he can ride a unicycle and he has a FLEA CIRCUS! Like real fleas... we asked his mum.
Thursday was my friend Delaney's birthday! She just turned 19, which means that she is a high school gap year student. I can not even imagine coming straight here from highschool, she is so brave! She is from Orlando Florida and she says I can visit her anytime I want.. and that is invitation enough for me! We ate at the Purple Pig and it was awesome! I had a proper hamburger, and it tasted like an american hamburger! Delaney had this thing called "Snoop Hoggedy Hog" and it was really good as well- it was a barbecue sandwich. Then for her birthday treat, the Purple Pig gave Delaney a cup of there bubble gum jelly icecream- it was pretty gross but ice cream aside I had a great time celebrating Delaney's big day!
On Saturday my flat had 5 people over for tea (tea means dinner in England- not just tea). My friend Leah ran to my flat from her host home in Darlington which is 13 miles away from Billingham. When she got to our flat that morning I was still in my pjs, I have never felt so lazy in my entire life. Leah is training for an Ultra Marathon (which is longer than a marathon) so she enjoys lonnnngggggg runs- like 2.5 hour long runs. She said eventually she will run to our flat and hang out then run back. Shelby’s English friend Rachel came over too that morning. She is like our own personal English tour guide. She works at a tea shop and brings us Britishy things like tea and sweets. Also she brings us DVDS to watch on this cute TV that she is letting us borrow. She is our British Guardian Angel. After they got there we rode a bus to a rugby match! One of the gap year guys plays on the team. I don’t understand Rugby at all… they lifted each other in the air like cheerleaders, they made tunnels out of their bodies, and the ball can hit the ground and they keep playing. I need to look up the rules. After the game we came back to the flat to eat! Leah made us zucchini pizza and pesto chicken! So good!! After that we had ice cream and watched a movie called “Father of Lights” it is a Christian documentary and its pretty intense.
Overall I am having a great time hanging out with awesome people! I can not complain! We are now starting to get into schools. We got into a school called Bishopton, it is a last resort school for kids with discipline problems. So lots of prayers for us woudl be much appreciated as we start working there on a regular basis. They actually only have 2 girls in the whole school and aparently they are not really friends. We are hoping to get into another school called St. Michael- I'll keep you guys posted.
Prayer Requests:
1. For the Students and Faculty of Bishopton- that we are able to serve and meet their needs. Also that we are able to befriend the students and make am impact in their lives.
2. That we are able to get into St. Michael.
3. That we (TVYFC Team Billingham) are able to make positive relationships with the students in Billingham
4. For the Billingham Town Council- they are going to take a vote soon whether to abolish the town council or not- currently the town council is helping to fund us. So pray that the council will not get abolished.
5. For me- At church on Sunday night we learned about going the extra mile. The example was to "wash dishes like Jesus was going to eat off of them." So if you could just pray for me to do everything like I was doing it for Jesus that would be awesome!
Thanks for your prayers and support! Eat lots of cheese dip and peanut butter for me.. and maybe go to sonic! Ha!