Overdue Update

I have realized that it has been about a month since my last posting. Sorry about that folks. Things have been quite exciting and busy over here. 

Since my last post:
- Our "boss" of Radical Journey was here with his daughter Brittany for a week. During that week Darrell got to check up on us and our location to make sure things were still going well. It was a blast to have them here. The week went by way too fast. When they were here we got to go to Cardiff and see the Doctor Who Experience. It was awesome! We took the 5 hour train ride down early in the morning and came back the same day. Yes, it was a lot of traveling in a day but we had to fit it in and it was well worth it. One of the other things we got to do with Darrell was have 1:1 chats about how things are going. It was a nice space to talk about any frustrations, issues or praises we had. I was able to get some good advice from him relating to things I had asked him and it has been helpful so far :) 

- As part of the Youth Leader position I have filled I get to take part of a group called Together. It is a group based out of the Bradford Churches of Dialogue and Diversity. Within this group we get to plan activities to try and bring together youth from across the city or different religions and cultural background. In February we got the chance to put together a two night (one for boys, one for girls) residential. It turned out superb! We got one of our youth from the youth group to come along with about 10 youth from an inner-city group called e:merge. It was great to get to know these kids and talk with them about faith, Islam and Christianity. I am excited for future residential for this crew to be involved in. 

- I gotten the chance to go on several field trips with school. A couple weeks ago I was able to travel to Scarborough with years 5 and 6. It was nice to travel out with a different year group that I normally would not see due to me working in year 3. When there we got to explore along the shore line and see the older tourist buildings. Walking around there I seriously felt like I was in a Danielle Steele book or something. It was awesome. 

- Another really exciting thing that I got to take part in was Connecting Disciples. Connecting Disciples is a conference for the Youth and Family Workers in the Methodist Circuit. It took place in a gorgeous old manor outside of London. It was a week of beauty and learning. During the week we got to sign up for different seminars relating to, can you guess? Youth work! haha. There were two that I signed up for that I definitely got a lot from. One was called Godly Play which is a specific way of doing Sunday School. It focuses more on the creative and imaginative approach to teaching children the Bible. I would seriously suggest this for people who lead Sunday School for kids. It even drew me in to pay attention on what was happening; which says a lot. I normally have about ten other things happening in my head so paying attention is not always the easiest. The other talk I loved was one of Spiritual Styles. We know that not everyone learns the same for school so of course it would be the same for church. It was great to see the different styles and what works for each. The different styles were Word, Symbol, Emotion and Action. I wont go into all the details of that now because this post will get longer and longer. 

Well as you can see in this past month there has been a lot of traveling and doing, and these were only a few of them. Thank you all for your continued support.

Blessings, 
Stephanie 

Sunday Song

The Summons:
Words by John L. Bell & Graham Maule

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

Will you love the "you" you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found to reshape the world around,
through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In Your company I'll go where Your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

Whats your answer?

Blessings,

Stephanie

Friday Sharing

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

A story of friendship between a bird and a tree.

Singing At Bus Stops

Things from this month that took me by surprise: 

1.) We are half way through our time here in Bradford. 

2.) How much I actually wanted it to snow this year. 

3.) The amount of tears I shed when I saw Les Miserable. 

4.) The joy I find in singing Les Mis songs out loud at the bus stop when no one is around.

5.) The goal I made for myself for this year. 

Let me share a bit more on that last one there. As in an earlier post I mentioned something about how being in a school setting again has made me think about school. I have found that the days I get to spend in the primary school I absolutely adore, not that I ever doubted I would, but loved it in such a way that it kind of ignited a passion in me again. Once upon a time I attended college in hopes of being a teacher. That obviously did not go as planned. I can honestly say that I did not care about school at the time I went, it was just something I felt I had to do. Since growing older and working with children in different settings I keep having this thought of returning to school. While being in the classroom now, acting in the teacher role, I find that I often take down mental notes about what I would do when teaching this or that lesson. What I would explain differently, how I loved that experiment to show what magnets do or how I would set up my own classroom. I do believe that one of the main reasons why God sent me here was for me to realize, second time around, that I wanted to work in this setting. 

Thus getting to the new goal I made for this year. The goal I made was to apply for school again. Let me tell you, this terrifies me. School was rarely enjoyable for me. Thinking about going through the process again of applying and if being accepted again, actually going back to classes and then dealing with... well everything makes my stomach churn. Literally, I can feel it moving. I am in love with the idea of what I would be able to do upon having a degree but that whole in between process is almost unbearable to think about. It would be so nice to be able to skip the in between of things that we didn't fully enjoy. Like dating... just kidding. 

Anyways. The goal is that I will apply to school and see where that takes me. If there is any clue from last years goal of leaving the country on a missions trip and hoping it was this program with my exact location, it will probably happen. 

This is something that I will need much prayer support with so I thank you in advance.

Love you all,

Stephanie 

P.S. If you have not seen Les Miserable yet you should probably go this weekend. It is amazing. Bring tissues. 

Jeremiah 29:11 
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

We'll take a cup of kindness yet

A couple songs for this day:

New Years Eve Duet

Aud Lang Syne

Blessings and Love to you all! 

Mince Pies

First off, I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and will have a fantastic New Year! I for one had several lovely days surrounding Christmas. I am extremely thankful that the three of us were invited to peoples homes over the holidays. 

Christmas Eve we had a visit from Louise for some chatting and tea and then later on in the evening we had dinner with Derek, Leslie and John Marshall then went caroling with others from the Methodist Circuit. I had not been caroling in a few years so I was quite excited. I only really knew a couple of the songs that we did and was glad to learn new ones. My new favorite is In The Bleak Midwinter which I'm sure is in America but I have never sung it. After caroling we then went to a midnight service. Then for Christmas day we went to a morning service at St. Wilfreds then spend time at Ruth and Paul Bilton's home before going back to our house to open presents and video chat with out families. We then returned to the Bilton's for a delicious dinner. 

I have gotten a lot of questions about Christmas traditions here. I think its funny how Christmas in England is thought of to be more of a (as Kathy Sherrie put it) "romantic" setting, like Charles Dickens. I am slightly sad to report that it is not like that, at least not in Bradford. We share most of the same traditions though different holiday foods. I have eaten a lot of Mince Pies this season. For the longest time I thought there was actual meat in these pies. I was very relieved to find out there was not; which I then of course started eating as many as was appropriate, or not, in one sitting. 

A couple things I have noticed that America does more for the holidays:

1. Decorations. I have only seen a handful of homes that put lights/decorations on the outside of their homes. When passing them a usual comment is "they don't mind the electric bill".

2. Music in stores! There were not many stores that played Christmas or even festive winter music in stores. 

One of the new things we got to experience was Boxing Day. I remember seeing Boxing Day on calenders for many years and I always thought it was Boxing like the sport. I was confused as to why it was such a big thing. This past week I found out what it really is: a day when servants would receive gifts or "Christmas boxes" from their superiors. Neat! For this day we went to Angie and Malcolm's house. We started our time with them by taking a nice rainy walk. Then ate dinner with their kids and families. It was a lovely time. 

I have been very thankful for being busy over our break. I got the chance to go to Birmingham to see my cousin Adam and his girlfriend. I was extremely excited to find out that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings in Birmingham. Even though I did not go to his exact place of writing I am still happy that I get to say I was there. 

In a short while I will be getting on the train with the guys to head to Sheffield to spend New Years Eve with my friend Beki and her family! Praise the Lord for friends! 

Thank you all for your love and prayers over this season,

Stephanie

Favorite Things

I figured I would write out a list some of my favorite things (cue Julie Andrews singing) since I have not updated on what has been happening for a bit. 

1.) London. We got the chance to spend the weekend in London several weeks ago. It was fantastic! We took the Megabus there early Saturday morning, 5 am to be exact. The day started out odd, we left the house later then expected so we had to run to catch the bus at the station. I should clarify though, I attempted to run, Joe ran all the way to have the bus wait for us and Nick stayed behind with me. If a Zombie apocalypse were to happen, I would get eaten first. Anyways, on the four hour bus ride going there we had to make a stop in the middle of the journey due to a pheasant hitting the windshield and cracking the glass. We waited for a new bus then got there. First stop: Starbucks! We were heavily caffeinated that day. To keep this bit short I will say that I really loved London. We did a lot of walking around trying to see a lot of the touristy places. My favorite thing that we saw, which has been a dream of mine, was the Peter Pan sculpture in Kengsington Park. It definitely lived up to my expectations. 

2.) Geocaching. My friend Karen took me on my first geocaching adventure. I had no idea what this what before coming here. Apparently its a huge thing. For the other people out there out of the loop like me, geocaching is a outdoor treasure hunt! They are all over the place. We went out hiking by this neat thing called the Singing Ringing Tree (a sculpture on the top of a mountain) and got the app to tell us the coordinates of where they are hidden. You follow a map and clues and try to find the container with little trinkets in it. Its great. I felt like a detective! I will definitely be doing this more. Check out the site :) 

http://www.geocaching.com/

3.) Thanksgiving. The guys and I threw a big thanksgiving feast for our British family. We cooked a lot of food and it was SO YUMMY. My favorite is still Sweet Potato casserole. It was a hit. Leftovers are always such a nice thing about thanksgiving.

4.) Youth Retreat. Our CYG group (youth group at the Methodist church) joined a church from Blackpool and Sheffield for a weekend of fun. We made new friends and had a great time. It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I kind of thought that teaching and being a youth pastor are quite similar. They really aren't though. Well for me at least. It helped nail down the knowing even more that I want to go back to school for Education. Dun dun dun. Scary thought. 

5.) T.V. Shows. In some of my sick days I have been able to catch up on some shows I have missed watching and started new ones. New Girl is still hilarious and The Walking Dead is intense and great! The guys and I are watching that together and I love it. 

6.) Mail. I have received some great items in the mail recently: flowers from my mum and Phil, a package containing my favorite scarf that my Grandma Klassen made me and letters from other loved ones. All the letters go right up on my wall. Its a lovely display I've got going on there. And for the scarf, it basically has not left my neck since I got it. It was great because right when I got the parcel I was just starting to get sick. It was a blessing to receive. Being away from home when sick is always a bummer and this was the perfect touch of home to comfort me. 

7.) This song/music video, it's beautiful. 

I hope everyone is doing lovely!

Blessings, 

Stephanie