Long journeys and good fun!

Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Guten Tag and whatever else takes your fancy! I’m back again with another update about my gap year! I hope you’re all doing well and sitting comfortably, as it’s been a great month!

The first of this epic saga (?) was in Scotland, where we were for two weeks; in both Dundee and Queensferry. After a long drive up north (we definitely didn’t get lost…), we had the first of these weeks in Dundee with Stance and in a different high school each day! This was slightly different to our usual routine of the same school all week, however provided us with a nice change, as well as allowing us to meet a lot more young people and spread the good news! It was a really great week, where a lot of the kids remembered Nomad from previous years and so we were able to get alongside them really well, as well as seeing some great cage football played! As aforementioned, we set up in a different school each day and so we were constantly building new relationships with the young people and the teachers. One of the best moments of the week was definitely when a lad called Ronan came up to us at the end of a lesson, thanking us for what we were doing. It turned out that he was actually a Christian and he had been finding it hard to speak about his faith, especially since being baptised and that he had been really blessed and encouraged to carry on preaching Jesus after we had left! It was a really great moment that helped us to remember that we do what we do to help impact others!

After a great week, we then drove down to the lovely town of South Queensferry on the Saturday, ready for the week ahead. It was a great weekend to relax and regain some energy as well as plan a little for the week ahead. We spend the Sunday morning split across 3 different churches in the area, where we were able to share a little about the work that YFC and Nomad do and where we would be working in the coming week. The evening was spent at one of the churches in Kirkliston, where there was a joint youth group for everyone in the area. It was a really great end to the week and starter for the week ahead, enabling us to get to know some of the older youth really well and spend some valuable time with others our own age.
The week kicked off with all hands on deck and a full 6 lessons, including some RE lessons as well. We finished the first day with a trip to Edinburgh with the guys we’d met on Sunday and had a great time exploring the castle and walking round the beautiful city! The rest of the week was pretty much the same as the first day, with both PE and RE lessons taking place most days and an after school cage tournament on the Thursday. The big event of the week however took place on Friday, where we set the cage up in the car park of the local leisure centre, for a end of week finale kind of thing. It was another really great evening and as always, was amazing to see kids turn up through wanting to be there and take part and having great fun at the same time!
It was definitely sad to leave Scotland behind after an incredible two weeks, but it really felt as though we carried on the Nomad legacy from previous years and left behind some strong support in the youth work there.

With Scotland done and dusted it was time for our Easter break and I headed back to Hereford for the week. Again, it was another great week, that I used to sleep and recover, as well as celebrate my 19th birthday!

Having said goodbye to my family on Sunday, it was a see you tomorrow as the next day we headed to Skegness for Spring Harvest! I’ve attended Spring Harvest alongside my family and friends from Scarborough for the last 4 years and have always enjoyed the atmosphere and great buzz you get from the week, so I was really looking forward to going and being able to serve on team. As it happened, Jonny, Ed and myself were working on the Sports Team alongside Barry, our team leader for the week; a task which had us running all the sporting events that took place during! This ranged from the 7:30 runs in the morning, 5aside football for all ages to table tennis and snooker, so we were definitely kept on our feet! In addition to this, I also spent my evenings helping out in the Base; the evening venue for the youth, which I absolutely loved! We ran it each night holding all kinds of fun stuff including a cage football tournament, quiz night, DJ and much more. It was great to not only serve the young people who came, but to see them come to have fun and enjoy themselves in a more relaxed setting to the meetings.
As always with Spring Harvest, I thoroughly enjoyed the week and it always stands to be one of the best each year! It was particularly amazing this year to be able to experience it from another angle of being on team and being able to serve as well as receive and I felt so blessed to be able to do what I do! From meeting new people and making new friends, to seeing young people experience God in a whole new way; it was a truly epic week!

Since Spring Harvest, we’ve had a few days to recover and a fairly quiet week! Lots of planning and admin work has been done and we’re currently coming to the end of two days of training, which have been incredibly insightful and helpful!
But for now, that is pretty much it! Our busyness starts to pick up again as of next week with our final trip to the last of the Grace Academy’s in Coventry, alongside Stance and Happi and the week after is finally the turn of Hereford! Very excited for the weeks to come and truly expectant that God is going to be very powerful through the work we do!

As always, many, many thank you’s to all those who have taken the time to read my blog and support me through all means, I really appreciate it and cannot express enough how much it means to me! I would definitely appreciate your continued support, especially as we are coming into the last 3 months of the year and it is all going incredibly fast!

God Bless! 🙂

Photos

Lesson time in Scotland!

 

Exploring Edinburgh Castle with new friends!

Spring Harvest football tournament.

The team on a walk!