Friday, January 23, 2009

New Ideas

My last post was a little lame, and not terribly informative so I thought I would write a better one and recap my week for you!

Monday: I had the morning and afternoon off due to the fact that I worked on Saturday. It was nice to sleep in or have a "lie in" as they call it over here in the UK. Then at about 6:45 Gavin, my minister's husband came and picked me up for Monday night bible study. This really is the highlight of my week, I love all the kids I work with. They're just all so different and fun and they're just awesome. I don't think I would be doing what I'm doing this year if it wasn't for them. 

Tuesday: Always a relatively easy day in my world, which is nice. I went in to school at about 10 or so because I had to take the bus and it was a tad bit late. So, I just waited in the office for Neil and I had a cup of tea. Can I just say that tea is really starting to grow on me? I mean seriously, I love the stuff. I drink it loads more than coffee, but another reason for that is the big thing over here is instant coffee and I kind of snub my nose at that. I know, I know I'm a coffee snob, sue me. Anyways, we had our usual Religion Education class that consists of three Year 11's, who are all quite clever. I didn't partake in this lesson though seeing as I was editing and sprucing up Neil and I's newsletter that goes out about twice a year. We then had our Tuesday lunch club which is for 6th formers (11th and 12th graders) and I always like seeing and spending time with them. It's a very small group that comes, but they're a good core group. After lunch Neil and I headed back to the youth center and I planned our Wednesday time lunch club while he emailed our newsletter to our main office. Then it was time to head home, glorious day.

Wednesday: So my hump days are the total opposite of Tuesday. My day started at about 9:40 am and doesn't finish until about 5, on a normal day. Neil picked me up at around 9:40 and we immediately had to go to our tutorial group for about 25 minutes. Then 10:30 rolled around and Fiona, my locations manager picked me up from school and we went to a local cafe to have our monthly chat together. Fiona then dropped me back off, and it was time for another RE class for Year 11's, except this class only has two students in it. It's alright though, because they're awesome too so I don't mind that there is virtually nobody in the class. After the lesson we had our lunch club called Mettle for Year 10's and 11's. We talked about the difference between spiritual gifts and fruits of the spirit, and it went very well! Happy day! We Mettle ended it was time to head over to the dining hall for a weekly event known as "Midweek Challenge", sounds exciting right? Yeah, not so much. The school pulls all of the Year 7's (youngest in the school) out every Wednesday and they don't have any lessons on, they just do random activities. It doesn't sound so bad, but in reality it's really chaotic and it stresses many of the teachers out and the kids I've talked to aren't really fans. However, this particular Midweek Challenge actually ran quite smoothly. About 20 or more adults came to the school and we all sat at a different table in the dining hall and a group of about five Year 7's would come around and interview us about our jobs. Can I just say how precious these kids are? They're just so tiny and adorable and I love them. Anyways, I had about six or seven groups interview me total and they would ask me about my job as a youth worker and it normally went along without any bumps. Haha, I did have this one kid that asked me if we have any lizards in Texas. Precious. My last few groups though were all girls and once they heard my accent, their faces lit up. I was then asked things like "Do you go to the mall everyday?" and "What's your favorite shop (clothing store)?" and so on. So, needless to say sometimes my American accent leads kids to take a detour from what they're supposed to be doing. I'm sure they were really bored though of asking the same questions over and over, I know I was tired of answering them. What a crazy Wednesday, fun times!

Thursday: Ah, what a great day. I didn't go in to work until about 12:30, because Neil had something to do that morning. We did our Thursday lunch group which is the exact same kids as our Wednesday one. Neil showed them a video from when he went to India, and I sat quietly and planned for our Friday lunch group, Rock Solid. After the club we had nothing to do, so it was time to head home only working for about an hour. I got home and the two new episodes of LOST were finally done downloading from iTunes! YES! I watched those and my spirits soared. I was a little disappointed not to be watching it with my normal LOST buddies, my dad and brother but it's okay. Surprisingly a lot of people over here in the UK are LOST fans as well, it actually premieres here on Sunday night, but like the true and devoted fans could wait that long. Psh, yeah right.

So, I'm really excited about something at the moment! I'm about to begin two girls bible studies pretty soon! One for ages 11-15 and the other 16-18. I'm meeting with my minister, Catherine on Monday before youth group and we're going to look at dates and start to plan this thing out! I'm really thrilled beyond words, I love working with girls and ministering to them and I can't to see what God will do through this! If you could please pray for me and the potential girls I'll be ministering to that would be greatly appreciated!

Lately Nicole and I have really been into making list, well Nicole got started first and I followed in her footsteps. I really like it, and yeah. Ha, just thought I would share that random fact about my life with all of my faithful readers.

I officially put down a housing deposit for the University of Arkansas next year and I'm really thrilled about that too! It means I'm one step closer to college, and that's kind of scary but also so exciting at the same time!

I was kind of in a weird funk last week, and just little things like LOST, making lists, and future girls bible studies are really lifting my spirits! 

Happy early birthday to my fabulous grandmother, Elizabeth Sue Flanagan!

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend!

Love,
Kelsey

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