Today I was at the South East Fun Day organised by Sharron, a colleague from YFC.

This was a great event for around 250 young people from around the south east and involved in various games, crafts and competitions. It looked like lose of young people were having a great day.

I ran 2 seminars for youth leaders looking at how you manage and encourage positive behaviour. I chatted with people who have a real desire to get alongside young people and support them, but who also struggle with knowing how or if they should discipline young people.

This has always been a difficulty. To me it seems that young people feel safe when they have clear and obvious boundaries, with clear expectations and trust from the adults around them. In fact, the exact opposite from the mixed and confused messages that they are getting from the press and government.

Hello,

3 weeks ago – we asked you to send an email to each of the G8 finance ministers, asking them to do all they could at their crucial talks to make poverty history. A total of a MILLION emails were sent over the next 5 days. This was an incredible response.

2 weeks ago – at the talks themselves, those politicians promised to cancel 100% of debt owed by 18 of the world’s very poorest countries, with 20 more that may qualify later.

That means that around 280 million people will soon wake up not owing debts to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the very first time.

Of course there is no escaping the fact that more, much more, is still to be done – an end to the damaging strings attached to debt relief – we still need $50 billion to be given in high quality aid – and a change to trade policies that stop poor countries from prospering.

But it’s clearer now than it has ever been that every single email you have sent so far has been vital and the ones still to come are even more important.

At last weekend’s meeting Gordon Brown said “the eyes of the public are upon us”. In the build up to next month’s G8 Summit in Scotland, we need to leave our leaders in no doubt that the entire world is watching and waiting to see if they make poverty history.

Thank you and get ready for the big push.

Claudia

I can’t help yet again (you are gonna get bored of hearing this) but think how fortunate I am. I have a great job!

In Leeds we met at the offices of Leeds Faith in Schools which was great in itself to be able to catch up with Lee. It was then a great day to chat over the Integrate mission idea and how things might work with the directors of the centres in the north of England. These are a great bunch of people and I really think the only one draw back of being south bound is that I only get to see these special people once a year normally at staff conference.

We had a great day, discussed lots of things and received some very helpful challenging positive feedback. I love meetings like this because it just makes it easier to move on and make progress together.

To top it all, we had lunch in the Iranian restaurant next door which was a new experience for all of us, apart from Lee who seems to eat there every day!

The journey … mmm. On the way there it was excellent. I was even tempted to blog on the GNER wifi until I realised I needed to pay! There were lots of people at Gillingham station at 540 too ; and to make things worse they all talk to each other! Being on the tube at 630 is a novel experience – again people give eye contact and talk to each other. Cold it be that there is a whole new parallel world out there that rises at 5 which is totally different to the world we experience if we awake at a normal hour?!!!

The journey back. Not so good as this news report shows – I was one of the lucky ones who managed to get a train from Peterborough to Cambridge and then to London on a different line. GNER gave very little information apart from suggesting we all travel in the morning! Not very helpful at all! But, as I said – I was lucky as the train I was on was stranded at a station and the doors were immediately opened so we could escape! I got home over 3 hours late, but that’s not anyway near as bad as it sounds for the other people stranded between stations!

My first trip north … one to mull on! I wonder if I will be invited back? Maybe Manchester … hint hint!

Today I am off to Leeds. (nah I’ve not got up very early to blog, I am writing this in the future!Or … should that be the past?)

I am off to Leeds for the last in the meetings of the Integrate Mission tour. I’m looking forward to catching up with the people from the north as they are a cool bunch and I only usually get to see them once a year at staff conference.

I am intrigued to see who else will be on the 540am from Gillingham to Victoria. I will be wanting to ask them ‘Why?’ Why would you want to be in London at 6.30 in the morning?

Is the world awake at 5.40 / 6.30 – I guess I shall see!

I’ve recently come across Rob Bell who is a great teacher. In fact, I think I can say, this young guy has started to restore my faith in preaching. Rob Bell is a church leader at Mars Hill.

I have come across Rob Bell’s teaching through a series of DVD’s called Nooma. YFC were sent a copy to look at and we have used a couple in our thought slots at events. Rob Bell is deep, but he explains things with a young and fresh clarity which is enlightening. I was particularly struck by his new take on Peter jumping out of the boat to walk on the water.

I had a little search online today to see if I could buy any of the Nooma DVDs in the UK. I can, (the cheapest place I have found is here at £7.60 each) but I found that the Mars Hill site has free mp3 downloads of teachings from their services. Many of these are from Bell and are great to listen to. He is a fresh vibrant teacher, so he may be worth checking out.

I am thinking of downloading a couple for my long train journey to Leeds intheh morning.

I was sent this link today.
All Star Wars fans must watch it – made me laugh. This is a great little movie.
If you use Firefox as your browser (if you still use Explorer … why?) then you can save this by clicking on tools and then page info and then by clicking the media tab. I’m sure you’ll want to use this and send it on.
Actually – just noticed at the foot of the page there is a link to download everything – so have fun.

I have a question and a concern.

Is it just me or is the reporting today around Saddam Hussein wrong and out of order? His prison guards have been interviewed telling us what foods he likes, what games he wants to play and so on. I missed the first part of the first interview I heard on the radio and I really thought the people were talking about a creature in a zoo.

When I realised they were talking about another human being with thoughts and emotions, a person created by God, I felt quite sickened.

Surely this type of reporting is de-humanising and wrong. Here we have an imprisoned and maybe even evil man, but to parade and poke fun in this way makes me feel uncomfortable. I suspect we would be outraged if a terrorist group paraded a hostage in similar language such as ‘oooo they like Doritos but they think they are going to go home soon! No chance of that is there!’

This is wrong.
Respect has gone.
He is no longer being thought of as a human being
an equal.
He is being thought of as an animal.
Treated as sub-human
But …
no matter what we think
no matter what evil he has performed
he is still a father
someone’s friend
a mothers son
God’s created
in His image

But I love it!

Once again today despite getting up at 530 am and leaving the house at 6 I come away from the conference room in Coventry after 3 pm really thanking God for the privileged job I have. I am so lucky and so grateful.

Apart form anything else I am always prompted to thank God when I leave early in the morning. The absence of cars, clear skies, quietness and stillness make it virtually impossible to ignore God’s creation. It is there staring you in the face and make some form of worship activity very easy with so much to bounce from. I really should get up earlier on the odd morning to experience it from outside a metal can!

Actually the day got off to a good start in my appraisal with Richard in the sun at Coventry at 9am. It was a good time – targets are being met and I still have a job!! Richard is very good at telling me when I do something that is good. It’s so important and I think we all need to hear that – and the more the better.

The rest of the day was talking again about the integrate mission strategy of YFC and how we wish to listen to the dreams of centres and see if we can work together to move those dreams on to becoming realities. Taking local evangelism one step further!

It is just great to be able to meet with my friends from YFC who have a great passion for the young people of this country. I even got to meet new people today, and possibly added another blogger to my friendship list. We may also have converted another person to blogging … we shall see.

I did also see a great paper blog – yes such things would seem to exist and very good it looked too. I think I may have just thrown a comment gauntlet down to a good friend!!

Today Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan release ‘Unplayed Piano’ their new single in support of Aung San Suu Kyi. All profits from the sale of the record will go to support the Burma Campaign UK and the US Campaign for Burma. In 2003, Rice was nominated for a BRIT Award and an NME Award. His album O has now sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, and includes the hit single ‘Blower’s Daughter’, which is the lead track in the Oscar nominated film Closer starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen. A moving video accompanying ‘Unplayed Piano’ shows footage of Aung San Suu Kyi and performance of the song by Rice and Hannigan.

Please go out today and buy this beautiful tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi, which will help raise awareness of her plight and contribute much needed funds to the campaign to free her. You can listen to and buy the single on-line through the Burma Campaign UK site at: http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/merchandise.html

Please encourage friends to buy ‘Unplayed Piano’ as a way of supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, or make it a present for someone to help spread the word about the situation in Burma.

… in fact it was flipping hot!

The people, though, were really cool. It was really exciting to see a church properly investing in their youth worker. The church has bought a house which backs on to the church for Dan and Hayley and they are now releasing him, and paying for, a course for him to go in. It’s so rare to see churches fully investing, so this was encouraging.

I met some fantastic young people too. Ollie, a 15 year old doing his work experience with Dan who is convinced he is called into youth work and is already asking and seeking the best way to pursue this. I also met a guy called Tom who is finishing his GCSE’s as we speak. This was a guy who really put me in my place (in a nice way)!

After I spoke about our mission teams he asked if we had ever thought about using rugby in the same way we have skate, football and basketball teams. I suggested it would be a good thing to look into, but that we would probably need to do a 7’s as getting 15 would be hard work. The look Tom gave showed that I had desperately fallen in his estimation from YFC worker of great faith to old man of little faith! \His answer – easy with prayer and proper recruitment. Maybe even get Jason Robinson involved he said!

I was put in my place quite rightly – how easy it is to lose a sense of edginess and expectancy in our faith. How easy it is to play safe. How easy it is to say no to young people when our task is to encourage and enable.

It was good to see Dan and Hayley – they are great people and fantastic hosts, and their boys are great fun too. It was good just to spend time chatting and eating together. It was good as well, though, to be reminded by Tom how it is indeed God that it controlling everything and not our plans!