We are currently in the middle of a “heat wave”, meaning the sun has been out 4 straight days and the temperature has reached 70 degrees. It sounds funny when I hear people call it a heat wave, but honestly it does feel like one considering how cold it has been the previous weeks. Some people are saying it may stay this warm for a few more days, I hope so.
This past Sunday was a day to remember. I was standing out in the church parking lot with 4 boys who had never been to church; we were waiting for some of our other friends. Church had been going on for about 15 minutes when we decided they were most likely not going to show up so we started to make our way towards the building when we saw Josh. We were not expecting him to show up, he asked what we were doing, I told him we were about to go inside for the church service and asked him if he wanted to join us. At first he seemed unsure, said he had never been to church before, I assured him it wouldn’t be too bad considering we had already missed the first 20 minutes. When he agreed to come in I was very happy, but that feeling of happiness did not last very long. It was about 2 minutes after sitting down in the auditorium that Josh started texting the other boys who were sitting there with us and talking out loud to the boy next to him. I realized it was going to be a long service. I repeatedly asked him to stop talking, the whole experience culminated when he proceeded to hold up his phone and show me the text Calvin sent him. Haha it was funny because the only open seats left for us to sit in happened to be in the front of the church, so everyone behind us could see his phone. And although he thought he was showing me a text message, he must have clicked the wrong button or something because when he held up his phone it had no words on the screen, just the picture he had selected for his background. And of course the background picture for his phone was a naked lady.
After the service I still had two 5 pound notes in my pocket because we came in after they took the offering so I gave one to the two boys who sat there the quietest during the service. The crazy thing is that a few minutes after I gave them money, this old guy who I have never met came up to me and said he had heard about what I was doing and gave me a 20 pound note. Then later that night at the evening service the treasurer gave me an envelope containing a 20 pound note and said someone put it in the offering this morning.
A quick bit of advice to anyone interested in youth work, don’t ever have the kids try atomic hot sauce before you do the lesson, always save it for after. Last Wednesday Jon brought some of the strongest hot sauce ever to youth program, and was daring the kids to try it. Some of them took the challenge, but for the rest of the night they were going in and out of the bathroom to get water. One boy even had to call the ambulance because he had an allergic reaction. Funniest thing about the whole story is that the same boy took the challenge last year and the ambulance had to come because he had the same allergic reaction. I guess he was hoping for a better result this year.
This past Wednesday went much better though. We showed an “I am second” video, which we were worried about because Jon has had some really bad experiences with showing films to the kids, but they were all quiet and respectful during it. Earlier in the day I went with Jon to a school called Sheldon, we sat in front of 7 kids around the age of 18 and answered questions about God. It was a really good time, the one girl claimed she was an atheist and she asked some thoughtful questions, one of them being if Jon or I had ever experienced an answered prayer. We shared with her how when I arrived to England a month ago, I was told at the airport that I would probably not be allowed in because I did not have the right paperwork. Then about 5 minutes after Jon sent out a mass text message to people asking them to pray, I was unexpectedly allowed access into the country.
It is interesting because ever since the day I arrived I have wondered about that airport experience. I did not know why it happened the way it did, I thought maybe it was for me, to be a confirmation that I was supposed to be here. I also thought it have been for the church, but now after sharing that story to these students, maybe it was for them. It is possible that they needed to know God is real and actually does answer prayer. We went to another class after the first one and answered some more questions about God but it did not seem to go as well. The kids really did not have many questions to ask and they did not seem as interested.
Speaking of not being interested, Jon and I went to an old people’s home this week, during the prayer time; this really old guy to my left must have flipped through a hundred magazine pages. It was really hard for me not to laugh at the whole situation. Before arriving to this home, I was under the impression that we were just going to sit and talk with some of them. But we ended up leading them in singing hymns. They had a keyboard which looked like it was from Napoleon Dynamite, but the lady who played it was not there at first so we had to do some songs without it. Haha the funny thing is that none of the old people were singing so it was just Jon and I for the most part. Good times.
Woke up yesterday morning feeling very sick, I did not sleep well the night before or last night. I have a fever, sore throat, cough, and I am very congested. I went to the store thinking they would have Nyquil or something similar but found nothing. It is really strange; I do not know how they survive over here without Nyquil. I went to a pharmacy today and asked the person behind the counter for something that would make me fall asleep and she looked back at me as if I was some type of drug addict.
Things at the church are still going really well. There is a guy here this week from America and yesterday while I was outside with some of the skateboarders he asked me what I was going to do when I got back to the states, before I could even answer some of the kids answered for me. They said I should not go back, but rather stay here and skateboard everyday. If only life were that simple.
Lately I have been going into a lot of the younger schools with Jon and doing assemblies, we did 4 just this past week. We were at a school called Ivy Lane and they managed to fit 300 kids into the tiniest room ever. There was barely room for Jon and I to stand. He asked the kids where they thought I was from, and the first person he called on answered very confidently and said Brazil. The next two answered with Australia and Madagascar. It’s amazing how they can never seem to guess America. It is also amazing how amused the kids are with Jon’s puppets, he has one called Rebel the wolf and another called Squirtle the turtle. When he pulls them out of his brown suitcase the kids go wild. Rebel bit my hand yesterday when I tried to feed him a piece of bread and this little girl on the front row was laughing so hard I though she was going to wet herself.
I received a package today from my parents, thank you to everyone who donated some 1 dollar bills. The kids are going to be very excited when I give them out. I am headed up to the church now, we are having sports night in the gym at 8pm.
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