pull up a pew: April 2010

Dear my wonderful, glorious and beautiful personal supporters,

I just want to start off by saying an absolutely HUGE thank you to everyone who's reading this, thank you for supporting me, whether you pray for me, give me money, send me food in the post (oh, and if more people wanted to do this, it would not meet any complaints) or if you just read these little updates and think of me. thank you. thank you. thank you. it means more to me that you actually care what's happening in my life than i could say. so i just wanted to write this (what turned out to be longer than i had expected) note to let you know what i have been up to in the past term. so i hope you enjoy it. [if you get bored, and would rather just skim, i'm goign to put some parts in bold and i will have some pretty pictures with captions, so you could just concentrate on those].

So what a term it has been! we started off with a little change of team, nic sadly left us mid-january to move back home with her parents and job hunt, but she was replaced by the wonderful Keoitse Ipeleng Didintle Lobelo (yeah, we can't really pronounce it either - we just call her Keo). Keo has settled in really quickly and has straight away become an amazing and wondeful part of this team.

[here we are while on mission in Blackburn]

so we started off this new era of Crux Media by going to our furthest north point as a team so far - Scotland (just) we were in a place called Canonbie, near Langholm, just north of Carlisle. we were there working with a group called "making Movies" where we were teaching a group of young people how to use the equipment, how to use storys and characters to develop a script and teaching them, over the week, how to make a movie. by the end of the week, the young people we were working with had made music videos, either of the song "Where is the Love" by the Black Eyed Peas, or "Don't Stop Believin'" by the Glee Cast. some of the videos made were amazing, and it was awesome to see how much the young people had learnt over the one week we were there. it was awesome to get alongside some young people outside of a school environment and just get to know them, work along side them and help them learn something new. As a result of us being there, a new film group has been set up to meet at the church with the young people called "MAD" (Make A Difference) Movies, where the young people are making videos based on passages from the bible. (one girl even told me that she had loved the week so much that she wanted to join Crux Media when she left schooland was going to start going to church as a result of us being there).

Next on the Agenda for us was an amazing mission that we did in Blackburn. we spent the week up there, and originally our project was to make a short film for the council about the isses that the local area (called Mill Hill) faced whilst working a little bit along side the young people (ond polder people) in the community - interviewing them and chatting with them, getting both sides of the picture. and this is what we did at the start, but it became apparent that some of the problems that the council thought existed were being exagurated and that actually the issues were less severe that it seemed.

while we were going to the youth groups and to the clubs that were being ran in the Comunity centre there, we got an opportunity to hang out with some incredible young people. some of the guys there had clearly had very difficult lives and it was so good to be able to hear their voice and get a chance to put it on film so that it can be heard by the council and by the police in the area. on the final day of us being there we ran a kind of talent show / open-mic night where the young people (and some of the team!) had a chance to "show off their skillz" it was one of the best nights i have had in a long time, the atomosphere was amazing, and the young people got involved like you wouldnt believe, so much so that we could hardly tear a few of them off the stage. it was such a hard goodbye when the time came for us to leave. it's hard to believe the such a strong relationship could be built up with us being there one week, yet every mission, friday evening rolls around, and we have to say goodbye to a group of people who, 6 days previously, we had never met, and it is always so much harder than we ever expect.
The next dates to be ticked off on the calendar were off in Cheshire, or more specifially, Sandbach (Home of the Watkinsons) where We (Crux Media) and crux Theatre were running an evening Service at Hannahs home church. the service was based on the loose theme of "Young People" i gave a small talk, but the majority of the service was based around a few response areas for the congregation to get involved with to help them think about and pray about the young people of their area / country. the evening went really well and everyone who came seemed to really enjoy it.
Straight after this i went on holiday to Canada with my family. it was a really good chance to just hang out with my family (which i hadn't really done for a while) so it was nice to see them and just get an opportunity to chill.
After getting back from Canada the next thing for us was Spring Harvest. my team and i (minus Keo) made our way to Minehead where we were helpig at the iScape venue (14s to 18s) and we were helping on team and running the creative arts. the week was awesome and we got an amazing chance to hang out with some young people and see what God was doing in the lives of the 600+ young people in the venue. it was possibly the most exhausting week that we have had on team so far, but it was also probably the most rewarding. i cant really describe how good it was. it was just so clear to see that some amazing things were happening in that room.

After Spring Harvest i went home for a week of just generally relaxing and not doing a lot, regaining my energy for the next week. it was good.
So that has been my term. it's been crazy and busy. but unbelievably good. God has really been doing some amazing things in the past few months, not only in the lives of the young people we've been working with, but also in this team.

so now to the future...
we have a few missions coming up, next week we are going down to Luton to run "Film School in a Day" straight after that, we are off to Alton Towers to work at the ultimate even, promoting YFC gap years and trying to recruit for then next years. after that, we're off to Nottingham, then after that we're returning to the delights of Blackburn for a follow-up mission.

It would be amazing if those of you who pray, could keep praying for these missions as they approach, could pray for their preparation and organization beforehand, and also that they go well, and that we are well recieved where we go. and that the young people can have the support that they need when we leave.
and finally... the bit that i hate. as you not doubt all know, i need to raise personal support for this year with YFC, i am now so close to getting the total that i need, however i still have a littel way to go, and this is where i need you, i know so many of you have already given so generously, but if any of you feel that you would like to give to me financially, it would be greatly appreciated.

My contact details are:

email:
spict@hotmail.co.uk

address:
Youth For Christ,
Coombswood Business Park
Coombswood Way
Halesowen
Birmingham
B62 8BH

and on facebook..

i hope you've enjoyed reading about what i have done, and again, thank you all so much..

T.