January 2012

I am excited to be telling you all the news from the first month of my intern year… There has been an awful lot that has happened already and things seem to be picking up momentum and growing quite organically!! This month I’ve been mainly involved with; Girlz Group and TGI Lates.

The Girlz Group logo... designed by the girls!

Girlz Group

I met with Kelly, the resident Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) at Orchard School back in December to plan some dates and ideas for running a group for girls at Orchard who have little or no self-esteem. The idea was to engage these girls in some activities and to get them thinking about their identity, their relationships and their lives. Having suffered from low self-esteem when I was a teenager, I am passionate about helping teenage girls to have a more positive image of themselves. I overcame my insecurities by allowing God to show me who I was and what I meant to Him… this is my vision for these young girls too! Kelly was keen to work with this group of young people as she generally only works with teenagers who are getting into trouble a lot or who are at risk of offending. The girls we were choosing to focus on would more likely be the victims of bullying, those who get overlooked because they are quiet or those without friends or a social group. So we planned to run five sessions over January and February on Thursdays from 8.45 – 10.45 am and a trip somewhere at the end. The girls were selected by their heads of year to participate in the group and given the time off their lessons to come along.

I have since written a five week course which is designed to be used again in the future with other groups of girls. Each session takes a different focus; week one- My Feelings, week two- My Body, week three- My Image, week four- My Relationships and week five- My Life. During each session we have played games, done crafts, had discussions, watched film clips, taken photos, made face masks, created plasticine models, made collages and drawn posters! I have also been able to share with them some bits of my story and also a ‘thought for the day’ each week from the Bible, related to the topic, which I gave them printed onto business cards!!

• Please pray that the girls keep these and read them again in the future!

• Also pray that Kelly and the other two members of staff who have been taking part, Carol and Jackie, would take on board what it says in the Bible about these things.

• Pray also that I am not prevented from sharing these Christian principles and messages.

One of the premises behind the group is to create an environment where the girls would feel safe and comfortable enough to be open and talk about themselves or things they are struggling with. This needs for Kelly and I as group leaders to be willing to offer opportunities for building relationships and giving love, support and advice... It has been clearly evident that this has happened during the course of this first girls’ group, as individuals have been able to open up and share with the group details of specific daily issues they are facing. One girl, ST lives in a care home and shared that she had recently been beaten up by another young person in the home. She was able to acknowledge how this has affected her negatively and for the first time ever, was speaking with people outside of the home about it! She has been able to meet with Kelly in school to discuss this further and there’s a real level of trust being developed between ST and us as leaders. Another principle of the group was for girls to know that they are not alone with their feelings of low self-esteem. All of the girls in the group have this in common and it has been a privilege to see them all becoming friends in the group and hearing about how they support each other outside of the group too. When I asked them what they liked most about Girls’ Group the most popular answer was “making friends”.

• Please pray for me as I look to get a balance between leaving enough time for the girls to share their thoughts and feelings and providing them with practical things to do to help them learn- pray that I am sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s promptings of when to pursue a discussion and when to just spend time having fun with the girls.

• Pray for each of the girls as follows; ST- that her level of trust in others will be built up by people who love and respect her, FR- that she is able to make positive and lasting friendships, SG- that she will come back to TGI Lates and form further relationships with people at Ebe, KK- that her parents will allow her to be a teenager and not be so controlling, GB- that she is able to control her emotions in a positive way, MR- that she doesn’t look to boys to give her an identity or to make herself feel good, SW- that her innocence is protected and she isn’t taken advantage of, CH- that she doesn’t hide behind her attitude to prevent people from getting close to her.

All of the sessions are now finished and we will be going on a trip to Pizza Hut after the February half term with the eight girls who have been regulars to the group. The girls have also requested that we continue to meet with them, so we will be holding a fortnightly, lunch time drop-in session for an hour on Thursdays and I plan to take along games, books and maybe some crafts for them to do, whilst having somewhere to just chill out and chat. I have also been asked to run the same five week course again, with a different group of girls and I have requested that some specific girls from TGI Lates come along to the next group, so watch this space!

• Please pray that the Lord brings the right girls along to the next group.

• Pray that the lunch club drop-in will enable me to have further discussions about my faith!

The spaghetti and marshmallow tower challenge!

They had to work together as a team...

...to beat the other team!

A pretty good spaghetti engineering attempt!

Making a collage of how they feel about themselves

Enjoying being together

A poster to show what Girls' Group should be

...and to say what they want to get out of Girls' Group!

The Girlz Group logo

TGI Lates

Since beginning my intern year, I have also been involved as a volunteer at TGI Lates. I have been on quite a long prayer journey in relation to Lates over the last year and the Lord has shown me, in His perfect timing, that it is His will for me to be a part of the volunteer team. It seems that He has also placed this as a desire on the hearts of two or three other individuals within Ebe at around the same time. So this month has seen a small influx of new volunteers to TGI Lates. This has really encouraged me, as it confirms to me that God really wants to move amongst the young people at Lates and He is calling His servants to partner with Him in this task. The fact that He has asked me to be a part of this is thrilling! I am certain that the existing Lates team are also delighted that the Lord has been answering their prayers for more volunteers and that it has happened in such great timing.

• Please give praises to God that He is working and acting on behalf of the young people at TGI Lates.

• Pray that the Lates team will continue to be strengthened and encouraged by what they see happening and for a Godly sense of unity in prayer and in purpose.

One very exciting development amongst Lates young people has been the sight of four of the young girls coming to church on Sundays… they make their own way there, come of their own accord and have come regularly to three or four consecutive services now! These girls are also Orchard pupils, so the fact that they are entering their school on a Sunday really is quite amazing!! Two of these girls have also decided to come to Hill House Camps over the summer, which is a further opportunity for them to be in the presence of God and to meet with Him. I am pleased that I will be able to be at camp with them and that I can witness what I am expectant of the Lord doing in their lives. Ebe really is a foundation for them to experience being part of a church community and witnessing how we as Christians worship, pray and devote our lives to God and to each other. Let’s try and make them feel as at home as possible amongst us!

• Pray for each of the girls coming to Ebe, that the Holy Spirit would place in them a hunger and thirst to know God and to discover a relationship with Him.

• Pray for us as a church, that the Lord would give us a deep love for these girls, which invites them into His presence.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to accompany a group of Lates young people to Laser Quest with three other adults. We took twelve young people, a mix of church and non-church, boys and girls, to spend the evening shooting lasers at each other with the hope of being crowned as top scorer! The Lates volunteer team thought it would be a great idea to show extravagant generosity to the young people by taking them out on a trip once in a while. The young people signed up to a specific activity and this was the first, very successful outing. These times are a great way for us to interact with the young people on a more one-to-one level as they have our, very focused attention for a whole evening!! There will be more of these outings happening in the following months and it would be great if there were willing volunteers from Ebe to drive and accompany groups of young people to one of these. Perhaps leave a comment on this post if you’re up for it!

• Please pray that the leaders will be able to develop really meaningful conversations and relationships with individual young people.

• Pray that there will be solid friendships built up between church and non-church young people, particularly through the outings.

That’s all for this month… lots more to come next month I’m sure! Love to you in Christ. xxx