Christmas Crackers, Christmas Pudding, A Wonderful UK Christmas

This year was the first Christmas that I would not be celebrating at home with my family. When I accepted to join the YAGM program, I knew this, but it wasn't until the holiday decorations started appearing and Christmas music was being played all around that it hit me that I really would not be spending Christmas with my family back in the United States. However, I knew that I would be spending Christmas with my family in the United Kingdom, the Clements and the Lu families, and I couldn't wait to see what was in store for me!

The Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve I went to the Lu's house to do some baking. Since the pumpkin pie was such a big hit at Thanksgiving we decided to make it for Christmas to! This time around we were not able to find any pumpkin in the stores so we used butternut squash, which surprisingly turned out to taste very similar to pumpkin, and instead of making just one pie we made three and delivered the extras to other families in the village. It was a lot of fun! Then, I went to the Clements's house for dinner, followed by going to a few different Christmas Eve parties hosted by some friends of ours, then  heading to the midnight candlelight church service. After the service I went back home with the Lu family to spend the night with them. Before heading to bed we decided to try our pumpkin pie we made earlier in the day, and it was delicious! Just before going to bed I received a phone call from my family back in America to wish me a Merry Christmas, it was great to be able to talk to them for a few minutes before it was time for bed!

On Christmas morning I woke up to stockings from Santa by my bed. It was an amazing surprise that I didn't expect at all. I am so thankful that I have been blessed with amazing families who have welcomed me into their homes and lives. Once we opened our stockings and presents it was time to get to work preparing our Christmas meal. It was time to stuff the turkey, cut the veg, and make sure everything was prepared for the meal. Once the table was filled with food, it was time to eat, but first we did the Christmas crackers, of course. I had never heard of Christmas crackers before this year, so for those of you who are like me and don't know what they are let me try to explain. The best way I can think to describe them is that they look like a giant tootsie roll. You hold on to one end of the cracker and give the other end to the person sitting next to you. You each pull in the opposite direction and a popping sound is made and the cracker is opened. Inside there is a paper hat, a small present, and a joke or an interesting fact. The paper hats are worn throughout the meal and the jokes make for a great laugh at the table. Once we stuffed ourselves full with food, it was time to take a break and play some games before Christmas pudding. Before we ate the Christmas pudding, we lit it on fire to burn the Brandy into it. I thought that this was pretty neat! We spent the rest of the night playing more games, eating sweets, and watching movies. I had an amazing Christmas and I am very thankful that these two wonderful families let me be apart of their Christmas day!

Christmas celebrations were not over yet! The 26th of December is a bank holiday and is also known as Boxing Day. I would compare this day to Black Friday in the United States. There are amazing sales that happen this day, but it is also a day where many people continue to celebrate Christmas with their family. I spent Boxing Day with the Lu family and their extended family. Once again we ate lots of food, but this time we decided to take a walk afterwards to burn off some of the calories that we had taken in the past few days. I enjoyed being able to spend the day with the Lu's and their family!
This year my Christmas was different than what I am used to, but it was definitely a great time! There are some British traditions that I have been able to experience, which I would love to continue to be a part of my future Christmas celebrations.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy New Year! :)

A UK Thanksgiving

My day started off at 5:00 am the morning of Thanksgiving. I woke up and put on my Hunter Wellies and trench coat. Then I grabbed my shotgun and headed out to the rural country side of Surrey. There I perched myself among the morning residue reeds (tall grass) and waited patiently for my prey. Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang; rang out my shotgun. With a shock look on my face, I went to claim the turkey that would become our part of the meal. After carrying the turkey across my shoulder for several miles, I finally reached my destination. I hastily went to the west wing of the house to prepare the succulent beast. I plucked the turkey feather by feather until it was bare naked. Then I reached down and grabbed my dagger out of my Hunter Wellies and with rapid speed the turkey was gutted. Now it was time to wander out to the garden to grab herbs and vegetables to make the home-made stuffing. I hastily prepared the stuffing and then punched it into the turkey. Due to the turkey’s massive size, it would not fit in the oven, so I had to roast it on a stick over the fire. Thank goodness for my gardener Harold and my maid Dorothy who helped me throughout the day. They prepared the veg and mash, because there just wasn't enough time for me to do this during the day.

With the banquet table all laid out and prepared for fine dining, I gathered my British subjects in the banquet room and the feast began. Soon the turkey was stripped to the bone and our stomachs were extremely full, but of course we could make room for the delicious home-made pumpkin pie. Yes, I made my first home-made pumpkin pie, let me tell you about it. To make this possible, one of the first things that I made sure to do when I got here was plant some pumpkin seeds in the garden, so that I would have ripe pumpkins for my Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. After months of tending to the pumpkins they were picked, carved, and pureed. Then cinnamon, ginger, crème fresh, brown sugar, eggs, and a pinch of salt were all mixed together with the pumpkin. Finally the mixture was poured into the biscuit based crust and put in the oven to bake. After an hour of waiting, the pumpkin pie was served hot with tasty brandy cream. The night ended with games such as Uno and consequence along with lots of fun and laughter. I am so thankful for the wonderful Lu Family who I was able to spend Thanksgiving with this year!

I did have a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, but it may not have been exactly like how I described it in the story above, but hope you did enjoy reading it! Many thanks to the Lu family for helping me write my story about my Thanksgiving this year! It is true that I did make my first home-made pumpkin pie though!

I am so thankful for the amazing friends and family that I have in my life, both here in the UK and in the USA.

The Poor Will Not Always Be With Us

This past weekend, I went to Eastbourne for a youth work conference. It was an amazing weekend with great sessions and inspirational speakers. One of the speakers was an American named Scott Todd. Scott has a passion for working to end extreme poverty in the world, and to make people more aware of what they can do to help end extreme poverty. One of the ways in which he has done this is by helping with the creation of 58: The Film. This film confronts the brutality of extreme poverty and shares with the viewer those people who live out the True Fast of Isaiah 58 and create stunning new possibilities for the future. 58: The Film allows the viewer to see the relentlessly loving God at work through His Church bringing hope to the darkest challenges of our day. As I was listening to Scott, I felt so inspired. I want to be a person who can make a difference like him. Then I thought to myself, only in my dreams do I have the money to start a non-profit organization or travel around the world donating my time and money to help improve the lives of those in extreme poverty. These thoughts were stopped when Scott spoke these words, "Even something as small as providing a small amount of funding to a child through the Compassion Organization or buying fair-trade goods does make a difference and has an impact on the goal of ending extreme poverty". This was a great reminder to me that there are little things that can still have a big impact. Since I have been here there are times where I feel like I need to be doing more. I am thankful for the amazing people that I work with here, who assure me that I am making a difference, even if there are times when I feel like I am not. I have learned that even though I can't see the impact that I have had here, doesn't mean that I have made no impact on the community of Bookham Baptist Church.

Sponsoring a child in extreme poverty will definitely make an impact and change that child's life. Our youth group is now looking into sponsoring one or two children in the New Year. We want to show the youth that they can make a difference in the world and we want them to be inspired to take action.

Just a fun fact for you! Did you know that in the 1981 52% of the world's population was living in extreme poverty and today it is 26%. In a generation, we cut the percentage of people living in extreme poverty in half! This just goes to show that we can be the change and make a difference in the world!


Below I have posted a talk by Scott Todd. Please take a look at it! It is very eye opening and inspirational!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uZV90fsoCY

I know that this post consists of many random thoughts, but I just thought I would share with you the many things that are on my mind! :)

Settling In

Since I have been in the UK, I have experienced so many new things. Even though the UK and the United States share similarities there are still many differences between the two also. I have been asked by several people, “does it feel like you are in a different country?” My reply to this question is yes it does, but many things that can be found in America, can be found here. However, now that I have been here for a little over two months, and I have finally reached that point where I am becoming more comfortable in the little village of Bookham. I enjoy wandering around the village and being able to find my way back without feeling a sense of panic, because I am lost and am not sure which way to go to get back to my house. Since the first day that I have arrived, I have been welcomed and embraced by the community of Bookham Baptist Church. I have even been "adpoted" by a few families as their American daughter. I am glad that I have finally reached the time in my journey, where I no longer feel like I am a visitor; I am beginning to feel like a member of the community.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am working to build the number of girls that are involved in the church youth group. I am excited to say that the numbers have been increasing and we now have about eight girls regularly attending compared to the two girls that were before I came. I think a lot of this can be contributed to making the effort to reach out to girls and invite them to the youth group. Also, the girls are meeting separately from the boys for the time being, so that we are able to do more activities that the girls are interested in doing, such as make-overs, making bracelets, painting fingernails, etc.  The girls have also decided to start a band. If you know me, you would know that I am not very musically inclined. It is definitely going to be interesting to see how it works out, but I think overall it will be a good experience for me and the girls will really enjoy it. I will keep you posted on the progress of the band!

Beginning Of A New Journey

A month ago from today I arrived at Heathrow airport and my journey began in the United Kingdom. It really doesn’t feel like I have been here for a month already, time has flown by. As I walked out of the terminal at the airport, Adam (my boss) and Debbie (who works with the organization that is based in the church) greeted me with welcoming smiles. Everything all happened very quickly, I said goodbye to my fellow UK YAGMS, loaded my luggage into Adam’s car, and then took off on the M25 to Bookham, Surrey. 
 

An hour later, we arrived in Bookham and went to a local café to grab some breakfast. This would also be the first time that I would meet Gillian, the person whom I am staying with for the next year. It was great to finally meet her! Once we finished with breakfast, I went to see my home that I would be living in this year and drop of my luggage. The house that I am staying at is right in the center of the village and is only about a 3 minute walk to the church that I will be working at, which is awesome! Bookham is a very beautiful village with a very calming atmosphere and wonderful people; I am excited to spend the next year of my life here!

While I am here in Bookham, I am working as a youth worker at Bookham Baptist Church. My main focus is working with girls from the 11-14 year old age range. There are not a large number of girls involved with the youth activities at the church from this age range, so the hope is that this year we can get more girls involved. We have just started our youth activities, so I haven’t really had much time to spend with the girls yet, but we did meet last Friday night and had a great time giving each other makeovers. Don’t we just look beautiful?!

Me with Katie, Anna, and the other leader Joanna

I am looking forward to getting to know these girls better this year, and I am hopeful that the number of girls that attend the Friday night activities will grow! I will keep you posted on the different fun events that we do throughout the year.

Even though The Tribe girls are my main focus over here, I am involved with many other activities while I am here. I am taking a theology class on working with children and youth ministries in a nearby town called Guildford. This class will challenge me to think about things from different perspectives, but I believe that it will also help me grow in my Christian faith. Another activity that I am involved with is the Bookham Youth Café. Every Tuesday from 4-6, the local youth centre offers a place for the youth to come and engage in different activities such as: football(soccer), pool, jamming out in the music recording room, and hanging out with friends. The youth really enjoy coming here and I think that it is really neat that they have a place for the youth to hang out in a positive atmosphere. Lastly, I have been working in one of the local schools called the Howard-Effingham School. This school is made up of about 2,000 students and is a combined middle school and high school; however the different grade levels have their own section. During lunch time, we run a Christian based group called the Fish Thing. The Fish Thing focuses on how we can incorporate God into our daily lives and we also discuss some of the major issues that the youth are encountering and struggling with in their lives. I am excited to be able to experience the school setting as a Youth Worker and gain a new perspective aside from the teacher and student perspective I have already experienced.

Also below are pictures of some fun things that I have done since I have been here.

Meeting the King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace 

Outside Buckingham Palace—so beautiful and big!

Big Ben!

Hope you are able to get a little taste of what life has been like for me in the UK this past month! Thank you all for your support, it truly means a lot to me!

Peace Out USA

I have spent the past week at the University of Chicago, where I did my orientation for this program just a few blocks away at the Lutheran School of Theology. It was an incredible week where I was able to get to know and build relationships with many amazing people. Saying goodbye to my follow YAGMs was hard, but I can’t wait to hear about the experiences and stories that they will create in their placement site over the next year.

This week has been a lot of fun, especially getting to go to a Cubs game and seeing Navy Pier. Also, this week has allowed me a chance to think about the things that I will experience over this next year. I keep telling myself that a year really isn’t that long, but then again so much can happen in a year. I can’t wait to finally be in Bookham, United Kingdom and start forming relationships there, but it is hard to know that I am leaving relationships behind in the United States. Having such close relationships with my family and friends has made this a difficult decision to leave them all for a year. I find myself wondering what I will be missing out on while I am gone, but then I remind myself of the great things that I will get to do during this year.

 As I have taken some time to think about this upcoming year, I find myself thinking a lot about how things will be when I return to the United States. Will I come back a changed person? This is a major reoccurring question that I have. As I think about it now, I am confident in saying that I will come back a changed person; however I am unsure of the amount of change that will take place.

What will my relationships be like with my family and friends when I return home? This is a question that also repeatedly runs through my mind. I will not know the answer to this until I return home in a year, but I do know that it will be a question that will continue to be in the back of my mind throughout the year.

The time is finally here! I have been waiting for this day since I found out I was accepted into the Young Adults and Global Missions program. I am very excited to begin this new adventure, but also very scared and nervous at the same time. I feel more prepared than ever to take off on this journey and adventure into the unknown.