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.