The first week!

Yeah so the most recent post was a summary of training! Here comes the account of my first week!

On the Friday which I arrived in Burton-upon-Trent, our team all met at the BYFC (Burton Youth For Christ) office whilst we waited for our hosts to finish work etc. We met some of the team and had the tour of the building (basically we walked to the toilets and back) then my host, Karen, arrived to take me home!

We arrived in Anslow, the village which I am staying in and I met Daryl, Karen's husband, and Alexander, their youngest son as well as Sophie, their Spaniel, and Pepper, their cat. I unpacked my few things into my new room and then I met James, the older son. We then all had dinner together which was delicious!

Saturday was a quiet day. I spent most of it wandering around Anslow taking some nice photos and just getting the feel for the area I'm going to be living in for the next year. We also had a BBQ at Mel's house to get to know the family and friends of the BYFC team.

Sunday was my first service at Riverside Church. I was very nervous as I didn't know very many people. I went with James and his friend Scott (who was visiting for the weekend) and we arrived as the church was filling up. Once the service had started, Daryl got me up at the front and asked me about where I'd come from and why I had come to Burton. Then I went out with the 15+ Youth Group and started to get to know some of the people I will be working with over the next few months. After the service was a meal to say goodbye to a couple who were leaving for Spain, so I spent a while wandering around with my plate of sandwiches and cake and started to chat to the church members. Then after church, we had two couples come round to eat with us. They were very friendly and we had a great evening.

On Monday, the hard work started! I was taken to the office by Sue and we had our team meeting and bible study time. We then sorted out our weekly plan and got to work with the basics... Namely the Health and Safety Policy and our Child Protection studies. We also met Graham who's another new member of the team. However the good day was also mixed with sad news as on Monday evening, one of our volunteers decided to drop out as she was too homesick to continue.

Tuesday was the start of the work. I helped out at Jelly Tots, which is a mums and toddlers group run by Riverside. Then we had more time to study back at the office. Tuesday evening we had some dinner guests, Ruth, who works in the office at Riverside with Daryl, and her son. Then later, once they had gone home, one of the YFC One volunteers from 2 years ago (Sarah) visited us and spent the rest of the evening chatting to us.

On Wednesday, Sarah came into the BYFC office and chatted to us for a while about her experience as a YFC One volunteer, her favourite parts as well as the parts she really didn't enjoy. Then at 3:30pm I was off to my first youth work session! The Lounge at King's Way Church is a homework club where kids can come after school to get help with homework, or just to relax, drink milkshakes and meet their friends!

Thursday was the busiest day of the lot! During the day we perfected our craft skills by making things with k'nex and hama beads. Then we decorated the office with our creations, some of which still hang today! At 3pm we went to set up for Mix Mania at St. Chad's, which is an after school club for kids aged 7-11. We had sports, k'nex, hama beads, cooking, painting, colouring and even scoobies! Then Sarah and I headed over to our next youth club, n:gage, at King's Way... We played games, had a word of the week and had a time at the end for prayer which in all made it a great night!

Friday was a much quieter day. We were just working in the office by day and in the evening I had a youth workers meeting to discuss planning for Riverside's Friday Night Youth group. That was an interesting meeting as it was my first time being on the planning side of a youth group and WOW! It's hard work!

On Saturday, I had the day off, but instead of sitting around at home, I decided to go see what was going on over at King's Way! There was a fun day planned and the YFC Nottingham volunteers had brought the football cage down, and there were crafts, milkshakes and even a graffiti artist! However I had to get home for a certain time because... My Family came to visit! YAY! My mum, dad and brother all came down in a huge white van bringing all my home comforts with them! We had dinner together and chatted in the sunshine for a while, then I had to head over to church to get ready for the Thanksgiving and Commissioning service we were having, partly to thank Phil, who had been the BYFC Centre Director for over 20 years, and partly to locally commission the new BYFC team! The service went well (despite the incident involving a sock and a can of coca-cola) and everyone had a great night! Our newly commissioned team were ready for action!

Team BYFC!