Tikhtak

Back from another part of Europe

I arrived back from a sunny and Eastery Mission Net in Oldenburg to a cold, and season-less London. In all about 3000 young people came together from across Europe to study and engage with the theme of Mission . I was reminded on more than one occasion that Britain is part of Europe and it is important we join with our neighbours in God's Mission. Having lived in Prague for around 10 years I do have a sense of how every country has its own national identity and Britain is not alone in this. My highlights were leading a seminar with Jill Ford from All nationscollege on mission and Creative arts. It was great to finally work together and it was well received by all. I was also really glad to meet again Mime/Actor Carlos Martinez who performed on the main stage. I first came across him 10 years ago on n IFES conference and was so impressed by him that I went on a summer school he ran in Germany.  I interviewed him fro trax16 and talked about the possibility of bringing him to the UK...Watch this space. Perhaps the final highlight was being able to network with people from all over Europe and get a perspective on what is going on both there and in the UK  Check out my pics on Flicker

Joining a Mission Net in Germany

Over Easter I will be attending a conference in Germany bringing together young people from all over Europe to look at the theme of Mission. I will be leading a workshop with Jill Ford from All Nations college on Mission and Creative Arts. At the beginning of our workshop we will set up some stations around the room showcasing some missional creative arts projects from round the world. I will be talking about World to Rights and trax16 but will also share about a version of The Apprentice run last year in South London to champion models of biblical leadership. Ammie, an Actor from Battersea came up with the idea as an antidote to all the bad press about youth and gun and knife crime. After an interview process 24 young people were selected and competed in two teams in exactly the same way as the TV version. The project was so successful that this summer she will be running a London wide version. I will also share about the work of Neema Crafts in Tanzania. With both of these projects and many more nothing could have been achieved without collaboration and drawing on different peoples skills and abilities. That will be one of the main objectives of our workshop as we work with youngpeople from all across Europe. Especially in  working together across borders.

Aston Villa's Mission to the communtiy

The day before yesterday I had the opportunity to interview Duncan Riddle the head of community at Aston Villa FC for trax16. My main interest was to explore further the link between Aston Villa and their deal with Acorns children's hospice in the light of our World To Rights project and to explore any possibilities for future projects. I was both amazed and impressed how much the club, from staff through players and fans, are involved in supporting, visiting and raising money for acorns and how involved the club is in reaching out to their local community . 

When I asked Duncan,Why invest in acorns? Why not another charity somewhere else? his response was that Villa are committed to the local community, especially as most of their support comes from the local area around the ground. Among other things they are also running a project with the NHS to educate young people about obesity and provide a full time school for disabled young people to get qualifications to get into work.

  I find it impressive that a group of footballers and their supporters can impact and share their skills beyond just football with their local community. If football is the religion of people in the UK then have football clubs become the churches? I think Aston Villa's example is a challenge for every congregation up and down the country. And what drives them to do it? It seems they must have instilled in them a moral obligation from some time in the past!

In the winter of 1873/4, the cricketers of Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel, Aston, Birmingham, formed a football club to provide recreation during the winter period. The irony is that Aston Villa a child of the church has now grown up to show her what she should be doing. For the whole interview listen to next month's trax16.

Youthwork The Conference

  My Colleague, Mike North and I ventured down to Eastbourne recently to attend and exhibit  for CMS at the Youthwork conference. It was a good time of making networks with various groups and agencies, as well as having time to see beachy head in all its glory.

We also used the weekend to get interviews for trax 16 and make Decembers podcast there. One highlight I had was interviewing Victor from Sierra Leone. He had escaped the civil war and has now lives in the Uk working in Chatham as a youth worker. You can hear some of his story and others by clicking on this trax16 link. Otherwise check out more pics here

Manila day 9 - Farewells to Jigsaw

Today was quite an emotional day as we said goodbye to all the children and staff at Jigsaw. At lunchtime we all met up and took everybody to KFC as a thank you to everybody. We had a lot of fun and we were presented with a t shirt each and a card from the children.

We have been really impressed by the commitment of Jigsaw staff to the work with the children.They really are one big family and perhaps a better expression of church than most around. The children themselves are amazing and have a faith that has transformed them, whilst difficulties around them still remain.

Tim Lee (CMS and Jigsaw staff worker) put into perspective the value of a project like Jigsaw, which doesn't lift these children out of their community but helps them to transform it themselves. Talking about the boys we have worked with he said " They will grow up to be good fathers, Uncles and Husbands." What a great legacy that is.

This evening we went out with Tim and Kate Lee and their 3 children for a Chinese meal. We had managed to find a photo shop to blow up and frame 3 pictures which we had taken that afternoon and we gave it to them as a parting gift.  We have an early flight tomorrow morning and then a 16 hour journey back to the UK. Check out our latest pics on dave's flickr and the CMS flickr.

Manila day 8

Today was our last day of filming and it was made a little more challenging with the tail end of a typhoon causing constant down pours. In spight of this the GV's (General Views) of Manila went on and in some ways they were more desperate with children having to huddle for shelter under trees and bridges. It also felt quite a cold and detached exercise as we filmed them in their plight. I know that the Dvd will be a tool to educate and challenge schools in Britain to these issues, but the camera couldn't filter out the fact that these are fellow human beings.

For much of the day we were based at Jigsaw and worked with the teenagers filming them going about  their business. Some played on a "Track and Field" consul game that I was hooked to myself at their age, while the girls played pictionary and did craft. Obviously the trick was allowing them to relax and not be too thrown by the camera and lights. At the end of the filming we got them together for a pose giving us their best Filipino look. It has been very special to get to know this group and they have been so welcoming and loving to us.

So we finally filmed the last shot outside a pizza hut where some of the children guided in cars to parking bays, which is a common way for children to get money here. As we made our way back through a traffic jam it was time to reflect a bit about the week and what we have achieved. One thing is for certain that we are all very tired and have crammed in a challenging project in to a short space of time. Superlatives can't be used enough for Tim and Kate Lee and their willingness and flexibility to enable us to film and interview both children and staff at Jigsaw. They are remarkable people working in a very difficult and yet blessed environment, with a real love and passion for both God and children. Check out our latest pics on Dave's Flickr or CMS Flickr.

Les Isaac's street pastors & Peace on the streets

Today I met with Les Isaac in Brixton from the street pastors initiative to interview  for trax16. As I expected it was an inspirational time hearing about how young people's lives have been changed by Christians of all ages and walks of life just listening to them and spending time with them. Unfortunately the interview is too late to go out on Octobers trax16 but will be used as a feature on another podcast. Irfana also seized the opportunity and came along and has arranged for Les to speak at Holy Trinity Church Clapham in December. Les also mentioned a project called Peace on the streets that is happening this month as a response to recent gun and knife crime. Check out all the events in London Peace week  which include a peace rally in Hyde park on 20th September hosted by Richard Blackwell and  numerous events highlighting young peoples talent and potential.

Jacob Isaac

This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Jacob Isaac from Bangalore in India. We actually had met him in India in 2005 at the South Asian youth Conference where he was a speaker. He has again been in England as a speaker at Greenbelt this year. Jacob is a real entrepreneur and has set up numerous projects in Bangalore under the banner of Kerygma. They include an outreach coffee bar for young people, a school to train christian leaders and a rehabilitation centre for different addictions.

Greenbelt 08

This year at Greenbelt the CMS youth team juggled between 3D, trax16 and Tajik break dancers. Each day we ran 3D workshops with around 40-50 young people. 3D stands for Drama, Dance and Drumming and using this medium we explored both man's and God's perspective on looking after the environment and encouraged people to engage with A Rocha. As always we got interviews with various people from around Greenbelt  ranging from Martyn Joseph and Comedian Jo Enright to authors Richard Burridge who has  just written "Imitating Jesus" and Philip Yancey. It was also good to catch young people just milling around the site and working in here with various organisations. Again the Tajik breakdancers Vito and Illios were doing their stuff, sharing testimonies and the Youth team compared their programme. Neema crafts from Tanzania in the CMS tent were an inspiration to everyone and engaged people in making paper out of elephant dung, jewelry out of glass and dancing. I think outside of the CMS programme my highlight was chilling with Irfana in the big venue Centaur listening to Aradhna, a white, traditional Indian band, while Zara danced and ran around the wide carpeted expanse. Check out flickr for more pics

Soul Survivor 08

Another year at Soul Survivor slightly left me with a "Ground Hog" feeling this year. I joined a CMS team and used the CMS stall as a launch pad to get interviews for trax16. It was incredibly wet too just to add to the drama. I have to say that Soul Survivor did have more of an urban influence to it than normal with hip hop beats and blasting out from the underground venue and more of an ethnic mix than normal with groups from other countries from Malta and Czech to South Korea, Do listen to trax16 to get a flavour of the week. Also check out some pics on flickr of my travels around the sight as well with the help of Ruth's camera work, which was to be created into a talking heads short film. Not sure if that happened?