Tikhtak

Urban Mission - A lesson in a bit of inculturisation.

Urban Mission has been running in south London and brings young people together to look at their mission in the urban context. The weekend is headed up by Pastor Les Isaac and Youth leaders from the churches involved. This year they ran the weekend at Chatswoth Baptist Church in West Norwood and it brought together both young people and Youth leaders from 7 different churches across south London. Irfana was there representing HTC Clapham. Small groups, a number of speakers, games and some outreach  washing people's cars and gardening on Saturday afternoon may not seem much, but it had a big impact on some of the young people. On Sunday they led the entire service, from the worship band to the prayers and even the preacher - a young 17 year old from St Marks Kennington. But what I really liked was the fact that Pastor Les Issac (Founder of Street Pastors) then got up and preached to the adults. It wasn't undermining the younger preacher at all but rather making the point that the young people are best situated to apply the bible to their context just as the older preacher is to his. The young guy, also Isaac, challenged the young people to be salt and light in their world, While Les challenged the older generation to be family to young people and reach out to them with encouragement and friendship. I think I gpt fed by both as I sit somewhere in the middle :)

The Junior Apprentice 09

Inspired by Amie Buhari an Actor/Youth Worker from South London, The Junior Apprentice (5th - 21st August) is a competition to find the best Junior Apprentice in London, based on biblical roles of leadership. The young people aged 12 – 21yrs will battle it out through a series of team challenges that will develop, teach, inspire each individual and bring out the talents each one has. Lots of quality prizes to be won and lots of knowledge to be gained. To see how they got on last year then check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuzJgZe_dH8. For more information or to sign up email  [email protected]

Young people can only lead tomorrow if we teach them today.

The 3 Yorkshire Peaks Conquered in a day

We set off at 5 30am in the morning when normally most people are sleeping. Not today! There were scores of walkers everywhere walking for various charities. There were 400 BT walkers alone on a team building day. We scaled the first peak within the first few hours but straight away the legs were feeling heavy. Burning up the hills and feeling like jelly going down. The second peak was quite a walk from the first and this seemed to last forever but the scenery was amazing and the morning mist had cleared to be a beautiful day. Peak 2 was conquered some 8 hours after setting off. The journey down was steep and cruel on the knees but we all made it down. At this stage Merlin, (a friend of Mikes) decided 2 was enough and the rest of us continued on. As we scaled the final peak Anita started to struggle too with a blister and reluctantly we had to leave Anita to try and continue at a blister sensitive pace. So the rest of us got to the third peak and celebrated taking pictures from the top. As we began to descend to our amazement Anita appeared over the brow....she had made it too. Check out more pics on my flicker. If you still want to give some many towards CMS youth projects in the UK it is not too late. Just log on to our just giving web page.

Off to walk 3 hills in Yorkshire for charity

Tomorrow morning we plan to set off at 5 am to complete the Yorkshire 3 Peaks walk within 12 hours. The reward for doing this is apparently a medal and a tie, as well as raising over £1000 for CMS youth work in the UK.  Check out our just giving page if you would like to give something still. The walk takes in the 3 summits of Pen-y-ghent (694 metres - 2,276 feet), Whernside (736 metres - 2,415 feet) and Ingleborough (723 metres  2,372 feet) all in one circular route. The aim is to do it by 5pm so I can then get back to Derby to catch my train back to London. It may be actually more of a walking challenge to get back to Brixton from St Pancras!! There is a lot of press and publicity cruelly saying that I will not make it. All I have to say is, to borrow the words of the much maligned Prince Hal from Henry iv part 1.

I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.

Watch this space!

Walking The 3 Yorkshire Peaks for Youth & Children.

Yes it is true! I am 41 and a half years old and have decided if I don't get this walk in now I may never do one. I will be walking 24.5 miles over three Yorkshire peaks to raise money for CMS Youth and Children's work in the UK. If you would like to sponsor me then just click on the donate button in my side bar on this Tikhtak blog or click on this just giving link. You can read more about the walk there too.

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.

Check out our Manila DVD extract on Youtube

In the Autumn 2008 the CMS Youth and Children's team set off with Tim Dendy (Freelance film maker) to make a DVD about the lives of a group of street children in Manila. We worked with a CMS mission partners in a street children's outreach project called jigsaw and worked with children who regularly attend this program. The experience was an incredibly rich one as we hung out with these young people over a period of 10 days. Their lives, struggles and responsibilities left our team feeling  humbled and inadequate to offer any real help or solutions. This is why the work of Jigsaw is so important as well as the aim of our World to Rights project to raise money for similar children's projects around the world. The DVD is due for official release in April but as a little foretaste you can see a preview on youtube.

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