Strangers

Several people, especially my supervisor Kenny, didn’t like our name. The Base Team doesn’t really have a ring to it, doesn’t really say much about our ministry and certainly doesn’t tell you a thing about the town we’re living in. We thought long and hard about this. The first vote was for The Asda Team. If you don’t get the joke, Asda IS Walmart and it’s approximately 300 feet from our front door. It’s also the only thing open in this town past 5pm. I was hoping for something to do with Pirates….seems to be a re-occurring theme…or maybe I just WANT it to be. Then we thought contextually and since we spend a lot of time going door-to-door and looking for children we decided on Strangers With Candy.

Unfortunately we are not allowed to put that on the promotional material for OM. Sigh.

So officially we just settled for the Halesowen Team.

A few things became evident to me during this brainstorming process the most obvious one being….we aren’t good with names. LOL

I really love my team. I feel it cannot be stated enough. I think I’ve mentioned before it’s the way they rally around things that have to be done and they get through it. Maybe sick, maybe grudgingly or maybe because their English isn’t perfect and they aren’t really sure what we’re doing anyway… BUT the point is things always get done. (Speaking of English dear Lord that sentence was terrifying).

Example:
A week from last Thursday Ulla, Lila and I were in Lye handing out church info door-to-door when a creative thought struck our brains. All the way home on the base we discussed the possibility of doing something for kids. There are tons of kids in Lye and no children’s ministry yet. We wanted to at least get a fun day going to let them know God loves them and they’ve got a local church around the corner. Right. So we hatched a plot and then sprung it on our teammates when we got home. Our really tired, half sick, working hard Kids n Things teammates. Yep. And we told them we wanted to do this in a week. They sighed, and agreed.

SO, our graphic design friend Katrine made us a quick flyer and the next Thursday Ulla, Lila and I hit the doors again. But the 3 of us didn’t get far. So we realized we were going to need help. The next day we recruited more people and hit the doors again. But it wasn’t enough.

I don’t remember who’s idea it was originally, sometimes Lila’s ideas and mine run together. But we decided we needed a parade for Saturday. Why? Who doesn’t like a parade of crazy people?

Last Saturday we had a Thing In The Park…for kids. Believe me we tried to come up with a name for it, but you know our weakness.It was brilliant (see my use of British wds) and this is not because of us but the Lord. We recruited extra help yet again and with 9 of us managed to throw down a puppet show, games, candy, a parachute, and face painting for around 15 kids plus their parents. :)

And the parade was a success. With crazy hats, a guitar, and giant boom box we roamed the streets of Lye looking for children. After all we are Strangers with Candy and that’s what we do. :)

Hasbury

The team is involved in a variety of ministries at Hasbury Christian Fellowship. Last Friday night we helped clear out rubbish behind the church yard. We filled an entire dumpster with broken bricks, concrete slabs and an old fence. Can you say tetanus? I was slightly concerned about the rusty nails poking out of everything, especially when you factor in the English tendency to wear sandals with socks in all warm weather, even for manual labor. I’m not quite ready yet to test out that overseas insurance for me or my teammates. Thankfully, everyone stayed safe and 4 doors were sanded and re-stained and we all had a lovely time.

Monday nights I get to hang out with the youth from Hasbury. I’ve only done this twice but I really enjoy it! The first time we had 6 girls but Monday night we had 11 youth! We put them to work HAHA. They made cookies and other treats to sell on Sunday morning to raise money for an AIDS organization. I shared about half of my testimony that night. I was a lil nervous since this was my first time giving a testimony to a group. Don’t know how I managed to escape this when I was a youth at Parkland but it’s unavoidable now. LOL Something to do with being a “missionary” I guess. It’s only slightly intimidating when 22 eyes are staring at you and you feel acutely aware that they’d probably rather be playing Xbox or eating another cupcake. But I’m learning to trust that the Lord will work and it’s up to Him and not my magical words o wisdom. So that eases the pressure a bit. I just have to be honest. Sure.

Wednesday Lilamaria and I went to a small house bible study. There were only 4 of us and it was ok. We just chatted and watched a video. BUT tomorrow Lila and Ulla and I have to give testimonies at another….lets say bigger bible study of elderly people. I promise not to take pictures. HA.

Next Sunday the team has to do a presentation on Phillipians 1 during the service. This. Should. Be. Interesting. If you’re lucky I might post a picture. :)

The Usual Suspects

My team lives on base at Lifehope in Halesowen. We are actually like 3 mini-teams in one. Half of our group make up the Kids N Things team. They are training every Thursday and Friday learning puppets, songs and dramas. They’ll be performing for other Holiday Clubs all the way through August.

One thing I’ve learned is that the English around here LOVE to have holiday clubs for kids. Many of the other OM teams help run these clubs as well. Usually they’re put on by a local school or church.

OK, so that explains half our team. Then 2 of our group do Korean and Chinese ministry, and the rest of us work with Hasbury Christian Fellowship and Christ Church in Lye. Oh yeah and 2 of our ladies help out with a youth group in Smethwick. See what I mean? Crazy. We’re all over the place. LOL

For both Hasbury and Lye we are doing LOTS of door-to-door. This is usually in the form of a community survey where we try and assess the needs of the neighborhood. Other times we just pass out literature about the local church. When people in these towns attend church they tend to go to the closest one. It's not like home where you might drive across town to your favorite church. A looooong time ago the towns were divided into parishes with one church for each parish or community. And from the surveys we've been able to gather that over half the community here between Halesowen and Lye is made up of families that have lived here 20-30 years. Most of the people we've met going door-to-door have never gone to church. Only for special occasions like Easter or baptisms. They usually tell us that their parents or grandparents attended but they never did. Keep in mind the person saying this tends to be between the ages of 50-80. So its been awhile for a lot of people. We're hoping to help the local church identify the needs in the area so they can better meet these people where they are.

I should also mention there are a lot of Muslims that have moved into the area in the past 10 years. So you may find 3 houses with elderly people and then 2 houses with young married Muslim families and LOTS of kids. They may or may not speak English.

Most people are very friendly and accommodating. I find that having a different accent really works wonders. Most people want to at least know where I’m from in the US!

Arrrrrg!!!

So we’re finally getting settled in to our ministry. For our first official team project we volunteered at the Fun Day at Edgbaston Cricket Grounds on June 13th . Remember Oasis church? It was the first church we attended when I got here. Oasis runs the kids events for the Fun Day and we volunteered to help out. Upon arrival we were instructed to dress like pirates.


This is why I LOVE my team. When we do something we really do it. LOL

Oasis is a contemporary church that meets under a GIANT tent at the cricket grounds. They had all sorts of fun face painting, games, crafts, movies and candy for the kiddies. My teammates and I handed out treasure maps mostly…but my day was made complete when I befriended 2 Circus guys on stilts. After that Lilamaria and I juggled and the circus guys gave us some pointers.
Maybe not what I expected as ministry, but I think it left a good impression of church people on the community and gave them a safe place to play. I also got to see my first Cricket Match and I climbed onto one of those giant trampolines...the kind where they put you in a harness and let you go crazy! :) All in all I think it was a great day!

Passion for Lye

Missions is all about FLEXIBILITY people. The ability to bend. HA. So for this week only, I've been put on a smaller team of girls that's working on the Passion for Lye Week. Here in England its like Spring Break this week, and several local churches in the town of Lye are working together in outreach. There's a men's event planned, a tea for the ladies, and a concert for the youth this Friday night. This week I'm working with Christ Church in Lye. Today we worked at their internet cafe...they provide coffee, tea and free internet to anyone who wants to drop in. We are supposed to go to the park and promote the week's events, but the rainy weather may keep us indoors.
The whole region is also gearing up for a little thing called the World Cup, maybe you've heard of it? I've already been invited to a game watching party next week when England plays the US!!!
Today I also got to make a giant English flag...from a giant sheet. LOL

Sunday the Lye team attended the youth service at Christ Church in Lye. The youth at this church are AMAZING. The service was entirely led by them. We sang songs, they did a skit, and the message was also brought by a guy about 17 years old. The theme this week for Passion is unity among the Body and the local churches.

Sunday afternoon Keith and his wife Ann who help run the internet cafe had us to their house for lunch. It was delicious! Afterwards they took us for a bit of hiking. We went on top of this HUGE hill where you could see all of the towns spread out. Gorgeous. (Clent Hills)

Sunday evening we attended service at a Salvation Army Church. I've never been to one before and it was fun! Mostly elderly people, but man those English can sing! They sing with ghusto and the songs were mostly old hymns that I recognized from when I was little. They also had a brass band! They had cute uniforms and everything.


So prayer requests for this week would be:
Pray for us as we try and promote these events. Pray that we find young people to invite to the concert Friday evening, and pray that God will use us to bless the Christ Church in Lye. There are members graciously feeding us all through out the week. One woman ran up to us Sunday night and was SO excited to have us over. She said...."No you can't go anywhere else before you come to my house and bless me!" She's supposed to be a good cook, and I for one am Stoked for some good cooking.

Also just throwing this out there....but OM Lifehope base where we are sleeping is in need of a NEW CD PLAYER. Desperately. Don't know if anyone can help with this but there it is!

Cheers!
Erin

Maps, Aggression, and other Halesowen Tales.

So Monday evening I was taught how to read a map and use a compass. Great. Then I and my teammates were given coordinates, taken outside at approx 9:30PM, and dropped off with said map and compass and expected to find girls (did I mention there were girls waiting at the coordinates?) and find our way back. Not so great.

It was the end to a long day anyway. We were already tired and had been attempting to pinpoint spots on a map for 2 hours in groups of three. Then suddenly our whole group of 12 was thrust together and given the task of finding these poor girls waiting in the dark and cold. Why? Ahh training week. This was the beginning of several crazy tasks we’d be given designed to test not only our personalities and stress taking abilities, but how we worked together as a group as well. Yikes. Like boot camp, but not. Eventually we did find the girls, and I got most of that ridiculous evening on camera…and its funny. This was the first time I met the rest of our leaders for Toolkit as well. And they. Are. CRAZY.

Toolkit training also involves inductive bible study, daily devotionals, an English culture class, evangelism class, group projects, and a time of debriefing everyday. I think the debrief is so your head doesn’t explode. Because lets face it, different personalities, language barriers, passive aggression + impulsive Americans = high potential for explosion. But I’m happy to say that by the time Tuesday and Wednesday rolled around my team had really learned to work together. We went geocaching again, successfully, and bonded over shared sleep deprivation and exhaustion.
Our days started at about 7:30AM and ended anywhere from 9PM-midnight.

Oh and I forgot the CHORES. Did I mention chores? Everyone cleans on a rotating schedule. YAY for toilets.

So, by Wednesday we got the results of our personality tests. This was to help the leaders know how to place us together on teams. Remember when I said they’d been watching us on all our crazy activities? That came into play too. So apparently I’m an Implementer. I’ll spare you all the details, but it means that I take other people’s ideas and make that shiz happen. Yep. So I got placed on the team that stays on base and I’m the assistant leader. Woohoo. Very excited about this.

Thursday ALL the teams in training, the GA-4s, GA-8s, and GA-12s hit the city centre in Birmingham for street evangelism. This was kind of new to me. I’ve done this with Parkland, but never in soo much depth. It was amazing. The new people were told to talk to people if they felt brave, or just watch. I watched. But the other GA-teams did skits and used sketch boards to share the gospel. It was really cool. They did these skits with no words, but that still got the message across…so it works for any culture really. And the sketch boards were paintings that explained the gospel very simply.

I followed a guy named Danny that taught our evangelism class. He’s very good at just listening to people and having real conversations with them. I stood and listened while he talked with a girl named Charlie. He answered all of her questions for 30min. I was very impressed. He didn’t pressure her or try and convince her of anything. They just talked. She said he was one of the first genuine believers she’d ever met. I would LOVE to be able to do that. Answer people’s questions. You really have to be on your toes here. This culture isn’t like American. Most of these people didn’t grow up going to church and they don’t know anything about it. And there are a LOT of Muslims here. So when people ask questions they ask the hardcore kind. So you have to be able to give them intelligent answers and you can’t wiggle out of it. I love it.

Picture: From Right: (I'll fix spelling later) My Training Team for ToolKit
Yung Min, Samuli, Me, Youn Sook, Michael, Winnie, Ulla, Sunhye, Rahel, Hannah, and Katrine.
(Also pictured: lady on the end, And girl on ground is named Eniko.) (Also Drew not in this pic)

And here's Lilamaria doing what she does. She's my team leader for the next 2 months. WOOT!

Geocaching

So I’m going to take you backwards in Time. Ooooo. So last Saturday, after I woke up I joined the other newbies for a bit of geocaching. This was the first time for all of us, so in case you don’t know what geocaching is either I’ll try and explain. It’s kind of a treasure hunt of sorts. You go to the website and get coordinates to a location. They do this all over the world btw. So you put these coordinate into a gps and you try to find this exact spot. Our gps wasn’t like the kind in your car it only points in the direction of the site like a compass would. Figuring out how to drive there is up to you. This was also my first time meeting several of my leaders for Toolkit.

Stefan, (Dutch) Paul, (English) and Kenny (English) and his wife Madu, took us and their families on this crazy drive through the English countryside. It was really beautiful and reminded me of parts of KY with the rolling hills. We got to our location after several wrong turns. LOL We were at a very old church. Like from the 1060’s or something. The funny part is that we rolled up to this place in ours jeans and tshirts and there was a wedding going on. HA.

So for this geocache you figure out the word clues and it helps you find the next coordinates. We ended up in the middle of this field behind the church. We looked forEVER and couldn’t find the cache. Bummer. I was really jetlagged but happy to be out, and at one point I heard an ice cream truck off in the distance. Weird. Very random too. Apparently there are ice cream trucks in England with the same music.

After we hunted around we talked with the caretaker of the church for awhile. Then after we realized we weren’t gonna find the thing we eventually headed back.

Sunday morning John (Dutch) took us to his church. It was pretty incredible. It’s a reformed charismatic church formed out of the house church movement in England. OK you nerdy seminary kids have fun with that. For the rest I’ll explain….it was a contemporary church service, informal, with about 70% of the population under 35. And it met…in…a…TENT.

The church is called Oasis and it meets on the site of one of England’s famous cricket pitches, Edgbaston. Although recently the church had to move to the parking lot (a.k.a “car park”). They meet under an ENORMOUS white tent. Like it has air conditioning and huge bathrooms. I really enjoyed the service, it reminded me of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville.

Afterwards we were treated to our first traditional English meal. Which so you know is meat, potatoes, and 2 veggies. And lots of gravy. Yum.

Sunday evening is when all the craziness began with the older teams arriving…
Then Monday morning bright and early….Toolkit began.

Destination: OM Lifehope: Halesowen, UK

Ok so last Saturday when I arrived, so did most of the other newbies. There were about 10 of us. It was all a little confusing at first but here’s how it works. All new people go through a training program at OM Lifehope, called Toolkit. Lifehope is the specific branch of Operation Mobilization that I’ll be working with for the next 2 months. The facility is here in Halesowen, UK about 45min outside of Birmingham. It’s a cute small town, and everything I could need, including a subsidiary of Walmart is within walking distance. J

So, it breaks down like this. Most of the newbies are here in the UK for 4 months. (I’m an exception I’m only here for 2 months). So they give us the title GA-4. GA stands for Global Action, and the number represents how long you’ll be staying with OM. During our Toolkit last week, there were also 2 more Toolkits going on, with GA-8 and GA-12. Now there are lots of different programs and lengths of time you can be with OM, so some of my new friends here are on the 2 year plan, and some may just be here for as little as 6 weeks. But every 4 weeks everyone descends on the base and gets more training. So the longer you’re here the more training you get. As you can imagine, it was kinda crazy last Sunday evening when this place went from like 15 people to about 35 over the course of 2 hours!!!

After a week of Toolkit training, which involves bible study, team building exercises and sleep deprivation, everyone is divided up into teams. Each team then moves off the base (except for my team) to another city where they partner with a local church for outreach ministry. The idea is that we help that church in any outreach…so kids, youth, homeless, drug-addicts, etc. etc. This is where it gets really interesting. Each team is made up of people from around the world. We all speak English, but for most it’s a second language. Each team lives in a rented house, they cook together, clean together, pray together and do EVERYTHING together for 4 weeks. They may take over existing ministries at their local church or they might start new ones. Then they come back to the base for more training and it starts over again. You may be in the same team the whole time, or depending on circumstances you might get re-assigned.

I’m on the team that will live on base in Halesowen, UK. So no more moving for me until mid-July! Woohoo. There are pros and cons to this living situation. The pros, I don’t have to move again, I get all my meals provided if I wish and spending money for meals if I don’t, AND access to all the amenities here including the library, internet, DVDs, and laundry. The library is good because they give us homework, and part of it is a GIANT cultural project due in July. Yuck. The con is this: the UK has really weird laws regarding kitchens, so none of us are allowed to cook. Yeah. That part sucks. We have a lovely man named Trever who is our full-time cook. He provides one hot meal a day and keeps lunch meat, cereal and fruit around for the other meals. This is wonderful, BUT I do kind of get tired of eating the same thing everyday. However I’ve been told that we get food money if we aren’t eating on base, AND it’s the church’s responsibility to find people to host you for at least 1 meal a day if you are too busy or far to make it back to base/team house. Oh yeah. The other con is that there are several rules for living on base, nothing major just like camp rules, like a curfew and quiet time, that sort of thing. No biggie.

Today is Memorial Day for you, but a Bank Holiday for England. So, we had a day off cause the church didn’t need us today. SO, I got to rest and update this blog. And I needed it. J

I'm heeeere!

So after 1 hour shuttle ride, 6.5 hr plane ride, and 2.5 hr bus ride I have officially made it to the LifeHope Center just outside Birmingham, UK. They are 5 hrs ahead of Eastern time here, which is unfortunate because I'm not sleepy and its 3AM. Oops.

I've already met 2 people tonight, a they were chatty and very friendly. I tried to sneak down the dorm hallway but my presence at 1AM prompted dudes that couldn't sleep to stick their heads out doorways. It was cute. I snuck a banana and peanut butter sandwich from kitchen and set about making friends. It kinda feels like camp/college a bit. Complete with bunk beds. I also met one of my roommates.

So I'm alive and well and I'll update sometime next week after I go thru orientation.

Thanks for all the prayers!!!

JFK

So I'm sitting in the airport at JFK about to board my flight to England. I just spent a really fun week in NYC with the lil sis. I managed to go jogging twice in Central Park, do a little shopping, and catch up with college friends.

BUT by far the best moment happened Tuesday morning. I was researching video cameras online while Emily counted up the last min donations and random cash I'd scrounged together. The Lord provides kids cause I ended up with more than I ever imagined and was able to splurge on a very nice little camera. This baby takes pretty video. :)

SO, tues morning in the rain I trekked to B&H Photo (aka Toys R Us of Electronics) and bought:

Canon Vixia HF S20
Hard drive
Xtra battery
Xtra memory card

And now I can document EVERYTHING. Haha. I've been toying w the concept for this doc for awhile now. This past wk I finally started brainstorming and wrote out questions. I'll give u a hint. Its about christianity&cultures.

Emily was my first intv/victim! She was amazing.

Ok that's good for now. I'll check in soon. I should be in Birmingham,UK by sometime tmrw!
Woot

T-Minus 7 Days!!!!

OK, so here's a long awaited update! I'm t-minus 7 days to go! Things are very hectic as I try and finalize things at home but I wanted to try and give a little more detail about the trip. I leave on Monday, May 17th for New York, and then May 20th for the United Kingdom. I'll be in Birmingham, UK for 2 months where I'll be placed on a community outreach team.

For the first 2 months I'll be working at the Lifehope/OM center. There I will train and work alongside one church, while reaching out to its neigbourhood through weekly kids clubs, youth work and other activities for adults.

During these two months, I will have the opportunity to help out in practical ways in the final preparation for the
Transit Challenge.

Later in July I will join the Transit Team in Italy. From there we will travel to France, Spain, Portugal, Bosnia and the Balkans. In each country we will partner with local missionaries in their outreach projects. I'm set to return the week of Christmas!

I am so very grateful for all of the support and prayers I have received from family and friends! From the travel shower that the ladies at Parkland Baptist hosted, the Dance Party hosted by Sojourn Community Church, the trivia night, yard sale and all the craft fairs in between! Everyone has been so sacrificial in their giving and I have been very blessed.

I've been asked by quite a few people this week if I still need anything. Honestly, at this point I need prayers for the logistics of the trip and that I will stay focused this week! There is sooooo much to do and it is overwhelming at times.

As for physical needs, the trip is finally paid off! And I've had a couple of friends offer to sponsor me with small financial donations while I am away. I'm still trying to raise a little support to just cover my health insurance and to purchase camera equipment. (Obviously the health insurance is the more important)

If ya know anyone that has an old ipod I could borrow/buy for cheap, that would be great!

That's all for now! I am hoping that I can update this blog overseas!
Any financial support given at this point should go through my Dad.


Love, Erin

Last Minute Craft Fair!

I've got a booth at the St. Thomas More Craft Fair today from 9AM-3PM. Hope to see some of you out! Updates on mission trip and recent events coming soon! PS I'm moving out of my apt this week AND selling all my furniture! Please continue to pray for financial support for this trip. It's getting close to the nitty gritty. WOOT!

St. Thomas More
6105 S. 3rd Street
40214

Lesson 1-4

I've learned a lot this past year about God's timing and His provision. The first lesson was learning to let go of what I wanted to do, why I wanted it, and when I thought it should happen. Always a fun lesson. The second was in patience in ascertaining God's will. You ask me or my sister for our opinion on this because it has lead to many fun conversations. The third lesson was that God allows us certain desires and hopes because He desires for us to use the skills and talents that He's given. And the fourth lesson was that when it is His will He provides, and I mean in really amazing surprising ways.

Details!

I celebrated a kickin birthday yesterday! It's definitely going to be a great week! Thanks to all who left me Happy Birthday Wishes!

OK, It's time for major updating. The trip was postponed from January to May. So the new dates are now May 20-Dec 20, 2010. I'm very excited and slightly overwhelmed with the details that must be accomplished in the next few months. But, I have been very blessed through this entire experience. Family and friends and my church have really rallied and helped me to raise support. And I know there are many people praying for this trip as well. To date I have received half the support needed for the trip. Everyone has been so generous with not just funds but time as well. None of the fundraisers could have been done without help! I'm so very grateful. The most recent fundraiser took place before the Holidays and was a Trivia Night. It was so much fun I hope we do it again sometime! I didn't realize how little I know about history and current events LOL.

Updated Itinerary:
In May I will travel to the UK, to the OM LifeHope headquarters in Birmingham. There I will train for 2 months. In July I will travel to Rome for a conference, where I will meet up with the rest of the Transit Team. From July until December the team will be traveling around Europe, working with missionaries and offering aid in anyway we can. This includes sports camps for kids, and community projects.

The countries have changed a bit since the team is now leaving later. We'll be visiting Rome, France, Southern Europe, Bosnia and the Balkans.

Please pray during this time for my future teammates, and for me as I attend to the details for this trip. It is still my HUGE HOPE that I can do videotaping while in Europe, but this requires equipment that I don't have. Pray that if this detail is meant to be that the solution to this problem will present itself.

As always check back to this blog for more details. I will update as I receive more info.

Cheers!!!
Erin