The Deep End

Today was the first of Bash, which is the name of the Younglife camp we’re serving with this week, and boy did we dive into the deep end of the pool right from the get-go.

We started our morning at 8:15 with a time of prayer and worship at Haileybury before the campers arrived. Afterwards, minibuses started showing up with teenagers from all over the area.

Two things you should know about the camp breakdown: (1) only 7 students were signed up a couple weeks ago, and now there are about 35 campers in attendance, with even more expected tomorrow…this is a HUGE turnout and a TREMENDOUS answer to prayer! And (2) in addition to the 35 campers, there are a number of British students on the Work Crew this week, where 2/3 of our team are serving. Many of these kids are young in their faith as well, so everywhere we turn there are opportunities to share the love of Jesus with students! And let me just tell you… Not only are your sons and daughters sharing that love, but they’re doing it with great energy and enthusiasm!!!

After a long and exhausting day of camp, we went over to our friends Jane & Harold’s GORGEOUS garden for dinner. Then we split into teams (with a mix of American and British students) and competed in an “Amazing Race” all over the town of Hertford. It was an absolute blast, but we were worn out by the end of it all!

Every day we end with a “team debrief,” where we sit down as a team to discuss and process what God has been doing in and through us. Because of the late hour at which our day ended, we decided to split up and do our team debrief at our separate cottages: one for the guys and one for the girls. As a result, we haven’t heard how the girls debrief went just yet, but the guys debrief tonight was an intense time of sharing and prayer. Parents of guys on this trip… God is growing your sons’ faith in powerful ways already this week!

We’ll be back with more tomorrow, but we’ll leave you with the “world premiere” of the Day 1 highlight video being shown tomorrow at Bash:

London

Day 2 was jam-packed full of adventure! We woke up early and caught a train in to London for our “adjustment day” — a fun day placed at the beginning of the trip each year to allow our bodies to adjust to a new culture (and a new time zone!)

Upon arriving in London, we hopped on a double-decker bus and cruised around the entire city, seeing a little of everything: Big Ben, London Eye, Tower Bridge, and Trafalgar Square (the group shot pictured above), just to name a few! And all this was BEFORE LUNCH!

After lunch, the weather turned absolutely gorgeous (as it’s projected to be the remainder of the week!) and we walked around Leicester Square and Covent Garden, before hopping back on the train to Hertford to eat dinner at the home of the Turner’s, who have opened up their garden to us for dinner every year since we started coming to Hertford. We are so appreciative of their hospitality!

Even then, our day wasn’t done: we wrapped up dinner and headed to Haileybury, where we will be putting on this camp (called “Bash”) from Wed – Sat. This is where the mission of our trip started to become very real for our team, as British students began to pour in to the theater this evening. There were a lot of hugs and high fives (and high pitched squeals of delight!) from the Americans and Brits who already knew each other, and the new folks became fast friends… By the end of the night, everyone was screaming out the lyrics to “Don’t Stop Believin’” together as Andrew and Caroline rehearsed.

We closed out our evening in prayer together as a team of about 45 Americans and English who will be serving as the Work Crew, Counselors, and Program team this week. One of the amazing things that came from that time was learning that there are many students signed up for this camp who the Young Life staff has never even HEARD OF before! Clearly God is ALREADY stirring up something significant in the hearts of teenagers here in Hertford, and we are praying that by the end of the week we will be celebrating new brothers and sisters in Christ!

It’s 11:30pm over here now, and we’ve got a huge day ahead of us with Bash beginning tomorrow, so please be praying for rested legs and rejuvenated energy as we prepare to love on British students!!!

Arrival

For two months we’ve prepared. Today we arrived.

Our travels to England began with a most unexpected of surprises: the bus scheduled to take us to the airport in Atlanta broke down earlier in the day, only to be replaced by… wait for it… A PARTY BUS. It was hysterical. We laughed and sang and danced our way to the Atlanta airport.

This is the youngest team we’ve ever taken to England, but they traveled like a bunch of seasoned veterans. Parents… You should be very proud of your sons and daughters! We flew through the night, with most of us getting at least a couple hours of sleep. Other than a little turbulence early on, our flight was fantastic! We touched down around 10:30am, and headed to our cottages.

After settling in, we headed over to Michael and Beth Ann Hunter’s house, where Michael shared the vision for our week together. It was so great to spend time with the Hunter family, as well as our British friends Jack, Steve, Sara, Pav, and Kieran.

We wrapped our evening by walking around the Hunters home and praying over their home and their family, and have now headed back to our cottages to get some much needed sleep after a long day of travel! Its hard to imagine that 24 hours ago we were heading to the NMC office to depart!

Only You Can

set captives free, bring nations to their knees
only You can 
give blind men sight, cause oceans to divide
only You can
–Caroline Fidell, “Heal Our Land” 

Our final England team meeting, which focused largely on the “fine print” of how to pack for a global mission trip,  wrapped up with our team and the Guatemala team coming together for a time of prayer and worship.  Caroline Fidell and Andrew Walden led us in worship, and we were challenged to begin praying and asking one question between now and our departure:

If you could see God do ONE THING during our time in England,
something that only HE can do, what would it be?

That’s what we will be praying and asking over the next two weeks.  That’s what we’ll be journalling about.  There is much to do between now and our departure, between packing, finals, and graduation, but we have our eyes fixed on the Cross, and the message of hope that God has called us to bring to the students of Hertford, Engladn.  We hope you’ll join us in praying God-sized prayers as we walk through these final 2 weeks!

Uniting Expectations

Once again, John & Vicki Thom opened up their home to us to host our England Team Retreat.  Their generosity and hospitality laid the groundwork for God to do great things in our hearts; this year’s retreat was definitely a turning point for the England team.  We came in as a team of 20+ individuals, with a variety of backgrounds and social circles.  But as we laughed, cried, played, and shared, something changed… God began to bring our hearts together as one.

Friday night we talked about what it means to have a unified heart, and then put it in to practice as 3 team members shared their testimonies, and everyone rallied around them with words of encouragement.  We spent time praying together and worshipping together, and Eugene helped us learn about the way each member of our team is wired, as we walked through the results of our Cross-Cultural Questionnaires… it was hilarious to see people already putting this information to good use as the weekend rolled on!

Saturday we learned who the “morning people” of the 2011 England Team really are.  We started our day with 8:00am breakfast, and then spent the balance of our morning crafting our “team policy” — which all team members hold each other accountable to while on the mission field — and walking through a general overview of what we will be doing in England.   We also got to hear the testimonies of 2 more team members… it’s amazing how God has uniquely brought each member to this team from so many different directions!

The excitement was really starting to build throughout the weekend, and the sense of expectancy really began to rise in our hearts.  By the end of the weekend, people’s worries had turned to excitement, and their uncertainty had turned to clarity.  We know God has called us to be His hands and feet this weekend.  We know He desires to move in the lives of the people of Hertford, and in our lives as well.  We may not know all the details of what it will look like, but we know God will be at work… and there’s no place else we’d rather be!

Break Our Hearts

For the members of the 2011 England Team, today was all about diving in to the culture of the people we are going to serve.  We caught our first glimpse of the places we’d be staying and the faces we’d be serving, and also discussed the many stages of emotional reactions (known as “Culture Shock”) that we typically go through when encountering a culture different from our own.  We even got to hear from one of our favorite Brits, Jack Scarfe, who sent us a video, which we in turn share with you below:

All of this information served as the foundation for our understanding of what it means to have a heart that is broken for the people we are serving.  We want to know what breaks God’s heart when he thinks of England and its people, and we want those things to matter so much to us that our own hearts begin to break for them as well.

We want God to break our hearts for the fact that kids grow up in Hertford without ever attending church.  We want God to break our hearts for the reality that most teenagers don’t understand the value and sanctity of love and marriage as the bible describes them.  We want God to break our hearts for the scores of teenagers who spend day after day at the Hartham Common, completely unaware that there is a God in Heaven who loves them so much that he sent his son Jesus to die for them.  We want to have a love for these people that precedes our arrival in England, so that our time there may be an outpouring of God’s affection as we serve.

And the amazing part is… even as we TALKED about our hearts breaking for these people… you could sense it was already starting to happen.

*****

By the Next Meeting:
• Half of Support Due ($800)
• T-Shirt Forms/Money Due
• Post in the Comments Section Below
• Numbers 13-14 Devotional (p.49)

Journalling Questions:
• God, is my heart breaking for the things that break Your heart?
• What does it mean for ME to have a Broken Heartfor the people of Hertford?  Do I have one?
• What areas am I experiencing fear or lack of confidence as I approach this mission trip?
• How has God already begun to shape my heartover these first two meetings?

Come Away

“come away with Me
I have a plan for you
it’s gonna be wild, it’s gonna be great
it’s gonna be full of Me
so open up your heart and let Me in”

–”Come Away”, Jesus Culture

Today marked the beginning of a new journey for the 25 members of the 2011 England team.  As we went around the room sharing our “one word” that describes how we’re feeling about “coming away” with God on this journey, a real sense of excitement emerged among team members old and new.  We know God is calling us to open up our hearts and invite Him in to every step of the journey.

Each time we meet, we will be looking at a different aspect of our heart that God desires to refine in us INDIVIDUALLY, so that we can be the team He desires for us to be COLLECTIVELY when we get to England.  Today we talked about laying down our rights and taking on the heart of a SERVANT.  We fixed our eyes on Jesus’ example to us in Philippians 2,  because even though Jesus came to earth knowing He was GOD, He laid down his rights and made himself nothing to serve and suffer and die for us.

With this discussion came 4 questions that we are journaling and praying about as a team over the next two weeks, which we will all be sharing parts of in the COMMENTS section of this blog post:

• God, why are you calling me to come away with you to England this summer?
• What does it mean to have a servant’s heart?  Do I have one?
• When it comes to laying down my rights, what areas will be most difficult for me?
• What do I desire to see God do in my life over these two months together?

If you are a friend or family member of one of the team members, or if you are one of our dear friends in England, we invite you to join in the conversation as well with your prayers and encouragement.  Just click on the “Leave a Comment” button below and type away!