Friday

Well Friday was a long day of working hard. From 9.30am-11.30am. Phew. Then i got the train back to Braintree! Had hot dogs and cheese at Lewis’s (how many people now fancy hot dogs?!) and then sat down quietly for the afternoon while Lewis worked. I did some Christmas shopping online, well more browsing and working out than buying!

Then went to K4J, had fun there. Did a reflection story on the paralysed man being lowered through the roof which went fairly well, they were a bit chatty though! Then we had A2J which Aaron led, talking about depression, suicide and emotions. We split into boys and girls at one point – girls talked about periods, which made all the boys giggle when we had to feedback! We played the After Eight (or in our case Tesco Value After Dinner Mint) game where you place one on your forehead and have to get it into your mouth without using your hands. i.e. wiggling your face. Hilarious to watch. Lewis won, surprise surprise, despite me trying to sabotage his attepmts!! Was a good night, got back about half 11 in the end.

Saturday

Lazy morning, Lewis made yummy egg and bacon rolls for Brunch and Wendy’s friends came over for a bit. We went into town in the afternoon to get some bits, i witnessed a bit of an argument in New Look, the police came in and everything! Then went back and did some present wrapping then went round to Sarah’s for dinner and after bathing and dressing Maddie and Emi, Sarah and Matt went out and left me in charge! Us 3 girls had cuddles on the sofa and then after some persuasion and eventually getting into bed with Maddie and her getting me in a headlock and shouting ‘NO’ everytime I tried to get out, Maddie went to sleep. Then I fed Emi and put her to bed and had a nice evening by myself drinking hot chocolate, watching some episodes of Hollyoaks and X Factor (Do I even need to comment on Britney’s performance?! Shocking. And Ruth probably shouldn’t have gone.) and trying to work out what the limited edition mystery Revels flavour is. Having tasted several but not being able to work it out I have to look up on the internet. Strawberry. Really?! How unimaginative and un-strawberry tasting. Silly. Then Emi screamed so brought her down to wind her and have some sleepy snuggles. Then Lewis came back from his Camp meeting (metting about camp, not….yeh.) and then Sarah and Matt came back and i relayed all the evenings events and then went back to get some sleep!

Sunday

Got up and ironed Lewis’s shirt (hear that Mum, I IRONED!!!! and burnt my thumb in the process), had Frosties for breakfast and went to Church for 9.30am. Church was good,I went up into Sunday School with Maddie and we made a star decoration for the Christmas Tree. Chatted to some people after Church and then went back to Lewis’s for Wendy’s stew and treacle pudding and custard mmmmmm. Then went round to Sarah’s and picked Maddie up with the intent to go swimming but there was a gala on, so we went to Starbucks for coffee and biscuits, walked round Freeport looking at the lights and then drove to the park where we played in the dark and Lewis got stuck on the slide. Funny. We then went back to Sarah’s and watched the George Yard Firework display from the kitchen window – Maddie was not nearly as impressed as we were – then back to church for 5.30pm for the evening service. Chatted to a few different people after the service then Lewis took me back to Billericay (via McDonalds – they’ve stopped donig Bacon Cheeseburger’s at the Braintree one….WHAT!!!! But we did somehow end up with an extra cheeseburger!).

Monday

Picked up at 8.40 by Rachel and we went to the office. COLD. I finally printed my newsletters yay!!! Then the internet went down so we went shopping. For props. Spent £18 on chocolate coins! (Come to a show – we give out chocolate coins!) Went back and it was lunchtime and i spent the afternoon folding my newsletter, writing names and notes and envelopes and sticknig stamps.

Then in the evening I went to Ignite, Sawyer’s Women’s ministry meeting, met some lovely people, drank mulled wine (non-alcoholic for me!), ate nibbles and sang some songs round the piano (that bit was slightly cringey but funny!!). Got home after 10 and went to bed!

Tuesday

Got up at 8.40, got a text from Rachel saying she’d pick me up at 12.35. So…what to do with my morning! I finished off allllll my newsletters and then went into town to post them. Bought some effervescent echinacea (Mum you must be so proud of me) to ward off the bugs which are lurking in the back of my head. Got back and had some carrot and coriander soup with Julie and then Rachel picked me up. We went to the Barn and met David, then from 1pm-3.30pm we went through the sketches with Ollie doing sound cues. Then we packed up and went home. Spent the rest of the day (with a brief interlude for dinner) preparing and finalising stuff for the worship session on Wednesday, watching Holby City (what IS Jac upto?!), dissecting Holby City on the phone to Mum and then having Sarah ring me to complain that Mum was too busy talking to me to talk to her. That’s because i’m the favourite daughter…..haha.

Tags: After Eight Game, Babysitting, Bacon Cheesburger, Britney, Carrot and Coriander Soup, Chocolate Coins, Christmas Shopping, Cold, Dark, Echinacea, Egg and Bacon Rolls, Fireworks, Holby City, Hot Dogs, Ignite, Ironing, K4J, Mulled Wine, Newsletter, Park, Periods, Police, Revels

Ok so there are 3 residential training weeks a year held at St Marks, Audley End. I travelled in Ivor (the Envizage Van) with a load of guys. We got there about 10.30am on Monday and were allocated our rooms. Now St Marks has been many things including a Benedictine Infirmiry and pig houses (www.stmarkscollege.co.uk if you’re that interested!)

We had a fabulous guided tour from the second years and then our first session was basically a few games and an introduction to the week. Then was lunch, afternoon session on Teamwork, bit of free time, dinner, worship service in the evening where Andy and Joy spoke about The Fall and then bedtime!

The structure of the days went something like this:

6.15 – Alarm went off
6.25 – Stagger to shower
6.57 – Make coffee
7.00 – In the chapel for personal devotion, or we could prayer walk.
8.00 – Breakfast
8.30 – Back to room to do hair/makeup etc
9.00 – First Session
11.00 – Break – Coffee, biscuits etc
11.30 – Second Session
1.30 – Lunch. Where i rediscovered the amazingness of Dairylea cheese spread. Dairylea, tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches are amazing!!!
2.30 – Second Session (apart from Wednesday when we had photos taken and then free time where I played football and Volleyball with Lindsay, Lucy and Emma, ha we rocked!)
4.30 – Free Time (Generally sat in the lounge listening to La Roche playing songs on his mac)
6.00 – Dinner (The best being Roast Pork, and the best pudding was Plum Crumble and Custard….yum!)
7.30 – Evening Worship Service: Monday we looked at The Fall, Tuesday The Law (Mike) & Thursday The Cross (Den) (Wednesday was games night – the after eight game was amazing! And the seemingly legendary cardboard box game.)
9.30ish – Free time and Bed time!

The days were pretty intense but awesome! It was quite strange having boys in the seminars, having been at an all girls school, it was quite weird to get used to!!

The seminar topics were as follows:

Teamwork – Mike Simmonds. Fairly classic stuff including team activities like building the longest and highest bridge out of newspaper, completing jigsaw puzzles (where we got accused of stealing pieces to scupper the other team…turned out the other team were just being blonde!) and building the highest tower out of Jenga blocks.

Child Protection – Claire Earl. We had to write our own Child Protection Policy which was interesting!
Adolescent Development – Claire Earl. We were in 4 groups and using magazines had to make a poster exploring what the following sexes and age groups were influenced by/experiencing: 11-14yr old Girls, 11-14yr old Boys, 15-18yr old Girls, 15-18yr old Boys. It was really good – we had 15-18yr old Girls so basically cut up Cosmo and Heat to stick on our paper. Looking at magazines objectively you realise just how much the culture is driven by sex, from adverts to articles, and even pieces of friendship were about lying and pretending to be friends. Makes you realise what a twisted world we live in! Everyone seemed to get the giggles when it came to discussing the physical changes an 11-14yr old boy goes through…
How to Run a Small Group – Claire Earl. Practical tips and scenarios on running a youth group.

Devotional Life – Lindsay Norton. Really good stuff!!
Social Skills – Lindsay Norton. Funny session – basically on communication and how to behave correctly, i.e. don’t burp or otherwise at the dinner table.

Overview of the Bible – Dennis Pethers. This went on for the all of Thursdays sessions and was INCREDIBLE!!! I can safely say i didn’t know about 98% of what he said. Looking at the sections of the Old Testament and the history of the formation of Israel. Really fascinating stuff and so helpful in understanding how to approach the Bible! It seems to be a legendary session at Optimum Training Week One that everyone finds incredible and wants to go back to teach to their youth group. And everyone says the same thing – why don’t we learn this at church?! Everything makes so much more sense now!!

How to Share Your Faith Story – Andy and Joy Clark. Looking at writing your testimony, or story and how to share it with people.

I can say I have learnt so much from this week and loved every moment of it!!

We left about 2.30 on Friday, back to the office and loaded up the vans with all the equipment for Saturday’s commissioning service. Then went home, unpacked and went back out to Pete and Cor’s house just down the road where the Kent people (Ryan, Maddie and Jayne) were staying overnight. Lots of people came and we had pizza and garlic bread and watched Juno. I left about 9pm because i was tired and went home to bed!

Tags: After Eight Game, Cardboard Box Game, Dairylea, Juno, St Marks, Training Week 1