I'm so sorry I've taken so long to post and it is long overdue. There is a lot to go over and I'm sorry for how lengthy this post is going to be but soooo much has happened here and there has been so many ups and downs and I feel like I have a lot to say.
CHAPTER I: Home
So I arrived back in the UK with Getwell on the 26th of May and I'm not going to lie, it felt like I was back home and nothing had changed. We went straight into the field as we went back to Galley Hill and got to share a bible story with them. The first year we went to Galley Hill we asked them how many had heard the story of Jonah and only a few kids in the entire school had heard it, which shocked us. This past year we asked them how many of them knew it and all of them raised their hands, this is from many years of Getwell, the Bridge, and YFC putting teams and gap year workers in the school to teach R.E. lessons. We then went to run a Camp of Champions in Westgate Park, where I would meet my teammates for the summer, to use sports as an avenue for the gospel. The youth we took over were great and the kids loved them. We spent the rest of the week sharing our faith at a VBS setting. It was another successful trip where we were able to plant seeds with the younger kids we knew and the older ones we connected with every year. BIG THINGS ARE HAPPENING IN GUISBOROUGH AND GETWELL IS A PART OF THAT.
CHAPTER II: New Friends
I've spent the last month and a half working in a couple of different projects, the main two being axiom and Billingham. With axiom we run sports camps all over the valley where we use sport as an avenue for the Gospel. Our first week as a team in Stockton we saw a girl come to know Christ and it has been a ballin time since then. I've gotten to know so many people and have Great friends like Morgan, Monica, Leah, Iveth, and James, then I have the little sister I never had in Hannah, then I have Flash who is like a brother to me and reminds me in a lot of ways of my brother Ryan. These people mean so much to me and are one of the most amazing groups I have ever been a part of. They encourage me when I need to be encouraged and they pray for me through the hardest times of life, I can't ask for much more than that. In Billingham I get to step in and help three amazing women in ministry they've been doing all year. We hang out with kids at the park, run youth clubs, and do sunday morning kids church. These girls are doing an amazing job out there and it's been so easy to just step in and help in whatever way possible!.
CHAPTER III: Feeling Again
This is the most important chapter. My boss and spiritual father Greg Meek has been telling me for the past two years I don't have the same passion and joy I used to have that made me effective in Youth Ministry. For so long I've been living with a hardened heart after my brother was murdered, then trying to fix it with a relationship and not only hurting myself but my girlfriend at the time, and I remember being at youth hearing my boss Nate Russell talking about living with a hardened heart and feeling so convicted about it but keeping it held in. These past few weeks I've felt that shell come off and it has felt so good, but it came out of nowhere. I told myself when I got here that I was done pretending to be happy just to please people and I've done that, and it has helped me be so much happier than what I have been. The things I'm doing and the people I'm around have collided to help me have a revival in my faith, my love, and my spirit. It started on our first week when we had a sports camp and had a little girl come to know Christ and we celebrated with a dance video. It has gradually escalated all summer but my heart started beating like it used to this past week at the most unexpected thing, people I had never met before. We had 150 students come across from Prestonwood Baptist Church in Prosper, Texas. I got to help an amazing couple lead an amazing group of 11 students in ministry. From day 1 of getting to know Family group 4 they began to have an impact on me. Leading them reminded me of why I love what I do as much as I do. I saw God break their heart for what broke his as there were tears shed for kids who had rough upbringing, for kids who just wanted to be loved, and for a country that is on the rise again. I only knew these people for a week and they've made an everlasting impact on me. This group lead a council woman to Christ and made an impact on so many kids last week. Last week there were 50 kids in this place that came to know Christ. Something is happening here.
I just want to thank everybody. Thanks to the people at Getwell for supporting me even when I didn't deserve support, thanks to the people of Guisborough for always making us feel at home, thanks to the people of YFC and Axiom for letting me come back and serve in the place I'm longing to see God move, thanks to the friends I work with for loving me, dancing with me, praying over me on the night I needed it more than every, and putting up with me even when I go off and work by myself, and thanks to family group 4, or Sweden, for reminding me why I love youth ministry and why I love this country and it's people so much. None of you will ever know how much of an impact you've made on my life.
As I press on these last 3 weeks of my time here, I just ask that you pray for Teeside and it's people. Pray for the adults and kids who accepted Christ this past week that they will have a solid foundation and will be sharers and doers of the word. Pray for the new team of gap years coming in that they would help grow the seeds that have been planted before them. I love you all and I'm so sorry for the length of this post. You guys are one of the pillars of my ministry.
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