Ready For Action.
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 03 May 2006 23:29:37
Ok so I spent the last weekend, the one with a bank holiday tacked onto the end, working from 10 - 4 on a large plot of wasteland with a number of kids from my youthgroups. Was a blast and here is an article about it that will probably appear in next months Wey, which I still haven't spoken about so here goes...
A while ago I was told that the GUildford Diocese free newspaper: the Diocese Herald, was getting a makeover. A biggy, for various reasons. I was asked if I'd contribute and I said I'd be delighted to. One whistlestop tour of Plymouth and the printers/designers responsible for the Herald had, surprisingly, seen all of my blue sky suggestions taken on board and the beginnings of all of that can be seen in the first issue of the Wey wehich came out a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully there's a few more changes to come but as a change it's a huge movement to what we hope is something that is interesting and appealing to a very wide age range. If you can get a copy please do let me know what you think.
Anyhow: the atricle.
The first bank holiday of May was special for several reasons for Park Barn, Stoughton and Westborough. For a start it finished with a BBQ complete with sun, burgers, a bouncy castle and many bowls full of jelly beans. Secondly the weekend proved to be far hotter than the weather bureau predicted for the South of England and thirdly the area was decorated with over 200 teenagers and adult volunteers participating in the sixth annual Ready 4 Action weekend.
Organised by the Matrix Trust and supported by Safer Guildford Partnership, local churches, Guildford Poyle Charity an the GBC park departments, Ready 4 Action saw teams of teens decorating 4 houses and working on 16 gardens, a walk through, a community play area and a large patch of waste ground that was earmarked to become a patch of allotments.
John Marrow, youth captain at Emmanuel Church, was delighted with the partnership between the church and R4A: “For Emmanuel church to be the base camp was brilliant. It was fantastic to see the hall area so full of people who had given up their time to help others simply by showing they were happy to get their hands dirty. The transformation in houses, gardens and faces was incredible.”
The Mayor of Guildford, Tamsy Baker, said “I really enjoyed the enthusiasm of the groups who were really improving the environment so that people could enjoy walking about in safety and others could enjoy their houses and gardens again. It was wonderful to see the partnership between the group leaders, the teenagers and the workforce from Guildford Borough Council.”
Jack Pollard, 17 and a member of Guildford Community Church, said: “I was working on a decorating job painting an old man's flat. I liked the painting, working with the leaders in my team and I'm definitely going to do it again next year.”
Becky Thatcher, 16 and a member of St Peter's Church, said: “I felt like I was in a dream... I was so tired but wide awake and everyone was so happy even though we thought that working hard for 3 days would be a nightmare.”
John Kitchen, youth worker at Guildford Methodist Church, spoke on the third day of the long weekend about how he felt about being a part of the weekend's work. “Everything we've done is counter cultural; everyone tells us to sit back and do nothing but here we are doing something that the world doesn't understand and is therefore interested in. Ready 4 Action is about us showing that God doesn't do slightly good things... He does amazing things!”
Currently listening to: Wifey sleeping. Currently playing: juggling chaos. Current socks being worn: Mickey mouse on grey and black. Currently prayer requests: For Sandra, Lukas and Magdelena.