Categories: uncategorized
Date: 20 May 2005 14:42:15
Don't know if anyone's interested but an article I wrote about the Ready for Action thing can be seen on the front page of the current issue of the Diocese Herald. Seeing as a proportion of the readership of here won't be able to get it this is what was said:
One of my favourite bank holiday weekends of the year has just left me tired, sunburnt, drained and in possession of a painfully twisted kneecap. I wouldn't have swapped it for anything, however, and next year I invite you to come and join me!
If that doesn't sound that encouraging let me add that it was three days of hard graft with only three half hour lunch breaks to remind me what sitting still felt like.
Am I selling it to you? No? OK let's start over.
April the 30th to May the 2nd saw Guildford based Church youth groups come together for the fifth annual Ready for Action weekend organised by the Matrix Trust. Bushy Hill Junior school and Merrow Methodist Church hosted a group of teens and adults who committed to give up all, or part of, their bank holiday weekend, and all the sunshine it surprised us with, to take on a series of gardening and DIY jobs for local residents who would benefit from the help. The team I worked with contained three adults and eleven teenagers. We were asked to clear a garden of wall to wall brambles, dead trees, rampant roses bushes, discarded rubbish, broken electrical equipment and a four foot square concrete coal bunker replete with composting material, soggy coal and big fat spiders. All in three days. Sound impossible? We did it in two and a half. The rest of the third day we spent litter picking in the woodland area next to the scout hut, collecting over twenty five bags of rubbish and removing wooden palettes, broken bottles, abandoned doors and partially burnt paper.
It still may not sound that alluring and the reasons why we took part and enjoyed ourselves so much may not seem obvious... All I can say is that in three days I was inspired by teenagers from various churches who worked incredibly hard for people they had never met and we even paid for the privilege (each team member paid £5 towards costs). I met local residents who showed a huge appreciation for what we were doing and said hallo to smiling people in the street as we walked from one job to another and we made a difference. It's not important how few degrees we did it by, we spent a weekend changing the world with God in mind as we did so. We started the days in prayer and a bible reading I read before travelling to join the group on the second day seemed perfectly apt: “On the day you fight your enemies your people will volunteer. Like the dew of early morning your young men will come to you on the sacred hills.” (Psalm 110 vs 3 Good News Bible).
And the painful knee? Well, that's my own fault for playing football for an hour afterwards during the community fun day which marked the finish of the long weekends work. Next time I'll be sensible and referee as the kids play instead.
Well... Maybe.
Nice to see it in print, even under an (ahem) assumed name :~)
Currently listening to: Gorillaz: b-sides. Currently just finished reading: Emperor:The Death of Kings... enjoyed loads, am interested in seeing the next one now. Current 24 guess: Jack's a fake, see the big bad wolf theory.