Day 4.... and 5 and 6! 11-14's Weekend away

Ok so I apologise, I didn't stick to my blogging every day thing. I have a good reason tho, as this weekend I have been in Standlake Ranch just outside of Oxford with 40 11-14 year olds, having lots of fun and talking to them about the bible and Jesus and stuff.

I was hoping there would be some form of wifi network present, but being in the middle of no where it seemed these facilities were not available.

So Friday morning, we loaded up about 9 cars and a van and headed off on our adventure. I was navigator in our car and I only managed to make one wrong turn(but considering I'd been there before and I had a map, that was a bit naff really)

Friday we went for a walk right the site, started our JAM sessions(Jesus And Me, not Jam as in Toast and Jam, and not the type done with musical instruments) and had some group time together. The group times were probably my fav part of the weekend. What we did was in the JAM times the kids had a bit from the bible they had to go and read on their own, and some questions about what they read to think about. Then we would get back into our groups to have a chat about what we'd just read and thought about.

Tom and myself had the youngest group of boys, including 2 guys who don't really have a church background at all but started coming to church through the soccer fun weeks. It was a really good dynamic in the group having these guys mixed in with guys who have pretty much grown up in church. They all had some really good things to say and questions throughout the whole weekend, and I was really impressed with their approach to it all.

Other highlights to the weekend included a walk into the village, trip to the sports centre, horse riding(for watch I got to lead one of the horses and get very muddy in the process, and Tom and me having our hair and make up done(pics to follow).

Overall I think it was a great weekend away and my hope and prayer is that the kids got a lot out of it, both in terms of relationship building and learning about growing up as a Christian.

For me it was a very tiring weekend(which they always are) but it was a good kind of tired. I really enjoyed just being there, hanging out with the other leaders and kids, and trying my best to help them with their walks with God.