I just arrived back from the Time for God BIG conference. This is the time of year when all of the TFG volunteers serving in the UK get together to learn, share experiences, and have a lot of fun! To reflect on our year so far, we were split into small groups - I was in the Arts and Crafts
group, so to process what we have done and learned so far, we made books. These books could be anything from our imagination with the theme of 'My year so far...' (and the year yet to come). On the right is a picture of Me, Sara K., Elin, and Alpar with our books. My book turned into a scrapbook of sorts, with a page devoted to new foods, another to memories, some pages about SPEC, and some about me - it's a pretty fun book! I never knew how much fun arts and crafts could be, but I found it very meditative. I hope to make another one at the end of my year, with all of the pictures I am accumulating!The other highlight of the conference was 'The Fringe'. A multi-cultural talent show! We saw performances of songs and dances from South Korea, Scotland, Hungary, America, Germany, and Sweden, among other silly performances of Little Mermaid re-enactments and an 'Air Band' (that was from the Americans :) ) We saw some tradition dress from both Germany and South Korea. Below is me with Martin and Annika in traditional Bavarian dress. The will still wear this dress to special occasions such as 21st birthdays and weddings!
Our other neat opportunity at this conference was to watch the inauguration of President Obama in Wales with young people from all over the globe. I have never been so 'American' in my life. There were 11 Americans at the conference, and we all stood when the people on t.v. stood, we sang the National anthem with the choir, and said 'Amen' at the end of the final prayer (a prayer which made us all smile). The British commentators were funny - as George W. left the white house for the last time, the commentator referred to him as 'A lovely man, though I know some don't quite agree with his politics'. :)
During this, a good portion of the other volunteers watched, and said that we were more interesting than the actual speech itself! But we were not the only excited ones. Obama's presidency has excited the world. There have been large posters of him in the tube, and when young people hear that I'm American, they always ask if I support Obama. It's nice to have Europeans seeing good in the US. I worry for him - he has a lot on his plate with a lot of people expecting great things. It seems to me,though, that he's got a good head on his shoulders, and isn't too cocky about the challenges ahead. These next few years will certainly be interesting!
Current prayer requests include TFG Volunteers heading back into their placements, Anthony visiting Zimbabwe, The new USA administration, and SPEC's young people, volunteers, and staff.
That's the quick update for now!
Cheers!
Picture links!!
Planting flowers with community and London trip with the girls, Click Here
TFG BIG Conference, Click Here
