A photo as promised at the bit in the blog below that goes ***************

Back to uni today! what fun?! far too many big words and difficult concepts for me today! I mean what the heck does this question mean?

"Contrast the move towards integrated workiong with the broader shape of public services in recent years, noting the move towards a more competitive element and marketisation within public service provision. What tensions might exist here?"

Ah well, im off to visit my gran and then heading out to a free gig hosted by JHill CU! im all for the free stuff! hehehe! (dont know why this is italic?!)

Till the next blog, keep safe and dry!

Do you ever have a couple of weeks, where you have nothing to do and then after they're done, you think wow those boring weeks, werent so boring and went in very quickly? Thats what the past few weeks have been like for me!

There was Angela's 21st in Dundee (photo on left!), Steven and Nicola's wedding (photo on Right!) and my mum and dad's 25th Wedding anniversary (photo in the middle, altho it was taken at S n N's wedding, but it was nicer than the ones that we have of their anniversary, plus i wore the same outfit anyway! lol!) (ok so the photo wont work! so look in the post above this one!!! *************)

Last week i decided that i would go and have a proper look round Kelvingrove Art Gallery. I've been once since its been re-opened but there's only so much you can see with a brother in a wheelchair and an 86 year old grandmother with a stick! So i get to the galleries, and its very busy and there were police about, i parked over at the Transport museum and headed over to Kelvingrove. I was going to walk along the front of the galleries, but 2 policemen told me i couldnt! I asked if i could get inside, afterall i only wanted to see the paintings! The policeman then turned and said 'oh if you want to see the Queen you'll need to go round the back'. The Queen, yes Queen Elizabeth the second, was visiting the gallery and therefore it was closed to the public. Having nothing to do, i wandered round the back and joined the other 200 people that were there, and out walks the Queen! It was a really weird experience, i wasnt expecting to see the queen, but there she was with Prince Philip, only about 10 feet away from me! The only bad thing was that i had forgotten to take my camera with me! But im almost certain you could see my little head bobbing up and down in the crowd, when there was film footage of the Queen unveiling the little plaque thingy, on the news!

I really like this time of year! Glasgow is beginning to get busy again! There's students everywhere, and all 1500 students that have moved into halls at Strathclyde University now have their can of free 'Christian Beans!' A group of 10 to 15 of the Christian Union handed out the beans on Saturday as the students were moving in! The beans have labels detailing the CU events this week and have become infamous to halls students over the past few years!

Today, Monday, we had the first of our free lunches. Not many people came, so we headed out to the streets armed with trays of sandwiches and leaflets! I love just going about chatting to people and inviting them along to things! it was a good laugh! I even got to play a few games of pool this afternoon, normality is beginning to creep back in!

Im off to have some soup before going out again! hope ur good and settling into normality again!

Step Out Plus!

As you may or may not know, over the summer i have been working for the Baptist Union doing missions involving children's and youth work throughout Scotland. It has taken me to places far and near: training in Edinburgh, Kirkintilloch and Falikirk and missions in Thurso, Leslie (Fife), Montrose, Inverness, Hopeman and Lossiemouth!

As part of the Step Out Plus programme i had to write a review, and i thought it would be the easiest way to let you know what i was up to! (Photos may follow later!) Enjoy!

Step Out Plus for me started as one of many things I could do over the summer. I met up with Gary (in Starbucks of course!) to have a chat about it, and decided that I would do it. It was one of those decisions that is great at the time, and then later on you think, ‘hang on a minute what have I actually let me self in for?’ I had let myself in for 3 weeks of training, 6 weeks of mission, 2 weeks of reviewing and only 1 week off all summer! And I would be spending all of that time with another 4 people, only one of which I had met before.
The weeks of training were great, not only because we did the ‘What Every Volunteer Youth Worker Should Know’ course or because it gave us a chance to practice sharing our testimonies, kids action songs and even some games, but because it helped the 5 of us get to know each other. From the beginning of training it was clear that God had very much had his hand in picking who would do Step Out Plus this summer, as we all got on well very quickly.

The highlight of Thurso for me was the Helix (Have Everlasting Life In Christ) youth service that we had on the Thursday evening. We asked one of the church members to speak and had the band play a few songs. We also had a drama and some silly games. It was a great way to build on our friendships with the youth and to spend time worshipping God with them. In Leslie we helped with some of the upfront stuff at the Pyramid Rock kids club. The most memorable part of this week would be getting a ‘makeover’ as part of the drama and then having the make up washed off by water pistol and skooshy cream!

Montrose was the first big challenge of the summer as we didn’t have Matt L as our leader, and we had 4 new team mates, it was also the first week of Space Raiders. Montrose went by more or less without any hitches. We spent our evenings in the park by the Skate Ramp chatting to the children and youth about Step Out and why we were actually in Montrose. I was lucky enough to be able to share my testimony with a couple of the girls that I was speaking to. Mission 4 was Inverness and this brought about a whole host of challenges for me due to being a co-leader as well as suffering from lack of sleep. The challenges ranged from trying to motivate a team who were down because of low numbers, to cooking meals, to trying to think of the best hiding spot for sardines!

After a week off, I headed up to Hopeman to be re-united with the Step Out Plus team. This was the first time in a number of years that the church had done a kids club, so I didn’t expect too many kids to turn up. Thankfully I was wrong and we started off with 19 kids coming along on the Monday morning, this number grew to about 24 as the week went on. Again we did the space raiders club with the children and they seemed to thoroughly enjoy it, including the Boing Song at least twice each day. We only did a kids club in Hopeman and had the afternoons and evenings to sit on the beach or watch films, or have a nap.

In our last week of mission in Lossiemouth, we were joined by 3 others full of energy and ideas, which was a big encouragement for us. On the Thursday Lily, one of the girls we were staying with asked Ailie and I to pray with her to become a Christian. So Lily, Ailie, Lily’s mum, another church member and I prayed together, 3 other children and youth also became Christians. Another highlight was making friendship bracelets with some of the youth and explaining to them the Gospel by colours, this got them going with lots of questions.

I think that the lesson God has taught me over the summer has been about relationships, making sure that my relationship is strong with Him, but also building friendships with my team mates. I’ve also learnt that the first step in sharing the Gospel is to make friends with those that we want to tell about God. Only when they are comfortable around us will they be willing to open up and ask questions and listen to the answers.