We’ve been enjoying the glorious weather and have been super busy with all the groups God has given us in the past month or so – here’s the latest! If you feel able to financially support me in this gospel ministry, you can do so here.
Verse for June
Romans 10v8-9: “‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
We’ve been going through Romans in home group at church, and these verses have been a great reminder to me that being saved doesn’t mean we have to keep some long list of rules, or ‘be a good person’, or [insert your own here]. No, it’s quite simple: declare that Jesus is Lord and believe that he’s risen.
Day 504
It was an absolute JOY to see one of the girls I meet up to read the Bible with get baptised! And I’m so excited we get to be sisters forever.
Day 506
We welcomed back an ex-gap teamer: Killian (who also happens to be Tom’s brother) for the week to help us out, and he got right stuck in helping the boys paint Room 2!
Day 509
We hosted ‘World Cup Fever’ at the end of June. There was a predictions scoreboard, lots of England flags (which of course we got the two Germans to put up), a constantly stocked drinks fridge and some competitive combat archery to kick off Saturday. The boys (yes it was all boys) enjoyed watching 5 live matches, including England’s epic win against Panama. But we also looked in the Bible at a prize greater than the World Cup: being with Jesus forever.
Day 512
We had nearly 40 sixth formers from Kingham Hill School come for a time away at Gaines Manor, with the focus of developing leadership and teamwork skills. So activities included bushcraft, combat archery, sport and team games. Ben spoke about Jesus as the greatest example of servant leadership, when he washed his disciples feet.
Day 515
We had our final MMTC of the year. But I’m planning to do the second year, so am excited to get back for more teaching and training in September!
Day 516
We welcomed back a regular youth group from Kettering: St Bots. For the teaching we looked at ‘The World We All Want’; it was a great encouragement to hear the girls in my group speak about their faith, and be able to explore what the Bible says about the world we all want (the world that is to come) together. Other highlights included: a beautiful summer evening bonfire, slushies at half time during combat archery, a pirate murder mystery evening, yummy cookies, a competitive game of Crocker, and our first ever kayaking session!!
Day 519
‘Secret Agent Boot Camp’ was the theme for the activity week for 40 girls and their teachers from a girls school in London; and that meant there were lots of activities to train up the secret agent recruits! From physical training: lacrosse, combat archery, rafting, ultimate frisbee, archery… to creative training: baking academy and craft… to problem solving: a massive game of Cluedo (would any secret agent camp be complete without it?!) And of course, every secret agent needs to know how to have fun, so we loved having the guys from Clownfish to host an afternoon of inflatables, the weather meant water games and a water fight another afternoon, a day out at Drayton Manor, and we even got to dress up for the last night party: drinks reception, banquet and glow stick disco!
For the teaching, we looked at ‘The World We All Want’: this was mostly discussion-based in small groups, looking first at the New Creation before going back to Genesis and the rest of the Bible. On the Thursday we looked at Jesus’ death and resurrection, which definitely sparked the most interesting discussion in my group. Pray that all the girls would think about and consider the claims of Jesus for themselves.
A big shout out has to go to these AMAZING girls (top left clockwise: Mary, Zoe, Rosie, Sophie, Sophie, Abi) who gave up their week to help out. We were so grateful to them (especially as I’m the only girl on team!) for their willingness to serve, get stuck in with their teams, lead Bible studies and generally be fab!
Day 523
We loved having a returning group from Stafford, with more young people than they brought last year, and lots of new faces – praise God! For the teaching we looked at some of the ‘I am’ statements from John’s gospel; it was so great to be able to explore some of the claims of Jesus with the young people, and help them to think about who Jesus is for themselves. Some of the other highlights included: getting wet – with significantly more people in the water than on the rafts at the end of rafting, getting arty – doing some graffiti, getting sporty – playing Crocker, getting patriotic – watching England get through to the semi-finals, and getting competitive – wide games up on the common.
In the middle of all of this, we also finally have the dishwasher installed!
Coming up…
Lots more groups: a school group for the day this week, a youth group at the weekend, then another two youth groups before our first summer camp ‘Escape’ kicks off on the 30th July…
Please Pray!
- Thanks that Ben got back safely from America and had a good time of teaching for his Masters
- Thank God that we have been able to share his good news with so many groups over the past few weeks
- ENERGY!
- That we’d be able to get good rest when we get the chance to
- That the groups who have come to us wouldn’t just remember their time away as ‘a good time’ but what they heard, thought about and learnt about Jesus
- That we’d continue to show the young people who Jesus is, through looking at the Bible, as well as in our conversations and the way we act
- Thanks so much for the amazing volunteers, which we are so grateful to while having a small team
Gaines Girl 