Trunk or Treat

Today was Haloween, and the church put on an even called 'Trunk or Treat', where people take their cars, and 'dress them up', and have sweets in the boot, where the children can come and 'trunk or treat'.

The Millers and I decided to go as the Flintstones, and so I became Barney Rubble for the night! We took some cardboard boxes, and made the side of their van into the Flintstones' house.

Last year, the church got around 400 children 'trunk or treating', and judging by the numbers this year, i don't think we were too far behind that number (if at all)!

Beauty and the Beast? Or Lady and the Tramp? Can't
remember which one.They were called both many times
during the night. The tramp is Alanda, the Associate Pastor.

Chaney... Gangster, hitman and comedian all rolled into one

Bob. Watch out for him.

The Fantastic Four...

Scarecrows...

A professor, General, maid and girl with nice dress.
The professor is the guitarist in the praise band

Erm, coconut boy...?



The Flintstones family!

Mary cut Doug's dress a bit too short...

Contrary to popular belief, I was Barney Rubble,
not Barney the fluffy purple dinosaur

Going to Hell and back

On Sunday night, the youth from Grays Chapel went to 'Trip TO Hell' - a place where people try to show you what it's like to go to hell.

We started off by getting introduced to a girl, who would lead us through her life by taking us to different places in the field where the 'Trip TO Hell' was based. We started with the girl introducing us to a sketch where her parents were having an argument which turns violent. This was to show how in a lot of cases, young people decide to go the wrong direction in life because of situations in their family.

She then took us to a sketch where her best friend was having an abortion. Her friend didn't want to go through with it, but she was persuaded otherwise. Because of this, her best friend never talked to her again.

She then took us to a sketch where she had found some new friends, and they decided to use an Ouija board. This then followed with a 'demon' appearing, which stuck by her in all future sketches.

Next was a sketch where she was at a party, and one of her friends got raped - despite her being able to stop it.

She then took us to a sketch where one of her ex boyfriends decided to commit suicide because of something she said to him.

After this, she comes to some crossroads, where down the path she took, she saw Jesus walking with the cross past her, and as he passes her, he says 'this is for you'. She decides this is the wrong path, and heads down the other one, where she boards a plane. The plane gets into trouble and crashes, killing everybody.

The next scene was of her being judged by God. He says because of her decisions in life, she's going to hell. We then follow her into a small room. This sketch, although very little happened in it, was very powerful, as it goes back through her life, showing us all the places where Satan influenced her. After this, the creator of 'Trip TO Hell' came in and prayed with us.

What happened in these sketches was performed brilliantly, and was very powerful at the time - it's just very hard to write down what happened, but at least you have an idea.

After this, we split into groups, where someone prayed with us and asked us a few questions about our faith. Turned out the guy who was leading my group lives about 2 hours away from me!

The whole night was great, and from the impression I got from everybody, it gave people a lot to think about regarding the choices they make in their life and the consequences because of them.

Mission in Mississippi

From October 23 to October 26, I went to Biloxi in Mississippi with a Mission team to help rebuild homes which were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. There were 8 people including me who went, and I suffered 4 days of what I can only call 'cultural abuse'! I've never heard so many (bad) jokes about the English accent before!

After a 12 hour bus trip, we arrived in the adjacent town, where a church there had been converted into a 'volunteers hostel', with a kitchen, 7 dorm rooms, and a large communal/eating area. There were several other mission teams from around the USA which were living with us. We arrived there at around 7pm, just in time to share some of the food another church had cooked.

One of the men who was staying in the church decided
to cook shrimp for dinner one night. He bought 30 pounds
of fresh shrimp, and the photo shows them cooking outside.

The next morning we drove down to the place where our team would be working - a house in a fairly run down area. As we looked through the front window, we could see right through 5 rooms, and straight through the back window. All the house had left was it's supporting structure.

During the next 3 days of work, we managed to put insulation up throughout the house, put walls and ceilings up, and also plaster many of the walls too. We also befriended a rottweiler there, which I found to be the only thing which never once made a bad joke about the English! During the first evening, one of the people there found some jigsaws. And for the remaining nights the jigsaws became 'the thing to do' for our group and a few others. Below are two 500pc ones we completed (each within 1 day).

The two 500pc jigsaws we completed

We also got to meet the lady who owns the house, and was amazing to see how thankful she was for the help she received. It turned out that her and her two brothers would end up living there. One of the brothers was living in a trailer next to the house, and had been for over two years.

On the last day, we drove by the coastline, and the devastation we saw was unbelievable. Nearly 3 years on, there are still houses and buildings destroyed. There was huge plots of land where houses once were, but now there's just grass. All along the beach, I was told there were restaurants and small businesses there, but now, there's no trace of them - everything was completely wiped out. What was great though, was even though we came home with a few more aches and bruises than when we came, everyone still felt as though it was a privilege to be able to help these people. It reminded me of the passage from the bible (Matt 25:35-40) where it says "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me'. Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me' ". And for 3 days, we really were living that passage, and it really was a privilege to do so.

The first week

Since my last post, quite a few things have happened.

On Friday and Saturday I went on a men's retreat up on top of a hill on one of the farms. We came on Friday afternoon, and after we set up the trailer, Doug and I went to an American football game in the local high school. Even though Doug was giving me a running explanation of what's happening, I still left more confused than when I came. A nice touch to the experience though was when Jordan went up to the commentator's box and told the guy there was an British person here so could we all welcome him. So the commentator read this out over the PA, and Doug told me to stand up and wave in front of the stadium - a bit scary, but still a nice touch from Jordan.

The two photos show the marching band which came on after
the game had finished. They played the theme tune to James Bond.

After the game we went back to the campsite. We camped out for a night there (Doug cheated and took his trailer to sleep in, and of course, I didn't object). There was about 12 of us I think, and we went clay pigeon shooting, quad biking through the woods, horse riding, and a few other things.

This is a photo of the quad bike I was riding.
The guy who owned the field where we camped out had
built loads of trails in the surrounding woods,
and it was great to go through them on it.



Doug and I cheated and set up this camper to sleep in instead of tents.
Even better, it had 2 double beds!



The two above photos show an old cattle trailer that
had been converted into a mobile kitchen and bedroom.

On Sunday morning I decided to go to both services to see what they're both like - which meant I had to get up at half 6 in the morning! I met many people there, including the youth group=, and I played with the worship band during offertory, which i really enjoyed doing, and something that I'll probably be doing a lot of over the coming weeks.

Tuesday to Saturday, I'll be going up to Biloxi in Mississippi with a missions team to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their homes.

This is a photo of me outside Grays Chapel.
This was the only day in the first week where it was cloudy!

Arrival In North Carolina

Arrival In North Carolina

Today's the first day here in NC, and it's 85 degrees over here!

The journey went without any problems, I stopped over in New York for a connection flight, and since it was my first flight where I've had to change planes, I got a bit stuck with some of the things I had to do. Thankfully though, the New Yorkers were very patient and were always eager to help... :S

I arrived at the airport at around 7:30pm, and Mary, Jordan and Christian were there with banner saying "The British Are Coming"! We went for something to eat at Taco Bell on the way home (Yes, my first experience of America was a fast food restaurant!). We got to the house at around 8:30, where I was introduced to Sarah the dog and Dumbledore the cat, and shown around the house. If it looks big on the outside, it's huge on the inside! After unpacking, I went to bed to sleep off the jet lag.

Today, I took a trip up to the church with Doug to help put up some posters advertising the Truck Or Treat event (an alternative to Trick or Treat). It's 11:10 here now, and so for the rest of the day, we'll be at a fellowship dinner at an event called Wednesday Night Revolution, and I'll be going to a band practice later on to see what's happening there.

Trip to America

I've been speaking to Doug Miller quite a bit lately, and the trip to the USA is just about fully organised.

He's told me there's 3 things he would like me to do whilst over there.

The first is the work in Gray's Chapel. I'll be working with the worship team, seeing how they organise practices and how they work leading worship. And because I'm staying with the Millers, I'll be able to see how the services are written and also delivered.

The second is setting up and leading a youth band, something which I can't wait to do! Doug has said he would like me to get together a youth band, and lead them so they can lead worship in late November/early December.

The third is just to see a bit of America. There's a few things I'd like to do; the first, is to go to a Hillsong United conference in Orlando, in early November. Hillsong United are one of my favourite bands, and they're putting together a first ever conference, lasting two days. I'd also like to go to a Casting Crowns concert, in Greensboro, which is about 20 minutes away from where I'll be staying. I've heard that Gray's Chapel uses some of Casting Crowns' songs in their worship, and so I'm hoping I can get some other people to go to the concert with me.

Doug's also asked whether I could go with him to Mississippi to help rebuild homes which were destoyed by Hurricane Katrina. This will be a 6 day task, and I'm really looking forward to being able to help the people there.

I'm leaving on Tuesday 16th Oct, and so there's less than a week to go!

Second meeting with David

I met up with David again to discuss my plan for next year, and we discussed several ideas.

The first being when to have the service. Sunday is not the best time to hold a service like this, and Tuesday, Friday and Saturday are also bad days to hold a service aimed mainly at the younger generation. We decided that Thursday evening will probably be the best time.

David also told me there's currently nothing specifically aimed at university students at MMU Crewe, and so we talked about making the service more student orientated.

David also told me how hard it is to organise a weekly modern service by myself, even with a worship team to help. He suggested having a fortnightly service instead of a weekly one. We decided that this would be best, for the first few months. I'd still like to see a weekly service happen, and so if the time's right after a few months, we may think of changing it to weekly.

We also decided this would be best if it was run as a housegroup, rather than public worship.