Church vs. Secular World

I have been thinking about how to write this entry all day. Having been in the UK for about a month now, I have really been trying to put myself out there and join a community. Being a YAV I figured an easy community to join would be a church community, but for some reason its not that easy.

Europe much like the USA seems to be going through a, how do you say, transition in church life. Simply put people don't seem to be going to Church that often. More specifically the twenty somethings are absent from church. And my question is where are they? I must admit when I was at home and I was close enough to go to my home church or any other church for that matter, I found myself also guilty of skipping church on Sunday. Why did I skip? Numerous reasons, but one of the main ones was, I wanted to do more then just attend a service I wanted to act on it. Which was part of the reason I became a young adult volunteer, to serve, to learn, to explore my faith, yes all of the YAV's are in their twenties, but when we go home will we go back to attending church or will our absence continue? How do we get the twenty somethings involved? And how can the Church compete with the growing Secular world?

Since I have been in the England, I have had the opportunity to attend two different types of churches, and meet with the pastors of the local churches here in West Brom. The first church I attended was St. Andrews Anglican Church in West Bromwich, while the service was very similar to what I was used to at my home Presbyterian Church, the congregation was not. About 50 people in attendance, ALL over the age of 60 (or at least pretty close to 60). The congregation, knew we were visitors right away, and seemed excited to have us in attendance.

The next church I went to was Living Stones Church in Birmingham. This church came as a recommendation of one of the friends I've made. She has been attending this church since she converted to Christianity from Sikhism( but in their language she was saved), and has become "born again". Not going to lie, I was very nervous about attending this service, right away in my mind I was thinking this might be a very radical church, that I was not accustomed to, but I went with an open mind. I had been promised that this Church had a huge twenty something attendance, so I was looking forward to also meeting some people my own age. Alas wrong again, while the Sermon was really quite good, the service was something that left me feeling uncomfortable. It seemed to me that this church had a very strict understanding of what Christianity was, and ones life is only right if you follow the rules that they have set forth.

Having come from a multi cultural/religious background. I find it very hard to tell anyone how to find their way to God. I truly believe everyone finds their way in their own right. Be that Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.

This raised yet another question in my mind. What does it mean to be a Christian? And is this the question that has led many people to stop attending church?

I almost feel that its easier to say you have faith and believe in a higher being than it is to explain why you believe in a certain religion.

One of the things that I will eventually become involved with at the YMCA will be in a program called 'church without walls' run via the Anglican church. The main goal of this program will be to attempt to attract the twenty somethings, so maybe (hopefully) in working with this program I will begin to answer some of my questions.

Needless to say my Church experience has made me miss Hanover Presbyterian Church quite a lot and appreciate that fact, that I can safely say, that being a Presbyterian suits me just fine, and how much I really love my home church community and my family of faith.

Net Ball

Well what can I say, I am truly entering into a whole new world of sports over here in England. Yesterday I had the fabulous opportunity to play in a rousing game of Net ball, the staff vs. The residents. Now you may ask yourself what is Net ball ? Well frankly I am not sure I could tell you(I am still working on learning the rules), but its the British answer to basketball (but without dribbling, once you get the ball you can no longer move just pass or shoot). Needless to say, even though I never did quite get the rules ( I was told I was the goal keeper, stand under the basket and don't go past the red line). I think I did a good job. The staff won 19-7, and you know what you they say offense scores points defense wins games.

As fun as the game was, what was really great was getting an opportunity to get to know the residents a bit more. Which is truly what I feel my purpose is, to interact with the residents and build a mutual relationship, where we can learn from each other. It's interesting to be around people who are the same age as you, but basically have nothing really in the world to support them, other then the staff and community of the YMCA. And it has become clear that part (the main part) of the work that I will be doing here is helping the residents to become empowered and independent, but I can't stress enough, even though I am here to serve/work with them, I know that I will probably walk away from this expereince learning more from them, than I could ever teach.

Right now we are working on a project to create an activities board with the residents, plan trips, social events, sports leagues, a newsletter, residents board (sort of like a student government type thing) and basically anything that they can think of. I would serve as a support or a means to an end, and hopefully this will become a project that they will take and really run with. So they can finally feel like they have some ownership in how things are run in their homes.

Now all we need are some residents who want to particpate and if its anything like Univeristy, a little food should get them out to the first meeting :-)

Cheers!

(for more pics of net ball please check out my pictures link above)

My new favorite Sport....

Are you ready for some football? Yes please...

What do you do when your in a country and you can't watch good ole American football on Sundays....Well you watch Rugby of course, which looks like might be my new favorite sport. :-) I am working on getting into that whole real football thing, but watching soccer on the telly is just not that exciting. Maybe after attending a match I will get more into the football spirit. In the meantime rugby it is, from what I have seen so far, it def is entertaining to watch, even though I don't have a clue what is going on. And lucky enough for me Birmingham has a professional rugby club I can go and check out. Cheers!

But alas, I still miss watching my favorite NFL football team the Detroit Lions. Now if only the Lions could win some games, hopefully Moseley will do a bit better. GO LIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lost in Dudley

So I never realized how much I really took for granted at home. For instance, having a washer and a dryer(I will save that story, for another time), and knowing how to use public transportation.

Having previously lived in two big cities, I felt that public transportation was something I easily could catch on to and basically knew how to use. The metro in Washington D.C is like an old habit, and getting around Philly became second nature. So, I figured how hard could the bus system be in the Midlands, I speak the same language, so I would be able to read the maps, and understand the drivers and I had already mastered the tram (mind you it only goes in two directions, so not a hard task). Boy was I mistaken.

It was now our third Friday in West Brom, and Julian and I decided we wanted to continue to broaden our horizons, and check out some of the towns around us. The next biggest city after Birmingham is Wolverhamptown, and then there at two small towns in between Dudley, and Walsall. Well we didn't want to travel all the way to Wolverhamption, so we decided on Dudley, we could go to the Cinema there, and around the Cinema there are lots of restaurants, a bowling alley, and a few pubs. Perfect Friday night, all we had to do is get on bus 74 and get off at the right stop, and we would be able to see the Cinema from the road. Easy..... Of course not, other wise why on earth would I be telling this story. Well of course we missed the stop, so we figured we would just get off at the next stop and walk back. Turns out the next stop was in the town center of Dudley at the bus station. Cool, still no problem, a bit longer walk, but we can do it. So off we went, and about 3o mins later we realized, hmm we haven't seen the Cinema, and we honestly have no idea where we are. And we began to laugh, we were like hmm even if we called someone we wouldn't be able to tell them where we were all we knew was we were on a road, and there was a chip shop near by. Here we were an American and a German lost in Dudley (at least we thought we were still in Dudley). And to be honest, neither one of us was phased a bit, we chalked it up to another adventure in the Midlands. So we walked for about 10 more minutes, and decided maybe it was time to turn around, so we caught another random bus, with hopes that it would take us back to the bus station and we could start over.

Eventually we did end up at the Cinema, but by this time it was around 9:30 (we left our flat at 7) and we didn't have time for a movie, so we went to a pub and grabbed a bite to eat, and really actually laughed about what a fun and random Friday night it had been, and heading home.

Even though we didn't have a perfect night, I couldn't help thinking to myself. Well has nice as it would be to have someone hold my hand and show me the ropes of where I am. Its been kind of fun learning things trail by error. As I told my friend in one of my emails, its def a sink or swim situation, and I am def going to swim. :-)

Cheers!

"You talk funny"

So, I was trying to add pictures to my blog, but being that I am a blogging idiot, I cant seem to figure out how to do that. So hopefully you can use the link at the top of my page to check out pictures from my journey.

The past two days, I have had the lovely opportunity to work with the Out of School Club. The Out of School Club is for children ages 4-15. They are picked up from school by the YMCA and are brought back to the YM to hang out, have tea (snack time), and to hang out. Since the children range in age, its quite crazy at times. My first day working with the Out of School Club, I felt like I was on show and tell. When they children first arrived, they basically ignored me, but as I was serving tea (sandwiches, and juice) one of the children mustered up the courage to say "Miss, you talk funny". My response was of course "Do, I?". This then proceeded to a game of guess where the new teacher is from. Of course they guessed American right away and from then on I gained instant popularity. The children wanting me to play games with them, sit next to them, and most importantly tell them about all the Hollywood celebrities that I have met (unfortunately , I have to disappoint them when it comes to the Hollywood part).

24

Well its official, I am finally 24. I wasn't really looking forward to my 24th birthday, but a very good friend of mine reminded me "how many people get to say they spent their 24th birthday in a new town in England, exploring a new country" So, that's what I did, I ceased the day. :-) And actually had a rather lovely birthday. Not only was it my birthday this past weekend it was also my 2nd weekend in West Brom.

Saturday night I had my first chance to go to the city center of Birmingham, and it was actually really cool and quite pretty. The Birmingham art festival was going on which meant there were lots of bands and other fun things going on. We (Julian and I) walked around and ended going to broad street which is a street full of bars and night clubs. At a random bar that we went into, we met two guys who were night club promoters from London, and they invited us to go with them to a club VIP style....Which would have been awesome but Julian was wearing trainers and track pants, and there was no way we could get in with those on even with the big timers, so they tried to convince us to go home and change and meet them out, but I didn't feel like it. So we went to West Brom and went to one of our local pubs. And I had a drink at midnight to celebrate my 24th year.

On Sunday(my actual birthday) I went by myself to the city center and went to the art festival, walked around, listened to some bands (one of which I really liked and hopefully I will get to seem them perform again), drank some coffee, and really had a nice day. When I returned to West Brom, Julian and I went to the pub for a drink and then had Chinese take away.

For the past 5 years, I have always remembered that as I celebrate my birthday on the 10th of September, the next day is the 11th. And I always say a prayer and have a remembrance for all those who lost loved ones due to the events of September 11th. I realize, that those events affected more then just the United States of America, they affected the whole world. But, we can not live in fear. God Bless the world. :-)

The Simple Life

Well, I have been in the England for a little less then two weeks and it has been quite the transition. I started my journey in London, where I attended another orientation. This one was very different from Chicago (much shorter, with more free time). There were about 15 Americans, and we all had this feeling of we just want to get to our placement already. Along with us were about 30 or more others from all over Europe and then a few more volunteers from Korea. We went through more culture shock training, they allowed us time to get over our jet lag, and we even had a chance to see a bit of London. (yes I did take the picture myself). In London, I began to prepare mentally for my journey, reality def had set in and a year was beginning to feel like a very long time. Friday finally arrived and it was off to West Bromwich.
(above is a pic of West Bromwich)


After a very lovely train ride, we (my roommate from Hanover, Germany, and myself) arrived at the Sandwell Dudley train station. Where we were greeted by our new supervisor. Who promptly dropped us off at our new flat in West Brom and said "alright then, see you on Monday". And that was that, we were left to our own adventures in West Brom. Which consisted of eating donner meat and chips, watching lots of Telly (4 channels which we received via a very lovely antenna), checking out the West Brom city center and attending the Anglican church next door on Sunday. Monday morning finally arrived and we began our induction to the YMCA and working.

This week I have had a little taste of everything. And as odd as this might be, I sort of feel like I am on that show the Simple Life, where I have been put into lots of different situations which I am not normally used, to like taking care of babies, to washing every single dish in the YMCA. This is def not the Senator's Office any more :-). But unlike Paris and Nicole, I haven't created any huge disasters or at least I hope I haven't and I am actually have a lot of fun learning about all the different departments of the YMCA. I have been all over the place from Child care (yes, I handled children) ages 1-2 years of age, worried in the cafe (where I learned to bake carrot cake and washed lots and lots of dishes, reception (which had little to do with answering phones, and more to do with rent for residents, post for residents, gym members, and everything in between), the health and fitness center (aerobics with older folks), and my personal favorite housing.

It has been a long week full of lots of new things, and experiences, lots of transitioning and adjustment, but most importantly I have a better understanding of why I am here. I have also found that its quite cool being one of the only Americans (or maybe only) in such a small town (suburb of Birmingham). I have been greeted with lots of questions (have you been to new York? Being the main one)and excitement over the fact I am American.

I have also found that even though English is my first language I am def having a bit of trouble always understanding the strong midlands accent.

Well, now I am ready to go forward, and continue on with my year, and remind myself that whatever is meant to happen will happen, and most importantly to go with the flow.

The Beginning

Here I am sitting in the West Bromwich YMCA in England. Trying to figure out how I got here, why I am here, and how am I going to survive over the next year.

When I first found out that I was being sent to England it was a dream come true. I had always had a huge fascination with the country, culture, and of course the royal family. Not only that I figured I had it easy compared to my other friends who were heading to the Philippines, Kenya, and Guatemala, not to mention all the other volunteers being sent all over the world. I mean in England they spoke the same language, were considered a western culture, how hard could it be. :-) Well, I guess I am getting a bit ahead of myself. I should start from the beginning.

About a year ago, I realized that even though life seemed to be right on target for me, I still had this very unsettling feeling, that something just wasn't right in my life. I was working field, I had started grad school at an amazing school, and I was living on my own in a big city with three amazing roommates, but things just didn't feel right. I was unhappy, and I just felt like I could do more. I had begun thinking about ways I could reach people, communicate, serve, and also gain a better understanding of myself and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. And this is when I remembered the Young Adult Volunteer Program through PCUSA. So, I applied to be a YAV, after lots of paper work, and several phone conversations I found out that I was accepted as a Young Adult Volunteer, and since I wanted to do international service, I would be expected to attend a discernment event in Louisville, Kentucky. During this whole process things just felt right, I knew I was finally on the right track. I was meant to do this year of service. So, off to Louisville I went. I never expected the discernment process to be so difficult and emotional, but at the same time it was completely worth it. When I finally found out after three days that I was heading to the United Kingdom, and this not only felt right in my heart, but it was supported by the PCUSA community. Now all I had to do was prepare for my journey.

So over the next few months I finished my job, moved home from Philadelphia (yes, back to my parents house in Wilmington, Delaware), spent as much time with my friends as possible and eventually I would begin the dreaded packing process. I also found out during this time that I would be heading to West Bromwich YMCA in the West Midlands(trust me this is nothing like the American "Y"), where I would work with all the different departments of the YMCA. This would include housing, child care, the community cafe(cafeteria), and the health center(gym). My supervisor seemed like he would be a lot of fun and I would be sharing a flat with another volunteer who was from Germany. Everything felt right, and I was ready to go or so I thought. Now all I had to do was get through orientation in Chicago, and enjoy my last week in the States.

Chicago was great, not so much for the hours and hours of session we had to endure, but for all the friendships I made and the community that was built. The incredible support I felt, that even though we would all be so far away from eachother, I had very close friends throughout the world who were going through a very similar experience as I was. And when I found out that I would be sharing a flight with the folks going to Kenya I thought "great, I wont have to say my final goodbyes until London". Needless to say it was a great flight. Looking out the airplane window as the wheels were about to touch English soil "I thought no worries, I can handle this". The minute the wheels touched I thought "oh my god, what have I gotten myself into". Walking through the terminal and coming to that point where I had to part ways with the folks going to Kenya, it finally hit me. I was leaving everything and everyone I knew behind to live in a "simple life" in a country unkown.