The long long long overdue blog.

So here I am, my first day back home after the official end of the SU summer internship. Sad times! Let me apologise from the offset for the serious lack of blogging this past while. Things got extremely hectic for me (Susie) as we drew closer to the issue of leaving cert results and it got harder to find a spare minute to blog on here - let alone a spare minute with internet access!
So lets jump back a while - I think the last time I wrote it was about family week 3 - a brilliant week where I was working the 6-9’s, Barry with the 10-12’s and Orla was in Arklow doing a kids camp there. I think it’s safe to say that we all had a brilliant week, met even more brilliant people and enjoyed ourselves immensely.
From family week 3 we were scheduled to help out at13-15’s camp whilst a border counties camp in Ballinagh looked like it may not run due to a lack of leaders, so off we set for cavan for this camp - a wake up call to God’s plan not always being ours if ever there was one.
Ballinagh was crazy! That’s definitely the first word that pops into my mind - 150 children during the day, teens work during the evening, it was crazy but good. At the start of the summer I told myself I would work with older children, never with the 4-6 year olds because I don’t have enough patience, so upon arrival in Ballinagh when I was asked to be with the 4-6 year olds because they needed another leader I almost cried! Luckily, God is in control and he knew what he was doing - I survived the week, gained patience and even learned that I actually can work with the youngest age group, it just takes an awful lot of games, and more games, and more games!
The teens work at Ballinagh went well, I really liked it. If you remember what I said about wanting to be at 13-15’s because I want to be more involved with youth work it worked out well anyway as I was entrusted with the absolute privilege of doing a talk on the lion heart of God one of the evenings, Being trusted to speak God’s truth into the lives of these searching young hearts is something I will never forget.
From Ballinagh we were scheduled to go to another border counties camp in Donegal - Convoy, however we had a day free so on we hopped to a train and set out on an adventure to Bangor and Belfast - the intern big day out! We had a great time hanging out with the team from Ballinagh, going for a meal in Nandos and then heading to the cinema to see Inception - what a movie! A huge thanks to Jamie for letting us stay, being our guide up north and for organising it :D
Convoy was our last camp as leaders (sad times!) and took a slightly different format to the other border counties camps. It was Doctor Who themed and anyone who knows me knows how much of a fan I am! We all got stuck in helping out at the camp. Orla and I were working with the 11+ teens group (it was awesome to see teens coming during the day too hungry to learn more about the God we serve) and Barry was with the 8-10’s who I know had a great time all week too. A highlight of that week definitely had to be when one of the teens became a Christian praying with one of the guys.
From Convoy the lovely Ray-Bow drove us all the way down to Ovoca manor for the last of our camps in the internship - RAW. Well, where to begin?! RAW was incredible. The theme of the week was ‘are you awakened’ to your situation, for the situation around you and to your faith. We got the opportunity to live out our faith practically on two of the afternoons helping out around Ovoca Manor and gardening and painting a fence at the local driving range that a lot of camps use. We also had an awesome opportunity in being able to support Jo Heaney, a young photographer, in her ‘post-it prayer’ project by taking our own post-it prayer photos. Damien was our speaker for the week and each and every night he challenged us in a different area - love, integrity, faith. I don’t know one single person who wasn’t challenged in one way or another. There’s a vicious statistic that says only one in ten of us will take our faith seriously. As a camp at RAW we challenge that, we want to change that statistic, BE that change. Anyone who wanted to serve on the worship team was given the opportunity to. Orla got stuck in on the saxophone and each and every night the worship resounded from the mouths and hearts of about 70 young Christians seeking after our God.
RAW flew by unfortunately. The start of the week spent in tents being ‘survivors’ seemed like weeks ago by the last night, and with the end of RAW came the de-brief for our internship - a bitter sweet time. I still don’t think it’s fully sunk in that it’s over and I’m back home in the ‘real’ world. That’s the bitter part, but being able to just sit down and digest all that has happened with Barry, Orla and Ray-Bow was good. We made a ‘thank you’ wall and were able to pray over people, places and thank God for situations together. We were able to look back at what we found our gifts to be and how we used them, able to see if we achieved our goals, how we’ve grown and what we learned.
I think all that is left to say is a huge thank you to Rachel Bow for organising this internship, Scripture Union for having us as interns, each and every camp leader who organised and headed us each camp and to you too who read this blog and kept us all in your prayers. It has been the summer of a life time and, as cheesy as it sounds, I know each of us interns is forever changed.

Border Counties

Sorry for the delay everyone... we are still alive!!

Family Week
So after CSSM we went to Ovoca Manor for Family Week Three... Well Susie and Barry did, Orla volunteered at the Arklow Bible club in Arklow town.
Everyone had a great week. Susie and Barry worked with the kids at Family week and met loads of great people!!

Ballinagh
After FW3 we were supposed to stay on for another week at Ovoca Manor for Summer 2... but there was a big shortage of leaders in |Ballinagh, Co Cavan so were were chauferred up to Cavan for a week of fun!
We got to see Jamie again (who ran Glaslough) and meet some great kids. ABOUT 150 OF THEM (so we were very much needed!!!) Orla did the talk on day one and the teens were amazing- Susie did one of the talks for them one night. Amazing!!

Time off
Well we had a fab week off staying with Jamie and went to see Inception! Orla went home for her debs & got a bit lost but she's ok!! I'm sure she'll have fab debs pics up on her facebook soon!!

Now
Now we are in Convoy, Co Donegal for our FINAL WEEK OF SERVING THE LORD ON OUR INTERNSHIP!!!!
Convoy is a small town and we have about 30 kids and a super team to work with, mostly from Bangor.

Next week

We are off to Summer RAW as campers next week. We are looking forward to being fed spiritually and seeing friends :)
Keep watching for more news!!

CSSM is over :(

‘You put the pre-rinse in here, you get to wash-up in here, and then you post-rinse in here and you can dry up with these!’ Oh yes, the words to the now immortal ‘wash-up song’ will forever remain in my head with the ‘unique’ wash up system that was in place… I didn’t realise how much I love industrial dish washers until today at family week when I was on duty and didn’t scald my hands in the post rinse!
Anyway, wash up aside, CSSM is over :( I had an incredible 2 weeks - I fell in love with Greystones, beach services, the sofa in the shark team room and even the early morning meetings! Not to mention the incredible team that I had the privilege of practically living with for 2 weeks.
Orla left us on Wednesday for a short while to go do another camp in her home town, I miss her already! It was strange going from having 2 leaders for our small group to leading it solo, but I guess it did help me to grow more and push the boundaries of what I thought I could do. I probably said this in my previous blog, but I loved my small group, we had some really good discussions. I loved how open and honest the girls were able to be with us - vulnerability is a hard thing for anyone.
There are so many memories I am taking away from my first CSSM (yes - my FIRST cssm… by no means my last!) Ferris the architect, happy pears, Rebecca, Rachel and cups of tea, shanaynay… there are just so many that I get SO TENSE thinking about them all!!!
I must not neglect to say a huge thank you to the families that put us up during the past 2 weeks (or should that be ‘put up with us’?!). After a week on the floor at Glaslough a bed was hugely appreciated, as were the conversations, banter and cups of tea from you all. thank you, thank you, thank you!
I know there is so much more that I could talk about regarding CSSM, but I am wrecked, and I promised that this blog would be short so I will sign off and try to blog again when I’m not struggling so much with writers block (a very strange occurrence, I usually have lots and lots to say!).
Susie.

CSSM

Only 2 days left here in Greystones & we're having a great time as we've talked about below!

We'll keep you posted as we head off to Family Week 3 next week in Ovoca.

xxxx

I'm desperatley trying to think of a boom-worthy title but just can't right now... so lets just call this 'another blog from Susie'

So my intention was to write on here after every single camp… I think I must have had illusions of how much ‘free’ time we might have because Glaslough finished a week ago, the first week of CSSM is nearly over and I’m only writing this now! It’s good though, being kept busy, I’m certainly learning more than I ever thought I might!

So bear with me as I try and cast my mind back to the Border Counties Camp in Glaslough… it feels like it was months ago, so much has happened since then! But on the same note while I was there it seemed to last months - not because it was boring and dragged on but simply because I came away from it feeling like I had known everyone there for so long that it couldn’t possibly be only a week! So anyway we did a camp called Rocky’s Plaice all week long with the kids up to age 12 and then in the evenings we had time to hang out with the local youth, get to know them a little and just try and show them God’s love. I was in the Electric Eels (age 10-12) throughout the week (along with Lacy and Craig). We had a lot of fun, played lots and lots of games, heard the shark song waaay too much (if you don’t know how that song goes, ask Orla, she’ll sing it for you ;) ) and even got covered in raw egg and cream starring as Salt and Vinegar… All together now!(to the tune of heads shoulders knees and toes) ‘salt, salt and vinegar, vinegar. salt, salt and vinegar, vinegar. We’re the trainee chefs who make a lot of mess, salt, salt and vinegar, vinegar!

Not only was working with the kids really good, but I also had an amazing time helping with the youth in the evenings. On the first day I met an amazing girl who really just seemed to reflect exactly who I was a few years ago, my heart cried for her as I listened to what she said and more importantly what she didn’t say, sadly I didn’t see her much after that but I’m trusting in God that some of the things we talked about had a real impact… seed was sown, I may never see the results but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. We had great fun on other nights too listening to some guys from a local band (MGRB) play guitar and sing probably the best cover of falling slowly I have ever heard. Another night was spent making some ‘interesting’ face masks from banana, ready brek, yogurt and sugar and plastering them on our faces (until Hannah decided that hers tasted better and belonged not on her face but instead in her mouth… whatever floats your boat Hannah!). I could say lots more about Glaslough, we had such an amazing time with the kids, with the teens and especially with the team (LEGENDS!!!) but I fear if I carry on talking about all that happened I will never get to talking about the first week of CSSM!

So, CSSM! Here I am at Hillside church, Greystones, the home of all CSSM workers for the past week and indeed for the next week too! I am working with the Sardines this week (no, not the tinned variety, the 10-12’s here, it took me a while to get a hold of the lingo for all the different CSSM activities but I think I’ve got it now!). I love the team I am on, we probably have the largest group of kids coming along to our activities so it can sometimes be tough but I love that it gives us a real cross section of personalities. For those of you who have never been to CSSM before it consists of team time in the morning before a beach service for all ages at 11.15, activities in the age groups in the afternoon and then ‘treasure seeker’ groups (small discussion groups) in the evening along with more fun activities. Today we had the legendary drama in the morning, a picnic with the families after and in the sardines we have just finished the ‘vegetable grand prix’ and I have just finished my talk to the sardines on David sparing Saul’s life (1 Samuel 24 for those of you who want to know what I’m on about). I have to admit I wasn’t sure how well my talk was going to go, I usually use drama to illustrate what I’m talking about but I really felt I should try something different this time… I think it went well but you’d have to ask the kids if you really wanted to know! Orla and I lead a small group in the evenings of 10 year old girls, it’s going well, we’re getting some interesting discussions and hope that they will go from strength to strength as we head into the second week.

I feel like I’m rambling on about nothing very interesting right now so I think I shall leave it there… if you have read down this far congratulations and I shall try to write something a lot shorter next time I get my blogging head on. Your prayers for all us interns and the camps we are working on are hugely appreciated and as before I asked Orla to help me put together a few prayer points below if you want to support us and the work we’re doing in prayer :)

- Energy as we head into the second week of CSSM… being out of our houses from before 8am until about 11pm gets tiring! So does being with kids 99% of the time!
- The kids and teens that are coming along, that God will become more and more real to them
- For the small groups that we are leading, that friendships will flourish and discussions will make an impact.
-That as we take on more responsibilities in camps such as talks and leading discussions that we will have the right attitude, be doing it for the right reasons and also have God’s wisdom and integrity in al we do and say.
- the weather! It may seem like a small thing but here at CSSM everything depends on the weather, especially the beach service in the morning so please pray that the rain will stay away and that we might even see a bit of that elusive irish sunshine!

Urban Soul - BOOMFACE!

So here is the blog we wrote on Sunday, sorry it wasn’t uploaded before this but this is our first foray into cyber space since then!

So here we all are again sitting in Rachel’s car on the way up to Monaghan for the Glaslough camp after an awesome week at Urban Soul in Dublin, can I get a WOAH! Urban Soul is an initative in Dublin City, mobilising teenagers 15+ to get out there and actively live out their faith through ‘indiscriminate acts of kindness’ whilst feeding their faith during the morning and evening gatherings.

So I (Susie) was in group blue 4 and can I just say that on the first night we totally OWNED the dance contest, so all yous had better remember that ya can’t touch this!!! I’ve got to admit that I was a little nervous about getting stuck into my project this year, I didn’t know how good I would be at it, but I think I can safely say that looking at the results we did a pretty darn good job! For the first day it was just myself, Owen and Michael working on our little project. We were taken to a lady’s house, Sheila, and were asked to tame her jungle, I mean garden. Her grandfather had planted the garden so it was very old and special to her, however due to a fractured back and a hip replacement she found it impossible to manage so it was knee high in weeds and the trees were blocking out all the light. We soon got stuck in weeding and fighting back the brambles but before we did we were treated to tea and chocolate and a good ole natter. We found out that Shelia has the best music taste ever, blasting elbow for us as we worked away. On the second day unfortunately we lost Michael to Oxegen however we were blessed to gain Will and his wife Bridget from Rend Collective experiment for the day. Remember we said about Sheila’s awesome music taste? Well we decided to bring her RCE’s album as a present (can I just say - THE best album of 2010!!) and she was astounded that the singer was actually out in her garden cleaning her shed and pruning the roses. At the risk of sounding boastful, the garden looked completely different when we finished. Shelia has a talent for art and our goal was to get her garden looking good enough to paint, I said to her when we were showing her the finished product that maybe when the grass seed begins to grow the garden will look good enough to paint, she made my day by simply replying, it does all ready. Not only were the community projects amazing, so too were the meetings in the morning and evening. We were blessed to have amazing speakers and worship, Jasper and Dave Lynas band in the morings, Jason, Mark Richie and RCE in the evenings. I can honestly say I learned so much during these meetings, God was definitely present, stirring up hearts, motivating hands and planting dreams. On the final day all the leaders came and personally thanked each one of us for being a part of Urban Soul, but it is us who owe them the hugest thanks, they put together and organised such an amazing week, giving tirelessly of themselves time and time again, so whether you anyone who lead at Urban Soul reads this or not, thank you guys, thank you so much.

It’s Barry now, we just did urban soul this week. I was on the team blue 1 and we were a group who did something new and different. We were based in Clondalkin, Dublin. Everyday we took the luas to the red cow and then walked to their local youth and adult education centre. We were meant to be working with the kids there but it seemed they already had about 20 junior leaders to work with the kids and that number would have already been sufficient, so we were annoyed that we didn’t get to do much. But the junior leaders weren’t really christian themselves and some told us they were athiest when we asked them. So a few of our group talked to them and just asked them to maybe open up and try it out and just try and let them see god in us as we were doing this as an indiscriminate act of kindness and we even paid to do this…. And we weren’t convicts. So we got to play games with the young kids, do crafts and a scavenger hunt around an estate. That was my work area but that wasn’t all of urban soul. I enjoyed playing hearts with Orla Phil and William every day and unfortunately I never won but I thoroughly enjoyed developing my skills! Add it to my intellectual card game list. The evening meetings were really good. I really liked listening to the speaker Mark Ritchie from Scotland and Jasper was good in the mornings. I really got into the worship and I really enjoyed it, the rend collective experiment were really good and I enjoyed singing movements… a lot. Also it got quite deep with the god part when nearly everyone was kneeled at the front of the place praying for all of their friends and I felt a godly presence there. Then the nights were fun. As well as reminiscing with old friends from previous years I made a lot of new friends and we bonded.. I did my devotionals and learned a lot and now I am sitting here in Glaslough looking forward to this week. It’ll be different being the leader this time but I worked with kids before so hopefully my experience can help make this week amazing for the kids! Thank you world… I love you!

Hello! Your favourite intern here, Orla! I loved Urban Soul. It was Wow. It was a great chance to show God’s love to Dublin. I loved people’s reactions to when we found out we were doing this for free. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? I was in Red 1. We painted a room in Dublin Christian Mission(DCM). This room will be used during the summer for their kids camps and during the school year, its used as a homework room for after-school clubs and a womens group meets there as well. So even though we didn’t meet the people that this room would be benefiting, we met some of the youth leaders who were very grateful for the work we were doing. So we got to work, the room had been green and we were changing it to white. We had Paul the painter on our team who knew what he was doing so that was great. So in between paint fights and random games and chants(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, RED1), we got loads of work done and by the end, we had a beautiful room. My group also loved singing songs on the luas and getting off at stops, doing the running man and getting back on in time. Ha. I loved talking to people. We were talking to these kids who go to DCM while waiting for the LUAS. A LUAS came and they had put a 5c coin on the track and when the LUAS left it had melted and made a new shape. So clever. The morning and evening meetings were great too. Rend Collective Experiment made worship an experience. I felt at Urban Soul we were changing what the community thought of our generation. I felt we were making a difference in people’s lives. Showing a piece of Jesus. After Urban Soul, I feel challenged to show God through my actions, that people I meet would see I have something different.

My first blog - exciting stuff!

So here I am, back in sunny Galway after induction and training, sat on my bed looking at the tottering piles of clothes in front of me and wondering how they are going to fit into my bag, let alone how they could possibly be construed as packing lightly… my family would be the first to tell you all that I cant pack lightly for a weekend, let alone for more than a month! They would also tell you that I am very talented at procrastination hence the blog entry instead of actually finishing packing…
This all aside I did want to get on here and blog away about the induction weekend. We were all planning to write a blog together on of the days but somehow we never got around to it so instead you lucky person get to listen to me (Susie) twittering on :D
I’m sure Barry and Orla will agree when I say that the mummy of the Interns (Rachel Bow) truly outdid herself cooking for us and providing us with personalised notebooks, hoodies, ice creams and devotionals, we all loved them so a huge thank you to her!!!
Between hundreds of card games, swan paddle boats on the Arklow river, trips to Tesco and a coffee shop we learned so much this weekend! People are so complicated and we can never hope to understand them fully, but this weekend learning about introverts, extroverts and all our different personality profiles we did definitely gain more understanding of how each other function and where we might best work together. I think on a personal level it was definitely eye opening for me, and scarily accurate too! We also learned about the different spiritual gifts and identified which ones we’ve been given, it will be really good to watch as we all grow this summer and learn to use our gifts more, encouraging each other in our strengths and working together to help in our weaknesses.
I’m hugely looking forward to Urban Soul starting tomorrow, it will be our first camp as interns and the start of a long stretch away from home - slightly daunting but also very exciting!
I should finish packing now (flip flops or sandals? Decisions decisions!) but before I do I’ll leave you with a few prayer requests we put together for this summer, supporting us through prayer is something we would all appreciate greatly!
Susie.

Prayer Requests
- Safety for leaders and campers on all the camps
- That the weather will be good (especially on outside based camps such as Urban Soul and CSSM)
- Energy for us all as we enter into a string of camps
- That God will help the main leaders on all the camps as they head into the final weeks of prep before them
- That God will faithfully provide opportunities for growth and for us to use our God given gifts
- That God will bless our mentors as they stand with us this summer