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.