The latest team blog... from me!!

Just before Christmas it was my turn to do the fortnightly team blog for the Pais facebook page. Unfortunately, I got bogged down by all that was going on, starting writing it and then forgot to save it to dropbox when I decided not to take my laptop home for Christmas. So here is the latest blog, at last! Read, enjoy, and don't forget to find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/paisninorthcoast) and Twitter (NCoast_PaisNI) (and for those of you who don't know... social media is my role in the team so the more followers I get - the better!).

Hey guys,
Welcome back to our team blog! We hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed time with friends and family, as we did. We are now all back on the North Coast feeling refreshed and excited for the new term! We also have the pleasure of the company of Annette and Kristin from the Cork team for a few weeks.
First here’s a quick catch-up of what we got up to in those last few busy weeks before the holidays…
As you read in our last blog, we had to postpone December’s high school encounter week until January due to the schools being busy with exams. Instead, we took the opportunity to host a prayer room at one of the local high schools. We set up the room to make it inviting and appealing to the students, getting them to explore and discover the concept of prayer. We had several different stations representing different parts of prayer; a ‘please’ board, a ‘thank you’ board, a ‘pray for the world and the news’ wall, a ‘sorry’ activity station, an ‘identity’ reflection station, a reading space, and a comfortable quiet corner. We were open before and after school, break times and lunchtimes for three days.
Over the week we saw at least fifty students come through the doors to check out what was going on and it was really encouraging to see some of the same students coming back each day. We spent a lot of time chatting to the students and getting to know them, and got the opportunity to pray with a few of them. One of the team prayed for a girl who regularly comes to our lunch club as she had a sore wrist after spraining it and the next day she came back and said it was hardly hurting! Another team member prayed with a group of boys who were coming to hang out every day. After school they were asking around about when the prayer room was coming back, and have been coming to the lunch club ever since! It’s really exciting to see how open the students were to coming along to such a relaxed space and chatting to us and we can’t wait to host another prayer space there soon!
On the last day of term we had a big ‘Christmas Extravaganza’ event, in conjunction with a local primary school and one of our churches. The children came down to us when they finished school early where we did a talk/sketch on the real nativity story, played games as a big group and then split them up into age group to do various activities, including decorating gingerbread snowmen and making Christmas crackers. It was a great success and a fun time was had by all!
Next week (16th-21st January) we will be having our encounter mission week that we had to postpone back in December. We will be in a different high school every day for the week where will be giving assemblies, hosting giveaways and lunch-shows, taking over RE lessons and having prayer rooms. The week will culminate in two big events that we will be inviting all of the students to, one in Coleraine and one in Portstewart. The theme is ‘Who Loves You?’ and we’re hoping this simple question will provoke deeper thoughts and answers within the young people. Please join with us in praying for open minds and hearts, that students might find faith in God’s love and that the week runs smoothly.
Thank you for your support and prayers, and we wish you a very happy 2012!

Lauren :)

One Matters! Romania 2012

I have some exciting news... In July 2012 I'll be leading a mission team to Zalou in Romania! The mission trip is part our partnership with Exodus, a youth discipleship organisation based in Northern Ireland. In Coleraine they have what we call a Christian nightbase, where they run Saturday night events every week, ranging from UV parties to acoustic nights, for local teenagers. The Pais office is in their building and we volunteer at their Saturday night events and other things they do and we promote the events in schools.
Every summer Exodus run mission trips to various locations, and the teams have weekly meetings in the run up to trip as part of the discipleship programme. There are four courses to choose from depending on where the young person is at in their faith; Explore, Exchange, Express and Extend. Pais agreed that we would take one of these teams this year and the staff thought I would be best suited to lead the team, with Raffi as my co-worker.
We'll be taking an Explore team which will be made up of approximately 10-12 young people, some who are Christians and many who aren't. It gives them the chance to make a difference locally and globally, to explore the issues of life and experience the challenge of another culture. In Romania we'll spend a couple of days at Bush Camp, and then be doing practical things like running a children's club and feeding local families, all the while building relationships with the people in the community we come into contact with. Over the next month we'll be looking for teenagers to invite onto our team and receiving applications. We're really looking forward to seeing who God has lined up to come with us! We'll then start the weekly meetings mid-February until we go in July. During this time we will also be fundraising as a team. If you would like more information on the fundraising or want to donate to the team please email me on laurenfry@hotmail.co.uk.
Every year has a different theme, with this year's being One Matters. It's about these young people having one chance to go on this one team, united for one cause to go this one summer and make a difference.
Ephesians 4:4-6 "There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

To find out more information or apply for a team visit... http://exodusonline.org.uk/small-groups/teams/2010-team-details.php
And you can check out the promo video here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrYYxtSR9eU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Lauren :)