Two lovely views at two lovely weekends

A few weeks ago I had the amazing privilege of waking up to 2 amazing views and these are my favourite photos from each. From countryside to seaside in a week (not forgetting I then went back to the valleys a week later!) sometimes I'm just reminded to step back and thank God for this crazy life he's given me!

Two residentials in as many weekends! First I took my Romania team to Carrowmena, just a short drive south of here. The team has come together amazingly, after lots of fuss and both gaining and losing members. Just that weekend we were welcoming yet another member into our team and the lovely Nicole fitted right in and completed our little puzzle. We now have 8 girls and 1 guy on the team and we're all really excited for what the next 4 months will bring! We took them away on residential to get to know each other better and spend some time hanging out and having fun. It was so great to just be in the middle of the countryside where there was a lovely sense of peace over the team, and we were really fortunate with the weather so got to go out on a walk. We had a great weekend full of banter, laughs, sunshine and God and it started to feel like we're a family :)
The following weekend I went to a conference for teenage girls in Whitepark Bay. It's called Beautiful weekend and is run by an organisation called The Big House who specialise in helping teenagers with self-esteem problems, eating disorders, depression, self-harm etc. I took 2 girls along (1 from youth club, 1 from church) as it seemed like a really good chance for them to really find out who they are in God, that He made them beautiful and loves them unconditionally. It was a fabulous weekend in an absolutely gorgeous spot right next to the beach! The views were perfect for admiring God's great creation and letting His presence move among us. The team were fantastic, openly sharing their testimonies with the girls and using practical things to help them release the negative thoughts and feelings. I was so grateful for the ways in which they poured into my girls and showed them so much love and I'm so happy to say they both got a lot out of it! One had been struggling a lot recently with feeling unworthy of God's love and had a great breakthrough where she let Him back in and accepted His mercy and grace, and the other made a decision to follow God for the first time and told me she felt like she'd been lost but was now found!

Weekends like these remind me of how lucky I am and how thankful I should be for the privilege of pouring into young people's lives. My prayer for the next few months is that God would continue to use me and I'd see more young people come to know God, to know who they really are to God and to deepen their relationship with him further. I pray that God would give me the words, boldness and love for the people I meet, and I ask that you would join with me in prayer :)

Team Romania 2012

As you may already know, this summer I will be taking a group of 9 teenagers on a mission trip to a small village called Zalau in Romania. There we will be leading a children's club, doing practical work in the community and taking food parcels to local families. Our aim is to spread God's love simply by serving the people of Zalau and getting to know them, all the while exploring a different culture and what we can do to help those in need.
Our weekly team meetings have been going really well so far and everyone has bonded well as a team, especially during our residential last weekend. We have also started our fundraising planning and have a few events coming up over the next few weeks. As a team we need to raise £3,400 before we go! All funds raised will go towards the work we will be doing out there, particularly for materials such as toys for the children's club, paint or bricks for practical work, or anything else we may need.
You can donate to us at www.justgiving.com/romaniateam24, or you can simply text 'TMRM94 £(?-insert amount)' to 70070.
All support is greatly appreciated and every little bit will go a long way to helping us to make a difference!
Thank you,
Lauren & Team Romania x

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 :)