Profile: Kane Flaherty

Name: Kane Anthony Flaherty

Age: 19

Date of Birth: 05/04/1992

Relationship: Single

Place of Origin: Salford

In Jessica's Life Because: Housemate

This is Kane Flaherty.

He is my housemate in Salford, and despises having his picture taken. However I was lucky and managed to catch a shot of him looking slightly like a disney princess dreaming of rescue from his tower. He is currently studying BA Hons Theology at Nazarene Theological College (University of Manchester), and last year did an internship at Langworthy Community Church. This lovable character has taken on the role of 'Papa' in the Salford house, and is the patriarchal member of the Salford Crew. On our whiteboard he is described as: Intelligent, Wise, Gifted, Creative, Kind, Funny, Caring, Mature, Smile, Laugh, Great Speaker, Chosen, Humble, Blessed and a Blessing, and Youth Work. Not all of these are however adjectives. He is a pessimistic in hopes of becoming an optimistic, though this is usually only possible if he has a coffee in the morning. If i were to describe his humour, i'd say that he would be excellent in the role of a pantomime dame, or a pompous old man with too much money, or a cat. Kane would on the other hand describe himself as an owl, which fits in with his nocturnal nature. Kane chose an owl because he thinks he is a wise old owl. He is neither old or an owl, but this doesn't bother him too much. Occasionally he has the temperament of a toddler who was denied some sweets, but this is what we love about him. His facial expressions are particularly loved by fellow housemate David.

Genetik Week 2

17/09/2011 – Our second Saturday at my new house. We had a lie in, and then decided to rearrange the living room/kitchen area, so that is has basically flipped itself, but it makes it easier to move the chairs to watch a movie and makes the kitchen/lounge look more inviting and its easier to get to the washing machine, so lots of pluses. We also went to the Trafford centre for the first time and had a Zizzi meal, and looked around the many many shops there. We also bought a couple of bits and bobs from Asda including our new plants Boris and Daisy the orchid.

18/09/2011 – This was the kids service at church, and so we had kid games in the service, mostly involving foam fish. We then went over to the Gorton house (where Jess, Gemma, and Abbie live) for yet another social. Some of us then went on to go to Audacious which is a church of about 500 people. It was quite a good night, though I did feel the whole thing was generally a bit too long for my liking. It was a still a good evening out with other Genetiks.

19/09/2011 – The second week of Genetik induction, and we had Andy Hawhorne giving us the story of how The Message started up, and where it’s going. It was pretty interesting. We then had a really good talk from Andy Smith on what it means to worship and giving glory all to God. I found it really helpful. Especially as it’s really easy to become proud when you’re doing something creative. The picture he gave that I found really helpful, was that of you being a colander, and you get coated in some of the glory, but it all goes back to God. We then prayed together for encouraging words from God, which was very encouraging lol and hit the nail on the head in a lot of cases on where each of us were :)

20/09/2011 – On this day we had a prayer/worship session with just the Genetiks, which was cool. We then had a talk from someone who is involved in leading the Eden movement (Christians moving into tough estates to build relationships and make a positive difference to the lives of the people living there). And after lunch we had a talk on the basics of Child Safeguarding. This day was also Heidi’s birthday, and so once again we were at the Harpurhey house in the evening partying it up, with a special request from Heidi to have my cheesy ipod music. Cha Cha Slide got the party started :) It was a really fun night and we all got to dress up, and gave Heidi some CD’s and a card which said ‘To the Best Nana’ or something as it was the biggest card the person in charge could find lol.

21/09/2011 – Wednesday was our city centre tour day. And so we toured the city lol. We were shown where some cool clothing areas are, where the good bars are, where you’re best to avoid on a Saturday night, and a cathedral and library. I think my highlight of the tour though was being able to see an original segment of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was pretty cool, especially with it being over 1000 years old and all that jazz. We then all went bowling together. Suffice to say I was pretty rubbish that game. I did however discover a talent in giving people massages and back tickles. So quite a productive day.

22/09/2011 – Today was Testimonies day, and so we all shared our testimonies, well as many as could fit into the day. We had 6 people left over. It was really amazing to hear everyone’s story, they were all really interesting and different. I do feel I could have told mine better, and so I may do a blog entry on my testimony. Watch this space. So yes. And then we came home and found out that someone had decided to burn down our council bin. There is a malicious bin burner in Salford. Lock up your daughters. We were wondering what the funny burning smell was. I thought it was a failed attempt at a full English breakfast.

(<--- where our bin used to be, and the smoke trail)

23/09/2011 – Fridays are half days, and a chance to reflect on the week, and have a talk from someone. This week we had a talk on identity, what culture says about us, what we says about ourselves, and what God says about us from Emma Owen. Yes this is the very same Emma Owen who was in the Tribe and did some presenting on God TV. Look at all this name dropping. Lol. Then me and Rebecca headed off to the Trafford centre to try and find a mirror and a clock and generally look around. We probably then watched a movie :P

In the beginning... Genetik Week 1

10/09/2011 – The day I moved in to my new house in Greater Manchester/Salford. I arrived around 1.30pm after a nice lie in at Carolyn and Jonathan’s house. I met my housemates, and was given a tour of the house. I’m living above a youth centre/café, so can use those facilities when the youth are not there, which is handy for inviting people around. My bedroom is having work done to it and so I haven’t been able to move in yet, and so I’m currently sharing a room with Rebecca, and our room is a tip, since wecant really unpack properly till I move into my own room.

We spent out first night together cleaning the whiteboard in our kitchen/lounge, which was quite a task, as it was covered in sticky tape, and was generally filthy. We also gained a pictoral pet cat, Gordon or Gordonerta depending on the gender. We also had dinner with our Eden mentors Abby and Lewis.

My Housemate Kane Flaherty was present in my life from this day on.

11/09/2011 – We had our first service at our new church, which starts at 12.30pm and gives out a free lunch, which is nice :) and then we probably watched a movie, it was either Eli or Annie… can't remember.

12/09/2011 – This was the first day at The Message HQ, where all the teaching and stuff happens, and so therefore was the first day I met people who aren’t my housemates. I tried driving to the HQ using lots of back roads to avoid traffic, however I ended up getting a bit lost a couple of times, and so we decided to rethink the route from then on. When we arrived we joined in with the morning office prayers which last 30mins. We then went off with just the other Genetik students and we played a few ‘getting to know each other’ games.

In the afternoon we were sorting out and filling in housing benefit forms, and getting them ready to send off. And then, even though we had only known each other for 7 or so hours, we all decided to gather in the largest house and have a social, which then turned into a cool worship session with the entire Genetik crew. It was defiantly a good start to the course.

13/09/2011 – Our first Tuesday consisted of having a ‘VIP Brunch’ and a team challenge. The VIP brunch was a chance to meet some of the other people that work at The Message, and are usually behind a desk or out doing other interesting work, like prison programmes, designing magazines, or writing a new play etc. It was also a good opportunity to eat free food :) We then had a team challenge in which we had tofind a way to drop an egg from a first floor window without it breaking. The catch was we were only allowed to use things that we found lying around the building or in the rubbish (trash if you are American :P). My team ended up using a sandwich bag filled with water with a cup inside to hold the egg. It sort of worked but not really :P

14/09/2011 – On Wednesday we had a controversial ‘What Do You Believe?’ session. We were asked questions such as ‘Do you think capital punishment is ok?’ ‘Is it ok for women to lead in church?” etc. However the topic that started to cause the most heat was whether or not people believed in Guardian Angels. Go Figure. However the more EXCITING part of the day was meeting the one and only Matt Redman. Yes you read that right. I will admit I was a bit star stricken for the first 30 mins or so lol. Especially when he was like ‘tell me your story, why you doing worship, what do you like about worship, what do you play, what’s your favourite music etc’. But I think I mangaged to get over it eventually lol. I had however decided that day to wear something quite quirky, and not my usual ‘I cant be bothered’ look. Interesting first impressions I imagine. The goal this year is to write an album with the other worship students under the guidance and tutoring of Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, and Andy Smith (the resident Message worship leader). Exciting stuff!

15/09/2011 – Prayer Day number 1. You can probably guess what this involved. In a nutshell we had some time of worship, led by Matt while he was up in Manchester, we then had people from The Message sharing what is happening in various areas of the organization and then we were praying into those areas. We then had a talk/sermon from Beth Redman, and then she talked to us about a charity she is involved in which is fighting human trafficking (www.thea21campaign.org) check it out.

16/09/2011 – Prayer Day number 2. Similar to day 1, Andy Smith was leading worship, Andy Hawthorne talked to us about the new Enterprise Centre that The Message are preparing to open in a years time, and everyone prayed for all the Genetik students. Andy Hawthorne then treated us all to a meal at Gustos, which was pretty cool. We basically took over the whole restaurant. My house then invited everyone to ours, as we have a youth centre below us, which can convert into a small cinema and café. All was going well until my housemate Rebecca fell down a few stairs and had to be taken to A and E for her wrist. Another student on our course who was a first aid-er was pretty sure Rebs had broken her wrist. On first appearances (based on the bruising etc) the hospital peeps thought it actually had multiple fractures. However when you pray things happen. Especially when you have 20 people back at your house all worshiping and praying for healing. And low and behold, no breaks were found on the x-ray! Not even any hairline fractures. The x-ray nurse person was pretty shocked. I wasn’t lol. Thanks God :)

I Didnt Know These People 5 Weeks Ago :P

It's been 4 and 1/2 weeks since i moved to Manchester, and i havent really written any blogs since i've been here, and so following this blog will be an update/written depiction of Genetik so far and the people in it :)

Here we all are in Albert's Square in the city centre, sitting on the Albert Memorial 21/09/11

The idea was to do a weekly update, but as it's been 4 weeks and i haven't actually posted anything, 4 wonderful updates will be coming your way very soon. Though hopefully after this week, i'll remember to update my blog :P

i'll keep the weeks in separate blogs though, so it's easier for viewing and such things.

Welcome to a more updated version of my world :)