2/10/2011 – Unfortunately, I forgot to write down what I did on this particular Sunday, other than the fact I went to church. And so it may have to remain a mystery. A good guess would probably be that we went food shopping, tidied the house a bit, and then watched a movie, but who knows?
3/10/2011 – The icebreakers are finally over, and the real stuff begins. Our very first teaching session was ‘How to read your bible’ by my mentor for the year, Anna. Suffice to say it was quite handy. We then had our first fitness session. Now I don’t usually mind fitness in general. However I am not a runner, I am a swimmer. To say I was like a fish out of water, was, I felt, quite accurate. I took the role of bringing up the rear very seriously, with my slow bobbing ‘dad jog’ mixed with intervals of walking. Unfortunately our fitness instructor for the day used to train with the marines, or something to that effect, and it turned out that the longest run I’d probably done in 5 years was in fact my warm up. The only good thing about the first fitness is that the only way for me to go is up. After lunch we then had a session with Tim Owen where we discussed how the arts, music etc affect the culture we live in. David, Rebs and I had our first placement in the evening at Ivy church, helping out in the youth club there. Our first evening was quite easy, as Twelve24 (a schools band) were doing a gig, and so we were effectively just stewards for the first night.
4/10/2011 – Our second teaching of the week was by Tim Owen on ‘Character’. A quote I quite liked was “Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are a gift, good character is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece, thought by thought, choice, courage, and determination.” – John Luther. After lunch all the singers had a singing lesson each, and I imagine the dancers had a dance lesson etc. Some of us then hung around in the dance studio, and mucked about. In the evening David, Rebs and I had our first meeting to try and organize a youth café in the youth centre below us.
5/10/2011 – This morning’s teaching was titled ‘Improving your serve’ and was all about being ‘servant-hearted’, and looking at 3 main points; attitude, availability, and adaptability. I then had my first meeting with my mentor, which was cool. In the afternoon we then split off into our genetic ‘tracks’ (Urban, Creative, and Worship). Being on the worship track I spent the afternoon in a justice workshop with David, Kommy, Tom, and Jonny. Our workshop leader for the term is Hannah Atkins/Latty (depending on whether you use her stage name or marital name :P) and this term seems pretty exciting. We’re going to be putting on an event to raise awareness about a social justice issue, and then we’re all gonna be writing and recording our own songs which should be good, as well as some other stuff thrown in. When we got back home, Rebs and I went for a jog, as part of our fitness homework, which wasn’t too bad, but I still don’t like running :P Then we joined David at our Church Mentors’ house where we were helping them paint a few of their room white.
6/10/2011 – Thursdays are ‘track’ days, so I was with the Worship crew in the morning, and we had a talk on being humble. Something which is particularly important with the celebrity culture we live in. Effectively are you pursuing what God has called you to do, or are you pursuing fame? The way Alistair (the speaker) demonstrated this to us was by bringing in a bowl full of M&Ms and telling us the story of Van Halen who supposedly demanded all the brown M&Ms be removed. We then demonstrated our diva-less-ness by eating all colours of the M&Ms :) In the afternoon I had my first piano lesson, in which I was taught the basic basics of keys playing in a worship band setting. In the evening David, Rebs, Kane and I went over to someone in our church’s house for cell group. It was quite enjoyable, especially as Krispy Kremes were on the menu.
7/10/2011 – Friday we had our second teaching on identity with Emma Owen, and Hannah Atkins, who also played us some of her songs. In the afternoon I ended up being a taxi for Tiff and Beaver, cant remember why, but there you go. Heidi then came around our house to hang out, and later we went to join a few others at the Trafford centre pizza hut for Beaver’s birthday meal. We worked out it was cheaper to get a take away, and so we ended up eating our pizza in the back of Griffin’s van. 
