A week in the life of a youth-worker...

Last Friday night... Had the youth round for the Next Level meeting. Fun and games followed by small group time. One of the lads lets us know that his mum pulled a knife on him earlier in the week when he refused to give her money to buy drink. We need to arrange to meet him later in the week to see what he wants us to say to her. Another lad confides that his Dad has been knocking him around a bit this week.

Saturday afternoon... Invite 3 of the lads round to mow the lawn - we try to generate employment opportunities whenever we can, even if they are only very small scale at the moment. They seem to suffer from a bit of 'weed-blindness' but other than that, the bald square in the middle of the lawn, and the wonky edges, we were quite pleased with the job.

Sunday Morning... The youth are inviting the church to help them with an outreach to famillies they know who don't have enough food and clothing. The youth came up with a lot of the ideas themselves - a major breakthrough and something we were very proud of. The girl supposed to be doing the announcement bottles it and runs out of church before giving the announcement - something to work on next week!

Tuesday afternoon- Computer training lessons, starting with the adults and then later in the afternoon, 3 of the youth. They are doing really well and we have spotted a lot of potential in one of the girls, who we are really trying to encourage to stay at school and consider taking a further education course of some kind at college afterwards. Sabelo asks for help with a school project - we are very proud of him because just 2 moths ago he took the decision to drop out of school before graduating. We encouraged him to go back and he now seems to be taking it seriously and enjoying it.

Wednesday - Childrens' outreach in the new Mobile Ministry unit. Another crazy afternoon in the heat but reaching many precious kids. They love the songs and games - so do we, despite the exhaustion afterwards! Meet with the youth who help us out and start planning the muppet show for next week.

Thursday - Meet another member of the youth group to plan a CV for her. She currently works selling drink from her parent's home, and we are hoping she will find a job of her own at the age of 21. She left school in year 9 (3rd year at High School) but by looking at all her work with the church it was an encouraging afternoon showing her all the things she can do. Encourage her that it was the right decision to break off a relationship with her boyfriend who is taking drugs and pressurising her. Talk about HIV awareness - since the New Year there has been a big campaign on television - "Say No till we know", which is helping to raise awareness of this killer disease.

Friday - We'll be picking up 4 of the youth this afternoon to make sandwiches for this evening's homeless outreach - the first time that we have done this with the youth. It will be an exciting evening - we'll fall into bed about midnight, after dropping the kids home and unwinding - tired but knowing that there's lots of good stuff going on.

PS somewhere between all of this is when we plan the discipleship course, 2 sermons coming up later this month, sunday school planning and team meetings - and sleep! it's busy but wonderful!