We kicked off our 2nd eq:mission 7am on 13th November. Once again only the YfC team knew where they were going as we started to drive out of Nottingham onto the M1, M42 and M5. We eventually ended up going through Bristol and ending up in Bath. We were being hosted by Bath YfC and St Michael's Twerton who were opening their rec house.
In the end 8 of us came from Nottingham to help St. Michael's connect with a local community close to the Church.
After lunch we went up onto the estate and started knocking on doors offering to do a free car wash. There was plenty of variety in the responses we received from no response to be invited in by the guy of the house before being kicked out by the woman of the house. Although saying that the conversation we had with the guy we had after this incident revealed we had given him a nudge in thinking about God and faith. At one point we had some children helping us wash the cars which was great and got offered cups of tea and coffee. While some of the team continued to wash cars and invite people to the opening of the rec house that evening, a few of us went down to the high street to offer free prayer and giving people chance to ask why we are a Christian. Although not a huge take up we had a great conversation with a girl from the local university who chatted to the group about how she was feeling lonely, and said she would maybe try out the church in the next few weeks.
After a nice McDonald's dinner we set up the rec house for the evening. There was a nail bar, DJ, recording studio with instruments, pizza, drinks and other food. there was a really good turn up and we were able to chat to a number of children, young people and families that we had met previously in the day, as well as some new faces that we invited in off the streets. There was a couple of young people who used to go to church as children but had stopped coming along since they started secondary school, but were interested in coming back along, along with a lad who was already planning to start getting involved in some music stuff on the drums and being involved in the St. Michael's community.
After a good nights sleep we then joined the St Michael's congregation for morning worship and then ran the youth group and helped with the children's work. For the youth group some of the group facilitated a discussion on what how we could bring Jesus into our schools and colleges.
We then finished with lunch before heading back to Nottingham.
Over the weekend Richard Wilson (the leader of St. Michael's) really encouraged the team by telling us that without them coming over none of what happened would have happened. It was an awesome time in which each one of the team saw not only how Jesus worked through them but also how mission can develop each of our faith journeys.
A big thanks to Melissa, Luke and Tristan from Bath YfC for their organisation and hospitality, and to Richard, his family and all at St. Michael's for letting us serve them.
For more pics see our facebook page www.facebook.com/nottinghamyfc
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