Teen Street

Wow, can't believe that Teen Street happened over two weeks ago... time flies! I had an absolutely fantastic time at Teen Street! It was great to get to see so many old friends and also to do something useful. Waiting for a big white ship which never seems to be arriving is frustrating, so Teen Street gave me the opportunity to do some more practical stuff, and to fulfil my purpose of serving others.

I spent my days sewing, painting, collecting information for statistical purposes and doing other people's laundry!

Here is a picture of me sewing a 'green' screen (used for audio-visual purposes - just like when they do the weather report on TV!)
Took my sewing machine to Teen Street and spent most of the rest of the week sewing not just one, but two of these green screens, each 4m x 3m! Both had to have ties on two sides so that they can be hung on a truss for use.

Here I am using my painting talents! Yes, part of the programme called for some Viking shields, so my friend Sabine crafted them out of wood (she is a skilled carpenter by trade) and then I had fun painting them!
We had to get very created with the finishing touches, using paper plates and bowls covered in aluminium foil as the centre and covering round cardboard circles with foil as the 'buttons'.

These are the finished articles being 'modelled' by Ant & Bine (Sabine) Pritchett. Same ones whose wedding I went to at the end of June!
Thought the shields turned out quite well! Even though I say it myself!

AIDSLink which is an international ministry of OM were at Teen Street this year, sharing with the teenagers about HIV/AIDS etc, and trying to dispel some of the 'myths' that surrounds HIV/AIDS. In order to help 'educate' the youth of Europe on this subject, a questionnaire was distributed for the teens to complete. I, among others, spent time working through these questionnaires collecting statistics on how European teenagers really view AIDS. We were all shocked at the ignorance there seems to be in how you can contract HIV, in the number of Christian teenagers that think it is absolutely fine to have sex before marriage, as long as you love the person, and that they think that they will NEVER be at risk of contracting HIV. Unfortunately, they are not alone, many young people around the world have not been taught the truth about AIDS.

And now to the laundry.... yes, I would come home on the train in the evening from Teen Street loaded down with laundry, throw it in the machine and first thing in the morning I would turn the machine on and get it done. Just before rushing out again, I would hang it all around my apartment to dry, returning it to its owner two days later all nicely folded! Thankfully, the weather was a bit colder and so the heating would come on and dry everything much faster!

So those were my adventures of Teen Street.

The theme from Teen Street this year was 'CONTAGIOUS'. If you want to see and read more about this year's Teen Street, go to: http://germany.teenstreet.om.org/

After Teen Street I spent a little bit of time doing some hospitality, which I so enjoyed! I had one of the AIDSLink ladies stay for a few days and then walked her to the bus stop at 4.30am so she could catch the bus to get a plane to Sweden. I also had another friend that I met in Trogir, Croatia, staying for a few nights, and the following morning I had to walk her to the bus stop at 4.30am! I think the regulars on that bus wondered what was going on!

I was then back in the office, trying to keep myself busy, but now I am off to the Netherlands to our annual summer Global Orientation (GO) Conference. This is where a bunch of new people join OM and are orientated to the organisation and the areas that they will be working in. This year 231 new workers are joining us and many of them will be joining the Logos Hope project which is exciting!

So, watch this space for an update from the GO Conference... until then....