Bits of Rough: Renewal in Derbyshire.

This past week I got to spend my time in Derbyshire (Dah-buh-sure), England for the first Time for God conference as well as a week long course called The Christian Life and Mission (CLM).

First things first. Some of you may be wondering what on earth Time For God is. Time For God, or TFG, is an organization that YAGM works through in the United Kingdom. So after I found out that I would be serving in the UK I then had to fill out another application of sorts for TFG so that they could best place me within the country. That is how I was I was placed in Edinburgh.

Secondly, the CLM course. The weekend was spent with TFG and the rest of the YAGMs basically just catching up and reflecting on our time so far. The rest of the week was full of studying. I am willing to admit that I was quite reluctant once I heard that I would be taking a course for the week, but I have found some definite good in the past week. After 16 years of school I have been enjoying not having homework or to read because I have to, but that has all changed now. I now have 4 assignments and some reading to do before the class meets up again in March for another session. At the end, I will receive a certificate for the course. The content of the week was a mash up of lectures on Luke's gospel, calling, and going out and serve. I, personally, found the course not to be challenging in the academic sense, but rather is approaching mission in a completely different way.

CLM was taught in a more conservative, literal way of viewing mission work. Something that I find to be the opposite of YAGM. Granted, I'm not saying it's bad, but it's just different and eye opening. It was a week of accompanying people whose expression of faith is much, much different from mine and one that I mentally and spiritually struggle with, but within this I was able to meet some pretty sweet people. Most of the participants were around 18 years old, except for the YAGMs who made up a large majority of the class. That was great. So, now I get to dust off the old student skills and work on not procrastinating. Wish me luck!

Thirdly, Derbyshire is such a quaint, little English town. It is what you would envision if told to think about a cute English town. The community was present and so lovely to be a part of for the week. We were able to explore the ridges as well as the local pub, coffee shop, and neighborhood. There are pictures below.

Fourth, seeing my YAGM family was so renewing. I tell you, this is a life-giving group of people. It was encouraging to be able to be completely honest and real with how things are through this journey in the UK and to understand one another. I received my first real hug in over a month this week and many, many more. We were our silly selves who laughed continuously and cried while saying goodbye...until January when our next TFG conference is. My souls already longs for that day. In the words of Winnie the Pooh: "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." So I come back to Edinburgh feeling refreshed and knowing I'm not alone here. I feel so incredibly loved by the group of people and know that we think of each other daily.

Here are some photos from the week: