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a life in a list: Kate Davies

Kate Davies
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

A day in my life

Thursday – the busiest day in my week in terms of contact time as I run two projects: ID and Rm1, both at Coombe Boys School.

9am – I get everything I need for the day ahead ready – resources, planning, lunch ...

10am – Off to school

10.15am – Arrive in Rm1 and take some time to think about the session ahead – how to set the room up, what resources we need

10.30am – My team arrive – Andy and Anne who are on the Gap Team and Eddie from the Community Church – and we prepare the space and talk through the session

11.55am - The bell rings and in a flurry of conversation, coats and bags our group arrive and the session begins.

12.30pm – The bell rings, the young people leave and quiet resumes. We pack things away and debrief what happened in the session – particular conversations with the young people, which activities worked the best, things to do differently next week.

1.00pm - The team have gone and I have an hour and a half before we need to set up for Rm1. I have my lunch and then take the opportunity to do the jobs that there is never enough time to do – tidying resources, making a shopping list for cooking ingredients, filing papers.

2.30pm – Anne and Andy return for Rm1. We set up the room – Wii, kettle, art activities, pool table and sort out the cooking ingredients .

3.00pm – Again the bell rings and the quiet is filled with the conversations of the young people as they arrive bringing in stories of their day and asking what we are doing during the session.

5.30pm – With games of Fifa and pool finished the last young people leave Rm1. We tidy away and debrief the session.

5.45pm – Time to go home!

My November

Ki Hyoung Kim
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Rm1 Hollyfield is going well, with the young people Anna, myself and Bex got on well with each other. There is one girl called N who is settling in so well, after feeling awkward and uncomfortable in the first few weeks. I remember when she first arrived, she had a look on her face when she looked at me which was all “silly boy”. Since that time she has changed and everytime I see her she has a really pretty smile. In addition to N there is one boy and two girls's who are now in a kind of Rm1 love triangle. As the weeks develop we’ll enjoy watching how they get on and play together

My specific job at Rm1 is cooking, which has not been an easy job for me to take on. My first efforts were burnt and another day I added too much soda, leading Kurstie to say it was poison! I have found that hard! I will persist when I get the opportunity, trying not to poison any of the young people I work with!

One of the other projects I do is Urban Nites Surbiton, and that to is getting more comfortable for me to be at. When Bex (who leads the project) asked me to arrange the games a few weeks ago I brought badminton. I was pleased to see some of the young people joining in and playing.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for me and the team. Everything is going well, my English is improving and I feel that I can make a contribution in many of the projects I am involved in.

best wishes
John(ki hyoung kim)

Pray for New Malden

Andy Norris
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Hey! just thought i'd drop an insight into one of the major things at Rm1 at Coombe boys which occurred yesterday. We decided to do a collage activity in which the lads had to rip,stick, and annotate images onto A3 paper.

The collage consisted of things they liked things they disliked, and the more personal things such as things which were of a significant importance towards the boys, such as family or a place which was specifically special to them. It was fantastic to see once all the boys had finished the collage the different contrasts between what was special to them. Although the majority tended to make a football collage of their favorite team (which by the way wasn't the idea!) some did actually make some deep and personal reflections. Many shared of how their parents were split up, one boy described how his dad would just randomly buy games consoles for no reason, almost as an effort to buy him over from his mother. If you could pray for this boy that would be brill!

I am taking a number of the lads to play football at goals in tolworth so if you could pray that there are no injuries and that relationships really grow.

Could you also pray the urban nites new malden team is given direction by God in which way to go about our tuesday nights. We have been going out on several occasions and just not finding anyone,or even finding kids then never seeing them again.

Cheers Dudes in a bizzal
C2 Andy x

2 Stories in 1 Week

Rob Byles
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

So on the 8th November, Oxygen had the first 'Vent' of the G8 team. I had been lead contact for this, and at the tim I took on the job I was very excited about being able to inject my self into the event. However, things soon got complicated...

Bands, didn't reply, bands were busy, bands eventually on the bill pulled out with days to go, most of the regular volunteers were unavailable, I couldn't decide what to wear... I had no end of problems! But God was very good to me - one the first and had fallen into place, they were then incredibly active in making it a success and I couldn't have done it with out them. So many thanks again to 'Upon Depths of despair' - your pessimistic name does not reflect your optimistic hearts!

The gig was a great success, and God clearly worked - The guys in the prayer tent really were allowed to really speak into people's lives by the power of the spirit, we got good numbers for the first one (85), and it was safe and fun. Heavy even for my tastes, but the whole thing was a great experience. And a good friend of mine (Phil GC, who did Oxygen in it's first year and introduced me to it) turned up, further increasing my enjoyment of the evening, and prolonging it to 3am...

In addition to this week I had my first 'Going Deeper' session wherein we spend time with particular young people outside the projects. I took some of my Kingsnympton boys for Pizza and the conversation flowed easily throughout the two hours. From finding out where they stood on the 'God thing' purely by how they reacted to being in a church) to the ins and outs of wrestling we covered a great range of topics that have made talk whilst on projects a much more viable option. This spells good things in transforming Kinsnympton from being a purely entertaining environment to one where people feel they are cared for and invested into. In my mind, that desperately needs to happen. Therefore, I have every faith that it will. Mark my words.

More Going Deeper: on Surbiton's Alpha & Kingston's Kingsnympton estates.

i love kingsnympton 016.jpg
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

The next going deeper challenges facing Oxygen are to find churches and groups to take on the work on Surbiton's Alpha and Kingston's Kingsnympton Estate. In both these areas, we want to build on the good foundation of relationships laid down in the previous years.

Please pray for us as over the coming months we continue to see how God is opening doors to make this possible and how we can follow through, taking measured but inspired steps of faith

Going Deeper at Christchurch New Malden

Nathan Larkin: External Youthworker, Christchurch New Malden
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Having moved from being a Gap Year to church worker, Nathan has faced some significant personal and work related challenges in his first few months of his post. Having found that his target young people had disappeared during the summer, he has been hard at work with the Oxygen Gap Year workers walking and praying around the streets of New Malden looking for God's direction and young people to make contact with.

During this time of trial he has also faced a personal loss as a good friend and mentor back in Ireland was suddenly taken ill and unfortunately passed away. Despite these difficult first few weeks Nathan has started to make some new contacts with young people and he remains focused on New Malden's young people seeking to deeper and further in discovering and following Jesus.

Please pray for Nathan as he continues to rebuild local contacts and as he considers

Going Deeper at St Peters Norbiton

Wit Hong: External Youthworker, St Peters Norbiton
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Going Deeper at St Peters Norbiton
Wit started the year having to restart Rock SOlid with a complete new team of workers as Debbie James who had previously voluntariuly run ROck Solid took time off to have a baby. During the first few months Wit has not only established contact with the young people, but has also started a weekly discussion group that has already covered topics including death, life, knife crime and belonging! She is now working towards establishing a weekly Sunday afternoon youth service/ drop in on the Cambridge Estate as well starting a new evening youth service at St Peters. Pray for Wit as she takes this work onto the next steps, as she seeks to establish the new services and going deeper discussions

Butterfly vs. evil spiderman

30102008209
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Suburban soul- an impression

For four days in October half term oxygen is very involved in helping run Suburban Soul. Organised by various churches in Kingston and New Malden. Everyone is eagerly joining in, whether as a guitarist in the worship band or as rumba dancers in the old people's home.

During the week some of us had more guts than others and faced up to the challenge of creative biscuit decoration and are still lying helpless in bed as a result: not tough enough to survive the enormous and inavoidable consumption of blue and pink icing sugar without scathe. Right at the beginning it was clear what my post of danger was to be: face painting. Now this may not seem to amount much at first sight, but have you ever tried to paint a spider's web onto the face of a restless three-year-old, or to convince a seven-year-old girl that a blue butterfly is just as pretty as a pink one, the pink paint having run out? Then again one has the limitation that there should be no horrid faces. Of course, no child wants to look like a ghost or a monster or a vampire.

Luckily, superheroes never look scary, and if you use enough glitter, even evil spiderman looks like a butterfly.

Finding ID in Tolworth

Katie Friend
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Hello there! I would really appreciate prayer as I begin to lead the Tolworth ID project on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! I am very excited about this program. I spent some time last week outlining goals for the group, and look forward to working towards those goals, with the help of some truly excellent volunteers. :)

I am hoping, through the course of the rest of this year, to help them learn to recognize and express their emotions, present themselves well to others, discover their personalities, make things around them beautiful on a limited budget, and gain body awareness through dance. Thank you for your prayers and support!

What is Rm1 in Korean?

Seung Kwan Kim
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Hi, I wanted to give you a quick update so you could pray for me. I am please to report that most of my projects are mostly fine. Further to the prayer request from a couple of weeks ago in Korean Club, I'm having a good relationship with those guys, and which is really great.

However this week the Korean work is set to grow as for in a new development I will begin work with Korean Boys who are attending in Coombe boy school. This is an exciting new focus for Oxygen’s Korean work, instead of working with young people after school, I am providing support to the Korean students around the school day – providing mentoring, support and help with their English. I also hope in time to be able to encourage them to come along to Rm1 and get to know us there. From there I hope over future weekend to run other events such as talent shows, basketball competitions and the alike.

So this is my prayer request for this week

Working with Korean young teenage boys is sometimes really difficult, they often are closed and don’t want to chat. Could you therefore pray for relationship between me and Korean guys.

Pray too for this new focus for Oxygen’s work, that it would grow, have a great impact and that many Korean teenagers, not just in Coombe Boys, but across the Borough would be able to be supported