the ratings questin?

Recent news aricles suggest that games should be rated by age in the same way that films are. do we think that this would help our young people, would they pay atteention to it, and here's the big one, what difference would it make to what we provide for our young people in outh clubs and places? Would we or could we stick to the rtings that they might put on games. It's a challenge and a thought, because if they rate those games, and part of me thinks they should, then we have to take that into account in our youth work as well.

Different situations!!!!

Isn't it interesting the different responses from different young people when you put them in situations they aren't necessarily used too. Let me encourage you over this term, let your young people experience different things, face new situations, and then reflect on these with them, and just see what their responses are. You never know, they might just enlighten you as well.

positive and negative

How many of you can think of situations where something negative can be turned into something positive? Hee we are at good friday,and the murder of Jesus on this day is refered to as a good day. Of course this is true, but can you imagine being there on that day, could you think of what was happening as good? Are there things today, in our lives, or in our work, that we think are bad, tough or wrong, but yet, they just might be good?

Salt or light?

Here is an interesting question as far as our youth work is concerned. Because to me a light attracts, it stands out trying to attract people to it, whereas salt actually flavours, gets involved with what it is changing. So which approach do we have for our youth work, are we the light attracting people, or are we the sat that is involved in theirlives and flavouring what is happening in their life? Interesting thought?

How they speak

I was recently having an interesting conversation with a taxi driver, yes indeed, a very interesting one. He was interested in the work that I do with young people, and wanted to know more about it. We got on to the subject of how people view young people, and the way they are, and he made a point in the way they speak that I had not thought off, but is quite obvious really. Sometimes people will judge young people for being loud, and always shouting, r wanting to put their point across and this taxi driver suggested that rather than being awkward, or ignorant, just maybe that is the only way that they can get themselves heard at home. I thought thiat this was a really interesting idea, and will be following this up in other work that I do at some point. Just makes you think, that the way people appear on the outside, may be because of other reasons, as oposed to the reasons tat come to yor mind straight away.

Still have things to learn

This is one of the amazing things about our job as youthworkers. Even if we are the people leang the session and the person leading the young people, I don't think that any of us would say that we have all the right answers at the right time. The great, and yet challenginthing about our job is that different situations, experiences and attitudes all bring different things to our life and our job. So is it wrong for me to suggest that we should not addopt the position of knwoing everything when we work with young people,but allow ourselves also to learn, especially if we are commiting ourselves to go on a jounrey with them through life.

The challenging questons?

I was in a class in a school recently and they had a few minutes at the end of the lesson, so I asked if anyone had any questions. Daft, I know, of course they did, and the questions they had were deep meaningful and challenging. What I was left with, was the thought of the stuf I had done in the lesson may have meant somethng to them, but they also had their own quesitons, their own exploration to go on, and was I trying to teach them what I wanted them to know, or was I trying to help them along that journey of exploration. Wat do we all do, do we give thoughts, and ideas, or do we see where our young people are going on their journey and try and impact that journey with meaningful stuff? Jesus always seemed to meet people in that journey, and engage with where they were,and where they needed to be, and I want to aim to be in that place as well.

All in a story

So which menas more to our young people today, a picture or a story. I would suggest that young people today love telling sotries, they love telling us what they have done during a day, or over the weekend, and they tell it in such expressive manners. Maybe we need to let our young people express themselves in a manner that they are confrotable with, ie that of stories, and allow them to express their stories and tell them.

What works?

I have recently had the pleasure of visiting a youth work not to far from where I live. They seem to have a thriving work going on with about 40 yong people on their books. When I sat down and chatted to the workers there, I came aware of thee issues that seem to have made a difference tot his work. I wonder if they could make a difference elsewhere? 1: consistancy, they do nt put the workers on a rota, the young people know who is going to be there week in week out, and this seems to demonstrate, reliability, and also the fact that the young people are worth being there for every week. 2: Relationship, this is certainly born out of the first one, consistancy. Because the more consistant you are, the more you can build relaionship, and the more you build relationship the greater the impact of the work, and the greater the trust, and all sorts of things can develop from there. 3: Driven by Youth, The young people in the group have asked for a separate Bible study during the week, and have come up with a whole range of questins and ideas that they wish to pursue. although the workers are there, and offer protection, relaitonshioship, consistancy, and to an extent guidence, the young people are allowed to develop their relationship with God, and not rely on others, and this seems to have made a huge impact on the lives of the young people that are there.