Back for Round Two!

Hello friends!


Well, here we are! I'm back in Manchester and couldn't be more thrilled to be here again. I arrived yesterday morning, and because jetlag hit me harder than ever, I decided to hold off on blogging until today.


The flight on Wednesday evening went very well. I arrived at O'Hare about an hour and a half before boarding, and I was able to get through security and to my gate within half an hour. I couldn't believe it! As I was waiting at my gate, I was informed that I was moved to the row by the emergency exit and was asked if I would be willing and able to assist, so I said yes and immediately started praying that nothing would happen on this flight. After all, it was still a window seat, and then I had extra leg room!


While on the plane, I was seated next to a lovely English couple from Yorkshire who I greatly enjoyed talking to. While it was no business class (like last year), the food was still pretty decent. I had the option to choose either chicken and rice or cheesy vegetable pasta, so I went with the pasta since it seemed like it would be easier to eat. After the meal, I decided to put on some music and try to get some sleep, which was difficult because a) the seat didn't recline very much and it was hard to get comfortable and b) the in flight movie was Beauty and the Beast (the new one!). It also seemed like there was a lot of turbulence, so the shaking kept waking me up. Overall, I would be very surprised if I got more than three hours of sleep, tops.


When we finally arrived in Manchester, we ended up having to wait twenty minutes to a half an hour on the plane since we arrived early and there was a plane at our gate. Once we got off and were able to stretch our legs, I discovered that the line and customs was extremely long, which negated any of the extra time we had since getting there early. By the time I got through and found my luggage, I was able to find my host right away. It was so good to see her! We got back to her house pretty fast, and I again couldn't believe that I was back here again. I sat with Cat for a little while over a cup of tea (which, after that flight, I enjoyed immensely) and then took a shower. As promised, I messaged one of the teenagers on the Merseybank estate that I've kept in touch with, and she walked with me to the café. Once we got there, I was able to catch up with a few of my friends from last year, which felt so good! After we spent a little while there, she walked me to her house so I could say hi to her sister, and then to the Eden team leader's house (who I also stayed with last year). I was able to see a few more familiar faces, and then we had our prayer meeting over lunch. Now obviously, I've missed these people and this place terribly, but I realized again how much I missed praying with them. It truly is at the heart of everything this team does on the estate.


After dinner (which was an incredible lasagna made by Cat) and Youth Café, the team gathered here for Grow Group. We read the letter to the church in Ephesus from Revelation 2 and had an amazing discussion on how it can apply to us today. In summary, the letter describes a church that is doing all of the right things, but the one thing that Jesus holds against them is that they have lost the love that it first had for Him. How easy is that for us to do? We get in a routine and start trying to check things off of the "Christian" list, and often we feel pretty good about it, but we've lost the passion that we had when we were first saved. Working in a church can even sometimes feel like that when the focus ends up being on trying to run everything just right or on the attendance and things like that. The solution that we landed on was that sometimes we need to go back to the foundation and try to reignite the awe and wonder of what Jesus did. Even if we think we're past that point or too spiritually mature, we need to remember that we're always learning and growing, and sometimes we simply need to remember what Jesus did for us when we truly did not deserve it.


By the time Grow Group finished after prayers, I headed straight to bed and slept in this morning. I'm feeling pretty good today and am looking forward to what lies ahead!


Cheers,

Lindsay