Training Week

Hello Everybody! How are you?

I just wanted to tell you a little bit (belatedly) about the amazing training week in January. USPG insist that everybody going out on the EEP programme attends a full residential week of training, at Queen’s College in Birmingham. Training only runs twice a year (Jan & Jul), so I was training with everyone else due to go out in the next 6 months – people of all different ages and backgrounds, training to go to all different places around the world. So, the training wasn’t actually specific to the projects and areas we were all heading for, but rather general education about crossing cultural boundaries etc.

The sessions covered all sorts of different areas, such as issues regarding gender and children, God through Asian / African / Latin American Eyes, interfaith relations. I guess the ultimate aim was to get us thinking in advance about some of the issues which will undoubtedly hit us when we get there, so as you can imagine, the sessions were indeed very thought provoking and it was fascinating to hear the thoughts and approaches of all the others in the group.

Perhaps the best activity which we did came on the first full day, when we experienced “The plunge”, where we were sent out in small groups to multicultural areas of Birmingham, firstly to go to a different style of church, and then to immerse ourselves in the areas, trying different food and engaging the locals in conversation. Whilst others went off to the Serbian Orthodox Church, or the Punjabi Anglican Church, our group was sent to the Church of God of Prophesy, which is a Black Gospel Pentecostal Church. This 3 hour service was an amazing experience! For a start, we were the only 3 white people in the whole building! Despite us being so clearly from a different culture, they welcomed us so warmly, and we all took so much from the worship. Even the Caribbean “speak it brother” preacher, I thought was great! (Imagine your completely stereotypical booming-voiced black Pentecostal preacher who speaks for at least an hour, and you’ve got him!). It was also great to go on to speak to locals of other faiths, many of whom expressed views and opinions which certainly made me think!

Another great aspect of the week was the collective worship. The ten of us were put into pairs, and each group had the opportunity to lead a half hour session of worship through the course of the week. Well...we couldn’t have asked for more variety! From the high Anglo-catholic use of a monstrance, to the other end of the spectrum (mine and David’s) musical worship celebration, during which we all certainly made a “joyful noise to the Lord”! It was great to experience so many different ways of worshipping our amazing God, and he really did reveal himself to us in different ways through each of them. It was also great because the worship style in the churches we are all heading for may well be very different from what we are used to and comfortable with, so definitely good practice at finding God in what is perhaps “unexpected” too!

I have to say that great as all of the sessions were, the best part of the week was meeting the amazing people I had the privilege of training with. I hope we stay in touch for a very long time, and it was so great to chat about what has brought us all to this point in our lives. May God bless you all in your missions! As you will see from the photos, it wasn’t all hard work either and we did manage to get the chance to visit the local public house together, go for a delicious Indian, and even to go ice skating – essential practice for going to Mauritius, obviously!!

A very special week.