The Down and Dromore Albany Youth Team has arrived home safely after a fantastic trip to their link diocese.
The 17 strong team was led by Children’s Development Officer, Julie Currie and Simon Henry, Youth Worker from St John’s, Moira, and is one of the largest to set out from Down and Dromore. It included young people from Moira, Helen’s Bay, Bangor, Kilmegan, Kilkeel, St Finnian’s and even Ballyclare!
The team reports states:
The group headed off on 8th July to work alongside the summer camp staff at BeaverCross. The first week was a camp with children who would be in our Key Stage 2 and the second with children who would be in our equivalent Key Stage 3.
At the start of the fortnight the team was split in half – one half leading the cabin overnighters and the others on day camp duty from 8am-6pm for kids coming just for daytime. They swapped these roles in the middle Sunday with the arrival of a new bunch of kids.
Worship, teaching, silly games, sports, celebrating Christmas in July – they did it all – with just a little downtime on the weekends.
As well as doing camp duties and basically being on call 24/7 our team also had the pleasure of helping with kitchen duties at the welcome centre were everyone gets fed (including guests at the Kings Inn), housekeeping duties at the Kings Inn ie. making beds, cleaning the rooms and cleaning every window in the hotel and occasionally gardening work – in the veggie plot and hay baling. It was certainly no picnic, especially in heatwave temperatures of 107 F!
Several of the team had the opportunity to totally step out of their comfort zones and stand up and give their testimonies and perform sketches. “It has been an amazing privilege to see not only these guys but the whole team be moved on and challenged in their faith,” said Julie.
Before they left Bill (head Chef) made them a very special dinner tonight of fish and chips and gave a tear jerking speech about how much the team impressed him and his staff with their willingness to work very hard and always with a cheery smile.
Leaving lots of new friends behind (but hey, there’s always Facebook and Skype) the group stopped off in New York for some hardcore shopping.