6/22 – This place is a rollercoaster and I am not strapped in

What I did:

I woke up and left pretty early to travel over to Coventry. I had set up a visit to spend some time with the Coventry youth group. I had met with the guy that leads it, Keith, several weekends ago. I made it to Coventry fine and even had a little time to look around the cathedral before I met up with him. Apparently, Coventry was heavily bombed several decades ago and I don’t know if it was because of that or something else, but they have the ruins and tower of the original church and a new modern cathedral built right beside it. So I walked around a little then met up with a guy that works with the youth.


This guy, Ash, was about my age and is also studying while working with the youth. He explained some of what he does while we grabbed some Subway, then took me back to the youth center where everyone would be gathering later and where the offices were. He gave me a brief tour, it is pretty much a run-down building with two big rooms (with a sound system, pool table, and GameCube). I then went up to the offices and greeted Keith and another student who, like Ash, works with the youth. He was called Beaver (and I never heard another name for him). I don’t know if it was because he was as charming as Beaver Cleaver or if it was because he has some sort of rodent-like characteristics.

I sat through what vaguely seemed like a meeting about what was going on (there was a ton of banter back and forth and I was surprised anything actually got done, but I know if any of them read this they will just laugh and agree). After a while, Keith had to leave and I was left in the capable hands of Ash again. He took me up to the top of the cathedral tower and I had a nice view of Coventry, which despite its drabness seemed like a pretty cool place to live. After that we walked back to the youth center and talked a bit and watched a Nooma video followed by an episode of Family Guy (what a combination!). We were just killing some time before Keith got back and we could open the doors at 4pm. We did run to the store to get some bread, and Ash could not walk a block without bumping into several youth he knew.

Finally, we opened the doors and some youth came in to immediately play some pool and Mario Kart. It was pretty much just free time for about an hour or so, and I think Keith stayed up in his office which was open for some counseling/pastoral type of stuff. Then he came down and we all gathered together for some slightly more structured time looking at what it means to be a Christian. There was so much banter and wit the whole night. And everything was so high octane and high energy it was unbelievable. But it worked, and it has worked for a while now. I met several other leaders who help and just chilled with some of the kids for a while. After the structured time we had a lot more free time, some of which I spent talking to Keith. Then we closed with a semi-serious time of prayer after about half of the kids had left.

It was a great experience and made me feel alive the way only youth work can. I was really excited even after leaving. It was an interesting place to visit, and I doubt I will ever see anything like it again in my life, but it was great and I feel very blessed to be able to see the work that is going on there. I left and came straight back to Sheffield, but did not get back in until about 11pm. I had to get Matt out of bed (I am very sorry) but I made it back and got some rest before the next day.

What I learned:

There is an international Rotary convention going on in Birmingham I believe.

Fresh expressions of church/emerging churches are getting steadily harder to characterize or define.

I could probably not break into Matt and Rachel’s house. I tried to think of anything I could do to get in without getting them out of bed, but could not get to anything. I also realized that it would probably have been worse to wake someone while halfway up their stairs than in their doorway.

It is best to not try too hard to learn something or understand something everywhere I go, especially in Coventry. But it is most definitely worth it to go, no matter how crazy and confusing it is.

Subway is not the same thing in Britain as America.

Twix xtra are very long!