Hours 17-20
I couldn’t believe it was the last Alpha Course. It felt like a few weeks ago everything started. In fact, before I got there I had forgotten that this was the last one so I got a little said when they told us. Also, the people I had met and worked with were people I loved getting to know and since we would be traveling a lot on weekends I knew I wouldn’t really get to see them much more.
Anyway, it was a fun night; we set up and cleaned up as usual. We served the incredible dinner (I can’t remember what it was called) and served some yummy chocolate cake for dessert. I refilled water jugs, and did some dishes. We were pretty good, by now, at efficiency. I got the system down to where most everything I could get off the table, with the exception of the drinks, I got off before the speaker started, so as to have to do less dishes afterward.
It was really neat because at the end of the night they opened the floor for people to speak. This one man stood up and said this is his second Alpha Course to do and it has meant so much more to him. He was so thankful to have questions answered and loved getting to know the people, both members and non-members, at St. Aldates church. He said he enjoyed the retreat. He said though he is not quite there (to Christianity) he is thankful for what he has learned and is planning on the continued search. This was so cool for me to hear because it illustrated to me that that is our purpose as Christians; not to make other Christians, but to explain as best we can and share the love of Christ. From then on, God takes care of their hearts.
It was also neat to see what I have had the opportunity to be a part of. It is hard to see how God is using you, when all you do is behind the scenes stuff and I’m not really getting to interact much with the people. But it was cool to see that the jobs and sometimes seemingly menial tasks were all for a purpose and they truly had significance.
At the end of the night, they formally thanked us for the help by giving us a huge tin of Cadbury chocolate and thanking us for coming. Also, the vicar came up to me and thanked me personally for being consistent in coming to help with Alpha and he had made sure almost every week to come tell us how thankful he was for us. I’m sad it’s over. Hopefully some day I’ll come back here and visit and who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be back long enough to help out with the Course again.
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Hours 13-16
The second to the last Alpha was a typical night with a speaker and worship and everything, but this time the people who came had just gotten back from the "Alpha Away Day" which is the little retreat. It sounded really neat and it showed those who were truely dedicated.
We served about half the amount of people that started out coming to the Alpha Course on the first night, but we still set up for the same number of people. It is really neat to see the faith of the people at St. Aldates. I love how much they pray and intercede before each Tuesday night.
We came and most of everything was laready set up for some reason. Usually, we have to do a lot more beforehand, but I guess people had showed up early and set up most of the table settings. The only real things left for us to do was divie up the desserts and slice up lemons for the water.
It has been really neat to see that even this late in the game, those on leadership at the church and the volunteers for the Alpha Course are doing everything as nice, neat, and professional as they started out. People hadn't been slacking or anything.
I ended up serving dinner next to a sweet young girl from Oxford named Georgie. We got to talk a lot too, which is always fun and interesting. I got to see Joceclyn again too and talk and joke with her a bit more as well.
The prayers and everything went a bit longer so we stayed a little bit later to clean up, as to not disturb any group prayers and discussions. At this point the discussions were getting even deeper and the prayers longer. So we cleaned and helped out for a little longer than normal, but we also did not have to do as much at the beginning.
Overall, it was a great night. To top it off, the interns invited us over to hang out again, which was loads of fun. It was encouraging to be around them
We served about half the amount of people that started out coming to the Alpha Course on the first night, but we still set up for the same number of people. It is really neat to see the faith of the people at St. Aldates. I love how much they pray and intercede before each Tuesday night.
We came and most of everything was laready set up for some reason. Usually, we have to do a lot more beforehand, but I guess people had showed up early and set up most of the table settings. The only real things left for us to do was divie up the desserts and slice up lemons for the water.
It has been really neat to see that even this late in the game, those on leadership at the church and the volunteers for the Alpha Course are doing everything as nice, neat, and professional as they started out. People hadn't been slacking or anything.
I ended up serving dinner next to a sweet young girl from Oxford named Georgie. We got to talk a lot too, which is always fun and interesting. I got to see Joceclyn again too and talk and joke with her a bit more as well.
The prayers and everything went a bit longer so we stayed a little bit later to clean up, as to not disturb any group prayers and discussions. At this point the discussions were getting even deeper and the prayers longer. So we cleaned and helped out for a little longer than normal, but we also did not have to do as much at the beginning.
Overall, it was a great night. To top it off, the interns invited us over to hang out again, which was loads of fun. It was encouraging to be around them
Saturday, 16 February 2008
Hours 9-12
This week I, once again, worked at the Alpha Course at St. Aldates. We prepared for dinner agian by setting up the tables. We put candles on each, along with glasses, specially folded napkins, and silverwear. I cut limes and lemons to put in the water pitchers. Contrary to popular belief, this was a hard task. I had to cut thin slices and be sure that I had a slice of lemon and lime for each pitcher and I was only given two of each. I am surprised I haven't cut a finger off yet.
We also cut the cheescakes into individual slices and set them on plates. My specific job this week was to mix and serve the fruit punch- delicious! The girl I served with is called Georgie. She is such a sweet girl and I got to know her better this week. She goes to Oxford Brooks University for graduate school. We actually had a lot in common. She speaks very softly. I enjoyed talking to her about differences in cultures and we each contributed by talking our experiences with the other culture. This seems to be the topic of many conversations I have with people from here.
While we were serving drinks, a lady in a wheelchair came in with her daughter. They were so very friendly and started conversation with us. It turns out the daughter was a school teacher and they were taking a vacation. The have alpha course at the church they attend in London and they just wanted to stop in and see the church. They were very funny and we talked for a while. It was such easy conversation. The stereoptye that British people are unfriendly is quickly being proven untrue in my experience.
We finished serving and clearing tables before we sat down to eat. THe people are so very polite and always say thank you when we bring out more food or clear away their plates. This week I got to know the people we served with even better. I am really enjoying finding things in common with them and learning from our differences.
This week I, again, had to remind myself that I am serving God and not man. I feel like it could be so easy to do this for the service hour credit or just to be a nice person, but I truely want to be sure that I take this oportunity to practice serving with a willing spirit and with a true servant's heart. I want my ultimate goal to be to serve God.
We also cut the cheescakes into individual slices and set them on plates. My specific job this week was to mix and serve the fruit punch- delicious! The girl I served with is called Georgie. She is such a sweet girl and I got to know her better this week. She goes to Oxford Brooks University for graduate school. We actually had a lot in common. She speaks very softly. I enjoyed talking to her about differences in cultures and we each contributed by talking our experiences with the other culture. This seems to be the topic of many conversations I have with people from here.
While we were serving drinks, a lady in a wheelchair came in with her daughter. They were so very friendly and started conversation with us. It turns out the daughter was a school teacher and they were taking a vacation. The have alpha course at the church they attend in London and they just wanted to stop in and see the church. They were very funny and we talked for a while. It was such easy conversation. The stereoptye that British people are unfriendly is quickly being proven untrue in my experience.
We finished serving and clearing tables before we sat down to eat. THe people are so very polite and always say thank you when we bring out more food or clear away their plates. This week I got to know the people we served with even better. I am really enjoying finding things in common with them and learning from our differences.
This week I, again, had to remind myself that I am serving God and not man. I feel like it could be so easy to do this for the service hour credit or just to be a nice person, but I truely want to be sure that I take this oportunity to practice serving with a willing spirit and with a true servant's heart. I want my ultimate goal to be to serve God.
Monday, 4 February 2008
Alph Alpha (hours 5-8)
Set up for Alpha Course this week went a lot faster because we now know the drill. We set up tables and chairs, made sure there were glasses, water vases, forks, knives, dessert spoons, and pamphlets on every table. I cut limes and lemons to put in the water, and cut up the pieces of cheescake for dessert. It was a little tricky because we had to cut each pie into five individual slices, and as we all knoe- that is not even lines.
This week we served a Guiness stew with mushrooms and beef, new potatoes, and carrots. I had an interesting encounter with a lady there. She is homeless and apparently has been coming to the Alpha course for years and she is little off her rocker. We are told to only measure out a ceratin amount of food for each plate until everyone has had some and then if there is enough let over they can have seconds. Well, this lady came back for more two times and I gave her a little more and she laughed and told me it was not enough. When we told her we could not give her more yet, she just took her own fork and got some. We didn't really know what to do, because we didn't want to be rude. Apparently though, the people at St. Aldates have no trouble telling her no (we learned this afterward).
This week was a lot of fun. When I was on my way over to the church I had to remind myself that I was doing this for the Lord and not just for service hours. When I was there serving the food I was reminding myself to be Christ to these people and serve them out of a servant's heart. I was reminding myself that most of the people I was serving do not know Christ and I wanted them to encounter him through me- even just by the way I say "you're welcome" or ask how they are doing.
After we served dinner we cleared away the plates and brought out dessert for everyone. We then began to wash dishes. We waited in the back for a long time and this was a good time to be in community with the people who are members of St. Aldates. We talked to a few different people and talked more about the differences in our cultures and exchanged stories of our experiences in the opposite culture.
Once, the speaker began to speak we took our food out to listen to him and eat. It was very interesting. He is a professor of Physics at Oxford University. I think it is so neat and refreshing when someone that inteligent is so passionately in love with the Lord. He explained that God is inexplainable. He was talking about how it is godo to question, but we need to come to the understanding that we do not have the capacity to understand everything about God and how he works.
Once the speaker was done he told the tables to turn to each other and discuss points of agreement, dissagreement, or questions they had. While the tables were discussing, we cleared away more of the food and everything that was on the tables. Before, we cleared the tables we gave them time to talk without disrupting them. At this point, we talked more to the locals and got to know them better. They are so much fun.
Once we were done cleaing, we stood around for a while and met a few more people. They were some worshjip leaders who are right around our age. We talked to them for quite a while and they asked us to try and talk with their accents and they did impressions of Americans to us. We swapped jokes and emails and are keeping in contact with them.
Overall last Tuesday night was so much fun and it was awesome to meet new people and see God at work in that atmosphere!
This week we served a Guiness stew with mushrooms and beef, new potatoes, and carrots. I had an interesting encounter with a lady there. She is homeless and apparently has been coming to the Alpha course for years and she is little off her rocker. We are told to only measure out a ceratin amount of food for each plate until everyone has had some and then if there is enough let over they can have seconds. Well, this lady came back for more two times and I gave her a little more and she laughed and told me it was not enough. When we told her we could not give her more yet, she just took her own fork and got some. We didn't really know what to do, because we didn't want to be rude. Apparently though, the people at St. Aldates have no trouble telling her no (we learned this afterward).
This week was a lot of fun. When I was on my way over to the church I had to remind myself that I was doing this for the Lord and not just for service hours. When I was there serving the food I was reminding myself to be Christ to these people and serve them out of a servant's heart. I was reminding myself that most of the people I was serving do not know Christ and I wanted them to encounter him through me- even just by the way I say "you're welcome" or ask how they are doing.
After we served dinner we cleared away the plates and brought out dessert for everyone. We then began to wash dishes. We waited in the back for a long time and this was a good time to be in community with the people who are members of St. Aldates. We talked to a few different people and talked more about the differences in our cultures and exchanged stories of our experiences in the opposite culture.
Once, the speaker began to speak we took our food out to listen to him and eat. It was very interesting. He is a professor of Physics at Oxford University. I think it is so neat and refreshing when someone that inteligent is so passionately in love with the Lord. He explained that God is inexplainable. He was talking about how it is godo to question, but we need to come to the understanding that we do not have the capacity to understand everything about God and how he works.
Once the speaker was done he told the tables to turn to each other and discuss points of agreement, dissagreement, or questions they had. While the tables were discussing, we cleared away more of the food and everything that was on the tables. Before, we cleared the tables we gave them time to talk without disrupting them. At this point, we talked more to the locals and got to know them better. They are so much fun.
Once we were done cleaing, we stood around for a while and met a few more people. They were some worshjip leaders who are right around our age. We talked to them for quite a while and they asked us to try and talk with their accents and they did impressions of Americans to us. We swapped jokes and emails and are keeping in contact with them.
Overall last Tuesday night was so much fun and it was awesome to meet new people and see God at work in that atmosphere!
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Alpha Course Hours 1-4
This past Tuesday I got the unique opportunity to volunteer with a program called the Alpha Course. It is held every Tuesday night at a church in downtown Oxford called St. Aldates. Before I went, I did not really know much about the program except that it was an evangelistic course for non-Christians. I was interested to see how this evangelism was going to be different from that which I had experienced in America.
We got there at around 6:00 p.m. to help set up for dinner. I thought it was so neat because they set out nice table cloths, nice dishes, candles, and center pieces. They set out the best for the guests. There were five of us from ACU and a handful of people that were volunteer members of the church. We helped set out the Alpha Course booklets, pens, tables, made punch, and really did anything they needed us to do.
Guests were due to arrive at seven, at which time we got ready to serve dinner. They have a hired chef to cook all the meals. He made a beef and vegetable sauce with rice and salad. There was also a vegetarian option which were sweet potatoe cakes and green beans. It was incredible food. We served the guests and everyone was very polite, thankful, and friendly. I have found the stereotype of the British people being rude is not true at all.
Serving dinner was fun because I served beside a lady in her upper thirties named Joselyn. She was very funny and had actually lived in TYler, TX for a few years. We talked about some differences in culture. She was very friendly and witty. She said that she might even take me to the Cadburry factory. It was fun to make a new friend. We talked a little bit about our families too. It was fun getting to know her and I'm looking forward to getting to work with her each week.
Once all the tables were served and had time to come back and get seconds, we took the food away and took desserts to their tables. Everyone got their own piece of cake (which also were beautiful and delicious). After we had cleared all the food from their tables and left them with their desserts, we went into the kitchen to start washing and then we served ourselves. We took our plates out and ate while the speaker was talking.
It was so neat to hear how they do this course. It is extremely non-threatening and they are very respectful that not everyone has the same religion or views and thoughts about God. The course last for a term (which is about three months) and people keep coming back if they want to and each week builds on the previous. This first week the speaker gave his own testimony of how he came to Christ, which was actually because he went to an Alpha Course 30 years earlier.
I asked Jocelyn how people know about the Alpha Course and she said almost everyone has heard of it even if they do not know what exactly it is. She said there are flyers around town. Also, she told me it is something that many churches do all over the nation. I thought it was neat because after the speaker spoke they had discussion time at the tables. There were about eight people at each table and they were grouped according to age, interests, and ethnicities. For example there were student tables, Chinese tables, etc... At each table there were one or two members of the church that they coud ask questions. It was a really relxaed atmosphere and people just thought out loud to each other and exchanged ideas, thoughts, and questions.
I'm really excited about getting to know the other people we were working with too. They were really funny, nice, and helpful. it is so neat to me how that one thing in common (our faith) has bonded us so quickly. I look forward to learning from them and seeing how this Alpha Course Progresses.
We got there at around 6:00 p.m. to help set up for dinner. I thought it was so neat because they set out nice table cloths, nice dishes, candles, and center pieces. They set out the best for the guests. There were five of us from ACU and a handful of people that were volunteer members of the church. We helped set out the Alpha Course booklets, pens, tables, made punch, and really did anything they needed us to do.
Guests were due to arrive at seven, at which time we got ready to serve dinner. They have a hired chef to cook all the meals. He made a beef and vegetable sauce with rice and salad. There was also a vegetarian option which were sweet potatoe cakes and green beans. It was incredible food. We served the guests and everyone was very polite, thankful, and friendly. I have found the stereotype of the British people being rude is not true at all.
Serving dinner was fun because I served beside a lady in her upper thirties named Joselyn. She was very funny and had actually lived in TYler, TX for a few years. We talked about some differences in culture. She was very friendly and witty. She said that she might even take me to the Cadburry factory. It was fun to make a new friend. We talked a little bit about our families too. It was fun getting to know her and I'm looking forward to getting to work with her each week.
Once all the tables were served and had time to come back and get seconds, we took the food away and took desserts to their tables. Everyone got their own piece of cake (which also were beautiful and delicious). After we had cleared all the food from their tables and left them with their desserts, we went into the kitchen to start washing and then we served ourselves. We took our plates out and ate while the speaker was talking.
It was so neat to hear how they do this course. It is extremely non-threatening and they are very respectful that not everyone has the same religion or views and thoughts about God. The course last for a term (which is about three months) and people keep coming back if they want to and each week builds on the previous. This first week the speaker gave his own testimony of how he came to Christ, which was actually because he went to an Alpha Course 30 years earlier.
I asked Jocelyn how people know about the Alpha Course and she said almost everyone has heard of it even if they do not know what exactly it is. She said there are flyers around town. Also, she told me it is something that many churches do all over the nation. I thought it was neat because after the speaker spoke they had discussion time at the tables. There were about eight people at each table and they were grouped according to age, interests, and ethnicities. For example there were student tables, Chinese tables, etc... At each table there were one or two members of the church that they coud ask questions. It was a really relxaed atmosphere and people just thought out loud to each other and exchanged ideas, thoughts, and questions.
I'm really excited about getting to know the other people we were working with too. They were really funny, nice, and helpful. it is so neat to me how that one thing in common (our faith) has bonded us so quickly. I look forward to learning from them and seeing how this Alpha Course Progresses.
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