Open was on last night at High Street UC and we had quite a crowd for us.  It’s always great welcoming new people and getting to know others even better.  And it’s really quite interesting sitting back and listening to all the conversations and connection points that we discover – and there were quite a few last night.  We even got around to talking about the meaning of Pentecost, how you spell it, and some church history as well!  Not bad for an hour and a half of gathering.

I’m hoping that those interested in coming will continue to grow and that those who are already coming continue to be open and welcoming to our new guests.

The new space we’ve set up in the foyer is really great for conversations and so is working well for us, as well as at other times.  Why don’t you pop in for a chat and a cup of coffee?  Sometimes we even have cakes – last nights were left overs from our Pentecost part in the morning and they were still very yummy.

I’ve spent this morning reading the blog of someone whom I treasure having an acquaintance with.  She is a great and beautiful person, but also a wonderful writer.  Clare Boyd-Macrea has been writing for some time, I have her book, she regularly publishes articles in The Age, and now I have subscribed to her blog.  I just love reading her comments on life and the world.

I must admit it has inspired me to try and do the same – and I’m sure I wont – but let’s see.

I’ve used TheSkinny to let people know what I’ve been doing, what I’m planning on doing, but so far much of it has been event based.  I’m going to try and add a few ’stories’ and see how that goes as well.  So if you do jump on here now and again to see what Jay is doing, you may find some more stuff, and hopefully a bit more regularly.

I’ve had a great weekend catching up with the First Third Ministry team in WA.  Saturday, apart from a very early 3.30am start, involved attending a conference on First Third Ministry, hearing how it’s working and how it’s supposed to be working in Perth.  I met Will Hall at the airport who was over from South Australia doing the same as me – checking it all out!  It was exciting to see and I learnt heaps with my brain going to all sorts of places about using and implementing this concept.

Dinner was out in the CBD with the gang and Will as we plied them with questions, insights, processes and then opportunities.  An early night to bed and a bit of a sleep in in the morning.

A morning full of sunshine met us as we headed off to Freemantle for a bit of a look around and then some more talking.  Lunch was with the gang again, eating fish and chips on the pier and trying not to feed the seagulls with chips.  A quick walk through the market shed and then off to the airport for the trip home.  Will is heading home a bit earlier than me, even more now that I’ve found out my flight has been delayed.  Now not due home until well after midnight – lucky I have tomorrow off!

It was a really worthwhile trip, one that has given me lots of ideas and one that I will talk to others about.  My sincere thanks to the WA team, with Rick Morrell and his family in particular.

Hope to do a couple more trips during the year so if you’re interested in being involved and part of some hard work just let me know.

So be on the watch out for more stuff soon and keeping you in touch with what I’m doing, finding and exploring around the church and the university and probably around life in general

Then February got swallowed up with all the preparation for the beginning of the University year.  We’ve just had 2 weeks of orientation – one for the international students and then one for everyone.  That has kept me busy with presentations, being part of workshops and opening the official Opening Ceremony.

First week of classes has meant our first Breakfast Club for the year – with around 130 students being fed this morning.  So Breakfast club has moved to a Thursday and Wednesday is Chat with the Chaplain over lunch time in the George Cafe.

At High St UC youth group has begun, as has Revival and Open.  We’ve also started a youth lenten study on the Thursday night at 7.30pm at the church.

So, lots has been done, still lots to do.  I’ll try and keep this a little more uptodate, so come and see me regularly.

bye for now

jay

The Y Event is a youth event that is open to all young people (and those who are young at heart) who would like to come along.  It will run from Friday 30th October to Sunday 1st November 2009 at High Street Uniting Church (16-18 High Street Frankston).

The Y Event will begin on Friday 30th October at 7.30pm with an evening rally featuring our speaker John Bell from Iona and with Raize (a local band who recently plate at NCYC09 in Melbourne) supplying the music.

Saturday (31st October) afternoon from 3.30pm will see the young people out on the streets of Frankston undertaking a different kind of “trick or treating” for Halloween as we join in with the “Live and Give” event.  We will be asking for, and collecting goods for Hotham Mission and other such organisations.  This is a mini submersion time, similar to that run at NCYC in January this year – a chance to see Christianity in action in our community.

There will be a Youth Dinner after our foray into the streets of Frankston.  This will be held in the hall at the church and will focus on the Green Church Project that Rev Andrew Johnson is exploring so well in Sydney.

Sunday night (1st November) 7.30pm will be the final rally with both John Bell and Raize again.

During the weekend John will be speaking on “Believing in a bigger church” and “Celebrating a bigger Jesus”. Raize will be sharing with us their music, all original pieces.

The weekend is a free event for young people, but it would be great if you could let us know if you are planning to come to the Youth Dinner on the Saturday night.  For more information and you chance to be involved please contact Jay Robinson on hsuc.youth@gmail.com.

Early in July a large number of Uni students, chaplains, and other interested people gather for the School of Discipleship. We meet in Canberra and share 3 or 4 days of study, reflection, social gatherings and usually a public liturgy somewhere in the city.

This year the School of Discipleship (or SOD as it is more commonly known) will run from July 10th to July 13th 2009.  There are some great guest speakers organised as well as lots of other stuff.  I highly recommend going – I’ll be there!

Here’s the link to find out more……http://schoolofdiscipleship.org.au

For the last 5 or so weeks Wednesday mornings have begun a little earlier than usual for me. I arrive at the Uni around 7.30am, open up our building and start getting ready to serve pancakes to a group of around 100 students and staff.

We are developing a ‘regular’ clientele and it’s great to greet people in the morning with – “Would you like to join us for a pancake breakfast? – It’s free!” There are a group of students who come each week to help out with the set up, cooking, preparing and then cleaning up of our Breakfast Club. We have tea, coffee and cordial on offer, a variety of toppings including whipped cream (this is the favourite), and we supply newspapers to read and groups who sit and chat. There are even a couple of ‘study groups’ who meet before they head off to their lectures for the day.

Every now and again we get a group of exchange students in, the most recent being a group from Japan who were very keen to learn how to use a BBQ as well as the recipe for our light–as-a-feather pancakes.

Here are a couple of photos from our first weeks.

On the last Friday of April a group of 10 young people (plus some parents) headed up to Oakleigh to test our skills at Go-Cart racing. The competition was fast and furious with Tian being the fastest around the track, and his dad William following closely not wanting to be beaten. Now that we know where Sidetracked is located (and hopefully wont get lost getting there next time) we could be travelling there again as it was a great fun night – but not long enough on the track.

This was the first full meeting of this new group – still to be named. The plan is to meet on the 2^nd and 4^th Friday of the month, 7.30pm (or there abouts) at the church. Some of our activities will be based at the church; others will be out and about as the interest is shown. Our next activity will be on Friday 8^th May 2009; 7.30pm at the church for a walk to Dark Zone and this time a laser challenge. This will be a great opportunity to development some team skills as we work in groups to see who has the best night vision.

Here are a couple photos of our group getting ready to burn the rubber at Sidetracked.