Day 20 - Please read and think.

On Thursday 7th July 2005, 56 people died in the worst terrorist attack ever to happen in London. As well as the dead, 700 people were injured. Some injuries horrific, but most that cannot be seen. Mental scarring that will never leave them and they will never be able to travel on London's historic transport system ever again.

The Tube and London means a lot to us. We travel on it a lot. Sometimes we travel round the whole system just for the fun of it. The 'Tube Challenge' community is as pissed off about the attacks as the rest of the world, and we would we would like to send out the message "We are not afraid".

On Thursday 25th August, over 55 (at the time of writing) of the Tube Challenge community will join together to unite as one in order to achieve the two following goals.

I) Charity. People often attempt to complete the whole system to raise a few pounds and pennies. This time everyone gets sponsored in aid of the bomb relief charity and we really go for it. We aim to get thousands of pounds.

II) Defiance. Solidarity. Togetherness. We are not afraid, we are all joining together to show that life goes on, if it doesn't then the terrorists win. We shall continue with Tube Challenging.


Previously we competed against each other to get the Official Guinness World Record. There will no running around on this day trying to beat each other. We shall work as one for the same goal with no record attempting.

Your support in this will be hugely appreciated. If you want details on how to sponsor me then please let me know. Read some of the personal accounts on the BBC News website if this hasn't moved you yet. Families ripped apart, people needing to recover. Please help.

Thankyou.

Day 16 - Half way through!

2 Weeks gone! 2 to go! This is going way too fast for my liking. I am absolutely loving it out here and am making some good friends and some life long memories. Memories may fade, but pictures don't, and it was under this knowledge that I went out from camp yesterday and bought myself a digital camera! woo yeah! I bartered with the lady (using my accent to full effect) and managed to get a free camera case thrown in. I was happy obviously but when the rest of camp found out they went ecstatic. They had never heard of anyone bargaining in an electric store! That me proud to be a Brit! SO yeah! I have a camera! It's an Olympus Camedia, bought due to a certain someone's extensive research last year ;), and I've only sampled it so far but it is cracking. It's 4.0 megapixels and has a combined zoom of 12x! The cost (with memory card + free case) was about 150 pounds. (There's no POUND symbol on the keyboard!).

My worries about the "friends" situation out here has been resolved thanks to the big G. I've made a fantastic friendship with a girl out here who I can relate to very well and we stay up talking every night and that's been so helpful and probably why I haven't blogged as much. There's another guy here who is quality too and we've got a good relationship already and I'm looking to build on that over the next two weeks. He plans to come to London at some point next year so that will be awesome!

The work is still good out here. The office is hard and tiring at points but that is managable due to the good staff that work here. Visit the Tube Challenge pages to keep up to date with raising money for the victims of the bombings. This is something which is really on my heart right now.

Keep safe and please email me!! I love to keep in contact with you all while I'm here.

Pete

Day 12 - Been busy!

*There is an entry for Days 9+10, this will come up at some point later*

Thats now three of you that have commented on my lack of updating! My apologies one and all. I shall try harder to sort it out. The actual reason why I haven't updated in a while is because I have had to spend the rest of my internet time sorting out other business. Business which basically involved being told that I had failed two modules at Uni and not the initial one that I thought I had. Secondly my money situation went from "no need to worry about it" to "you prat" in the space of a week, so I have had to sort that out here. Couple that with me trying to find a new place to live and that should explain my lack of updates.

Last week the online Tube Challenge website went crazy with messages after the bombings. The result of which basically means that as many as possible will be doing the whole system on the same day as a way of raising money for the victims and raising the awareness of our message which is "we are not afraid". That means I have had to plan a new route and all that jazz. It starts in the wee hours on the 25th Aug, just a few hours after I finish Soul Survivor. I will have to leave SS early, but this is something I must do! Check out the link on the side for details -->

Things are still good here. The office work is a little boring now, but I still enjoy it mostly. I escape the office when I can which means that I go out on the power boats and "spot" for kids falling off the "Tubes". Good fun and means I get some sun! The people are awesome still and part of me wishes I could do this for longer. Had some authentic Krispy Kreme donuts the other day! love it! To the guys off to Romania... God bless and I hope you love it!

Day 6 - Challenges

Today has been full of challenges, perhaps ones that haven’t been presented to me physically but ones that I have thought of throughout the day. In our team meeting this evening we had some great worship and following that we had a short Bible study. We were challenged on how we were being whilst we were here. At the end of the day we are only here for four weeks and for some that means that the real “you” isn’t being presented straight away and therefore the actual time that you can take to build a friendship is less because no-one is seeing the real you. Today I have been acting more normal. Normality recently has been me not showing off, but since coming here that’s exactly what I have been doing. Showing off. As I continue to settle, I am becoming more relaxed and that means that people see the real me now. Some may not like that, but that’s fine because I need to be getting my affirmation from God. I got to talk to a few kids, today as well which was great. Working in an office could easily mean that I don’t see any, so that is a relief. I continue to build relationships with the Summer Staff here. They are great and I love the group, there really is no one that I dislike. Already though I am thinking ahead to the time when I leave here and we have to say out ‘goodbyes” and for the vast majority of the people here that will mean me not seeing them ever again. That makes things kind of hard to process about whether I want to build friendships. But I know that I obviously do and should. I’m not missing the UK or the people yet, please don’t take offence if your one of those people, I love you, but it’s good to have time out too. I went Ridge Running today (which is basically Karting). That was awesome and I shall look at doing that again. This place really is great and I love being here. Hopefully this will last. I’m still reading my Bible daily and picking out and highlighting good verses. It’s pretty cool reading the Bible; you should do it, especially if you’re not a Christian.

Days 3-5 - Settling In!

I didn’t write my blog for days three through five at the time of it happening. That is a very good sign. I have been enjoying myself so much out here to the point that in my free time I just wanna hang out with people. It’s really cool having four people from YL Surrey here as I’ve met them once or twice before and shall endeavour to make the most of my time here with them and hopefully meet up more when we’re back in the UK. The work crew (aged up to 18) have things SO tough here. They have massively long days and they run the rubbish jobs, such as washing up, cooking and waitering the tables. It’s been good to hang out with them and try to build them up as they are young and most are already tired, and there’s still over 3 weeks to go! Last night was Country Night. This meant we (as Summer Staff – University age) had to dress up in Country outfits (not provided!!) and run Town Fair events. I was on the Balloon Darts game. We then did some country dancing which was interesting. The weather here is gorgeous and hopefully I’ll get a nice tan to show off when I get back. I felt tired for the first time today and struggled to get to work at midday after a short nap. Tonight we have 50’s theme, which I have prepared for by wearing my bowling shirt. Hopefully I won’t look like a plank! The kids here have no idea of the schedule so we’re often sneaking around to prepare the next activity, which is always done brilliantly. People still are interested in the accent. Kinda nice – at points. Unfortunately I am getting used to saying “trash can”, “college” (instead of Uni) and “flashlight” so I apologise now if I say that when I get back to the UK. On the Guanabana front, I’m not craving so much right now as I have discovered the delights of Mountain Dew in the vending machines, I shall buy 5 and bring them back to the UK, be nice and you may get one. Oh and if you want anything else then ask me, already had one order for Lucky Charms. Respect homeboys!

Day 2 - Tired already!

It honestly feels like today I’ve had two days pushed into one. So much has happened and I know I’ll miss important stuff out. But let’s have an honest crack. First of all people love my accent, mostly. The Swedish guys seem to like it more than others and often say to me “alright geezer!”, nice of them to drop to my level! The general synopsis however is that my accent is weird. Quite ironic coming from a bunch of Americans. Started work at 8am in the office, where I shall be for the next 4 weeks. The people there are great and the work is quite good and not very mind challenging, just what I’ve needed in all honesty. Breakfast, sorry, Brunch was lovely. Pancakes and syrup with scrambled egg. Dinner was pasta and green beans, healthy yet nice. I could get used to this. Having done my 10-hour day I then retreated to the cabins to discover to my horror that we all had to run the assault course for 3 hours as the kids went through all kinds of crap – literally. I was in charge of getting kids out of the river as they came down a dark slide. Enjoyed that a lot. The stars here are amazing! There as so many! This camp is awesome in terms of facilities and I’m beginning to build relationships with the guys and girls here on summer staff. It’s really cool. I look forward to the future weeks and am looking to grow as a person in self-discipline and selfless working and love the idea of building relationships with Yanks and Swedes. I was happy with no first couple of days in the States so decided to reward myself with a can of Guanabana, only 4 to go. Peace out y’all.

Day One - Mission and a half!

For those of you who are clever, that title has a double meaning. This is a mission, a mission from God. I’m not entirely sure what that is yet as I’m meant to be working in the office for four weeks and I don’t even know what that is. The opening talk here tonight to all the staff was basically a warning. Do not get your affirmation from kids, members of opposite of sex, peers, etc. Get it from God. This is something that I have been challenged on recently anyway so actually found this to be encouragement. We are here to provide an awesome challenging experience for the young people. That may be by washing their clothes, teaching them to do High Ropes, or making sure the camp is ticking over. No job is more important than any other. I really feel like I can learn more on my recent adventure of “serving others selflessly”. It certainly is a mission from God and I cannot wait to find out what that mission actually is.

I can hear your cries of desperation... “whats the other meaning oh wise Pete?” Well I shall tell you! I set my alarm for 3:55am this morning in order to get the coach to Heathrow. I woke up at 6:55am. Problem. BIG problem. I was going to miss my flight. I phoned people desperately trying to get a lift having just rearranged my flight again, this time for 10:25am. No-one was around, apart from the Hero. That’s how the person shall be called here as he/she may not want the glory. But they really were a hero! Got there with 3 minutes to spare. Flight was good, plenty of leg room, nice food, but felt sick as we came into land. Coach to NY was good and I really wasn’t expecting to see all the sites of NYC but I did! Amazing stuff! Couldn’t see anything from a distance due to dreadful weather but close up it was amazing. Hopefully the way back will be better. Got to camp just in time and had our introduction meeting, met a couple of people but no-one to speak of yet. I’m writing this in our dorm. Not happy with the thought of sharing with 4 yanks and 2 swedes for 27 nights, but I shall cope. My defence mechanisms have been fully implemented as all of a sudden I have a stronger Cockney accent and I’ve put my England flag up in the dorm and plan to wear England shirts for the next 5 days. A bit OTT? We shall see. Apparantly chicks dig the English accent, not that I’m interested by that of course…

Off to bed now as I’m shattered – and the kids haven’t even arrived yet!

Oh yeah, a huge thanks to those of you who were praying for me. I felt a lot of support from you all so thank you and felt God’s protection over me. Especially those who were communicating through text, some of whom were supportive well above and beyond the call of duty. You know who you are. Thank you.

Going... going... not going... going again...

Long day, very long day. I woke up and was oblivious at first to the tragic events that had already happened in London 2 hours earlier. It is amazing the reactions and emotions that you go through. At first I was speechless, then I was amazed and intrigued, then I was angry, and then concerned when it dawned on me that people I know and love live there and travel those very routes. That's when I started (along with some others online) to try and get in contact with people. As it turns out they are all ok, pretty shaken up I imagine, but still ok. Hearing the reports that only 2 had died made me annoyed. Everyone could see the state of that bus and know that there was a huge chunk missing, why not be honest about it?! I think that's me missing the point though. If you have loved ones injuried or worse then my prayers are genuinely with you.

This lead me to being hugely worried about flying out. So I didnt. Refuse to. Then prayed. Then it clicked, and now im going at 8:55 this morning. Which actually turns out better as it means I dont have to wait around for ages! so thats it, im off. Hopefully I can blog when out there, but I will let you know. I love you all, especially you Taf! Oh and I've packed 4 cans of Guanabana to help me survive the 4 weeks. Ciao!

Leaving on a jet plane!

What a day! Hanging out with my Activate crew has been great, tried to see some family but failed, and then tried to sort out my flights to the US and good news... im booked in! woo yeah! Scary though as I need to start packing and getting ready. Same old Pete! So bring it on for 4 weeks in the States. Im now broke though. But bring on the States!

Independence Day

Greetings one and all! May I begin by first wishing my American friends and colleagues a happy July 4th! I find the day a silly idea to be honest but I'm more than happy to celebrate with you. Because of America having a united day off, it means that my ticket for America STILL hasn't arrived or even been paid for. Slightly worrying considering that I fly out from Heathrow at 8pm on Thursday. I do wanna go, really I do, but there's a part of me that is hoping that the ticket doesn't come through at all. I know that I will love going out there and it will be a life long memory, but I am missing out on whole summer with friends from St Albans. My conclusion there is that I want to go to the States, but it's no biggie if I don't.

Guanabana update: 2 cans on Sunday night!! I went down to Soul Survivor with my youth group on Sunday but came back with some St Albans peeps. We decided that because Tim was hungry we would go to H&H where Gizmo was meeting us and Fraser also pleasantly graced us with his presence. We'd already had the first round of Guanabana when Fraser came and asked if anyone wanted another. It would have been rude to say no! 2 in the space of an hour - beauty! I must actually mention at this point that Timmy bought my first one because I only had money for a Chicken Roll Naan Bread due to the collection at SS. Cheers lad!

9 Goal Year Update: <--- Nice title eh! This of course relates back to my blog about the goals I have set myself for the year and so every so often I shall update y'all. And please do challenge me on them! Friday was July 1st and I thought this was an ideal time to start the year long Bible reading. And I did, and it was good! I bought a biro and a highlighter so that I can mark out any verses that I like, and there's a few marked already! I have had to buy another pen though cos it leaked in my jeans and has stained it at church! 4 days gone and I'm loving getting into the Word, this could be awesome! Another of my goals was to be in the right church - whatever that means! I went to Vineyard in the morning having been to Burn (the youth Vineyard service) the week before. Sometimes you get one of those feelings about a church andyou wanna know more. Well that happened on Sunday. The service was good and challenging (same thing in my eyes) and the people are great! The leader came over and said hi to me (which impressed me hugely), a middle aged woman (oops - forgotten her name!) had a chat with me for about 15 minutes and I saw my hero Jon Day there. I shall be attending again, but after the States though.

Live 8: Wasn't it cracking!? We had a bbq at Giz's with about 25 of us, an interesting collection of people! We watched 12 hours of it and didn't get bored. Highlight for me was Kaizer Chiefs in the US rocking it up for English music around the world! I felt happy in the thought that the concert was raising awareness of the issues to do with justice and could imagine households around the country debating it at points, just like we did. At church on Sunday, the speaker spoke a little about it all. The main thing I heard was how disappointed he was with the answer to the question "where was the church at Live8?" Great question. And the answer: "nowhere". What a wasted opportunity to show our feelings on justice and get behind the event. It's almost as if we see all this good happening because of Geldof and Co, so why does the church need to intervene. But we need to be there supporting and show God's love for the poor through our actions. We didn't though. *slaps the wrist of all the leaders of the UK church*. So as Christians what can we do now? We can damn well pray! and hard! Vineyard are having a prayer morning on Wednesday (the start of G8) and I shall go along to that so that as a church we can shout out for justice and healing. I urge you all to pray on Wednesday and if you don't know what to pray for then just worship God with a pure heart. We need change. NOW.

You can come out now... I've finished my rant. I'm in Gillingham right now seeing Activate for the last time this year. I love these guys, they are awesome and I wished I'd spent more time with them this year but I know that I've got friends here. Gillingham will always be close to my heart as I have so many memories as a youngster here from seeing the other half of my family down here. Seeing Granny at her house, spending Boxing Day with my drunken cousins and Auntie and Uncle and watching the mighty Gillingham and Brighton play here (long story). So here's to you Gillingham and Activate. Here's to chav's, to YFC, to cheap record stores, to the Medway and to friendships!