oxygennews

Pray for New Malden

Andy Norris
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Hey! just thought i'd drop an insight into one of the major things at Rm1 at Coombe boys which occurred yesterday. We decided to do a collage activity in which the lads had to rip,stick, and annotate images onto A3 paper.

The collage consisted of things they liked things they disliked, and the more personal things such as things which were of a significant importance towards the boys, such as family or a place which was specifically special to them. It was fantastic to see once all the boys had finished the collage the different contrasts between what was special to them. Although the majority tended to make a football collage of their favorite team (which by the way wasn't the idea!) some did actually make some deep and personal reflections. Many shared of how their parents were split up, one boy described how his dad would just randomly buy games consoles for no reason, almost as an effort to buy him over from his mother. If you could pray for this boy that would be brill!

I am taking a number of the lads to play football at goals in tolworth so if you could pray that there are no injuries and that relationships really grow.

Could you also pray the urban nites new malden team is given direction by God in which way to go about our tuesday nights. We have been going out on several occasions and just not finding anyone,or even finding kids then never seeing them again.

Cheers Dudes in a bizzal
C2 Andy x

2 Stories in 1 Week

Rob Byles
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

So on the 8th November, Oxygen had the first 'Vent' of the G8 team. I had been lead contact for this, and at the tim I took on the job I was very excited about being able to inject my self into the event. However, things soon got complicated...

Bands, didn't reply, bands were busy, bands eventually on the bill pulled out with days to go, most of the regular volunteers were unavailable, I couldn't decide what to wear... I had no end of problems! But God was very good to me - one the first and had fallen into place, they were then incredibly active in making it a success and I couldn't have done it with out them. So many thanks again to 'Upon Depths of despair' - your pessimistic name does not reflect your optimistic hearts!

The gig was a great success, and God clearly worked - The guys in the prayer tent really were allowed to really speak into people's lives by the power of the spirit, we got good numbers for the first one (85), and it was safe and fun. Heavy even for my tastes, but the whole thing was a great experience. And a good friend of mine (Phil GC, who did Oxygen in it's first year and introduced me to it) turned up, further increasing my enjoyment of the evening, and prolonging it to 3am...

In addition to this week I had my first 'Going Deeper' session wherein we spend time with particular young people outside the projects. I took some of my Kingsnympton boys for Pizza and the conversation flowed easily throughout the two hours. From finding out where they stood on the 'God thing' purely by how they reacted to being in a church) to the ins and outs of wrestling we covered a great range of topics that have made talk whilst on projects a much more viable option. This spells good things in transforming Kinsnympton from being a purely entertaining environment to one where people feel they are cared for and invested into. In my mind, that desperately needs to happen. Therefore, I have every faith that it will. Mark my words.

More Going Deeper: on Surbiton's Alpha & Kingston's Kingsnympton estates.

i love kingsnympton 016.jpg
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

The next going deeper challenges facing Oxygen are to find churches and groups to take on the work on Surbiton's Alpha and Kingston's Kingsnympton Estate. In both these areas, we want to build on the good foundation of relationships laid down in the previous years.

Please pray for us as over the coming months we continue to see how God is opening doors to make this possible and how we can follow through, taking measured but inspired steps of faith

Going Deeper at Christchurch New Malden

Nathan Larkin: External Youthworker, Christchurch New Malden
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Having moved from being a Gap Year to church worker, Nathan has faced some significant personal and work related challenges in his first few months of his post. Having found that his target young people had disappeared during the summer, he has been hard at work with the Oxygen Gap Year workers walking and praying around the streets of New Malden looking for God's direction and young people to make contact with.

During this time of trial he has also faced a personal loss as a good friend and mentor back in Ireland was suddenly taken ill and unfortunately passed away. Despite these difficult first few weeks Nathan has started to make some new contacts with young people and he remains focused on New Malden's young people seeking to deeper and further in discovering and following Jesus.

Please pray for Nathan as he continues to rebuild local contacts and as he considers

Going Deeper at St Peters Norbiton

Wit Hong: External Youthworker, St Peters Norbiton
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Going Deeper at St Peters Norbiton
Wit started the year having to restart Rock SOlid with a complete new team of workers as Debbie James who had previously voluntariuly run ROck Solid took time off to have a baby. During the first few months Wit has not only established contact with the young people, but has also started a weekly discussion group that has already covered topics including death, life, knife crime and belonging! She is now working towards establishing a weekly Sunday afternoon youth service/ drop in on the Cambridge Estate as well starting a new evening youth service at St Peters. Pray for Wit as she takes this work onto the next steps, as she seeks to establish the new services and going deeper discussions

Butterfly vs. evil spiderman

30102008209
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Suburban soul- an impression

For four days in October half term oxygen is very involved in helping run Suburban Soul. Organised by various churches in Kingston and New Malden. Everyone is eagerly joining in, whether as a guitarist in the worship band or as rumba dancers in the old people's home.

During the week some of us had more guts than others and faced up to the challenge of creative biscuit decoration and are still lying helpless in bed as a result: not tough enough to survive the enormous and inavoidable consumption of blue and pink icing sugar without scathe. Right at the beginning it was clear what my post of danger was to be: face painting. Now this may not seem to amount much at first sight, but have you ever tried to paint a spider's web onto the face of a restless three-year-old, or to convince a seven-year-old girl that a blue butterfly is just as pretty as a pink one, the pink paint having run out? Then again one has the limitation that there should be no horrid faces. Of course, no child wants to look like a ghost or a monster or a vampire.

Luckily, superheroes never look scary, and if you use enough glitter, even evil spiderman looks like a butterfly.

Finding ID in Tolworth

Katie Friend
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Hello there! I would really appreciate prayer as I begin to lead the Tolworth ID project on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! I am very excited about this program. I spent some time last week outlining goals for the group, and look forward to working towards those goals, with the help of some truly excellent volunteers. :)

I am hoping, through the course of the rest of this year, to help them learn to recognize and express their emotions, present themselves well to others, discover their personalities, make things around them beautiful on a limited budget, and gain body awareness through dance. Thank you for your prayers and support!

What is Rm1 in Korean?

Seung Kwan Kim
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

Hi, I wanted to give you a quick update so you could pray for me. I am please to report that most of my projects are mostly fine. Further to the prayer request from a couple of weeks ago in Korean Club, I'm having a good relationship with those guys, and which is really great.

However this week the Korean work is set to grow as for in a new development I will begin work with Korean Boys who are attending in Coombe boy school. This is an exciting new focus for Oxygen’s Korean work, instead of working with young people after school, I am providing support to the Korean students around the school day – providing mentoring, support and help with their English. I also hope in time to be able to encourage them to come along to Rm1 and get to know us there. From there I hope over future weekend to run other events such as talent shows, basketball competitions and the alike.

So this is my prayer request for this week

Working with Korean young teenage boys is sometimes really difficult, they often are closed and don’t want to chat. Could you therefore pray for relationship between me and Korean guys.

Pray too for this new focus for Oxygen’s work, that it would grow, have a great impact and that many Korean teenagers, not just in Coombe Boys, but across the Borough would be able to be supported

The dark power of Wii, episode 2

Anne Pawlak
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

In addition to a large number of games and equipment to help pass the time after school, Rm1 Coombe also has a so-called 'whiteboard' - perfectly white, as the name suggests, and which with its very presence is more or less begging you to test your dexterity with a good thick black marker pen to give purpose to your artistic impulses and to adding thought-provoking slogans, or even to play at being teacher. We realised how useful this was at the beginning of the month, as using the whiteboard we were soon debating questions and topics which had been written up on the board, stimulating small talk, conversation and even sometimes deep discussions!

Last week it was my turn to prepare the whiteboard for the topic which was fair trade, so with measureless enthusiasm I attacked two boys who were harmlessly engaged in trying to knock Lego Indiana Jones figures off a cliff (the new Wii game).

I could have asked them for any question that might occur to them around cash crops, exploitation and fair trade...but my enthusiasm gave way first to mild disappointment and then to total frustration. Every attempt to persuade those two youth to give utterance to any statement of more than three words was a failure. I had to concede that, under the influence of the wii, I was about as interesting to them as a lettuce to a shark.

So I reached the end of last week and I was disappointed and had begun to have serious doubts about my suitability as a Youthworker, but unbeknown to me, things were about to change and the young people at Rm1 Coombe were getting ready to surprise me.

Chocolate bananas rule- or the dark power of the wii weakens
With nerves like piano wires and a few new English expressions calculated to check the boys' squabbles and misdemeanours, off I went to work. But my expectation, that I would find pandemonium, was not fulfilled. What happened instead was this: as we were preparing the daily snacks [fair trade chocolate bananas, as a subtle reference to last week's white board discussion topic] one boy delightedly explained the difference between fair trade food and the rubbish food they use in their cooking lessons.

One other boys were impressed by the amazing taste of the chocolate and asked for more information about fair trade, and we finished the Thursday evening session with a song of praise to fair trade fruit and chocolate...made up on the spot.

be blessed
Cookie (Anne)

The Death of a President

Anna Nunn
Originally uploaded by Oxygen KB YFC

The kids at Rm1 Hollyfield (mostly yr 7s) seem to have a collective fascination with world politics. Although I've had to explain several times why assassinating George Bush would NOT solve all the world's problems, on the whole they seem surprisingly well informed and up to date with what is going on in the world, and how the decisions made in the White House have affected the rest of the world.

The American election has been debated almost every day for the past month. It has been both encouraging and inspiring to see how these young people not only care about different situations around the world, but also have opinions and ideas about what they would do, given the chance, to make the world a better place. Most of them are overjoyed at the result of the American election, and I can only pray that the adults and political figures whom they are trusting to create a safe and healthy world for them to grow up in do not let them down. I have every faith that when these young people grow up, they will do exactly the same for the generations following them.

Could you pray for more conversations of belief and opinion at Rm1 Hollyfield, pray that we would be able to share with them our certain hope and future
Could you pray for the continuing increase in the numbers of young people attending Rm1 Hollyfield