Day Eight ~ Let's be a kid today

Today was the start of two days of mission work. After a night of familiar thunderstorms, which are very rare in these parts, we met with 15 youth ages 5-11 at St. Christopher's. Our task today would be to chaperone and lead them on an outing to Shibden Hall. Shibden Hall is the backdrop for the BBC/HBO series 'Gentlemen Jack', with an interesting history. While at Shibden Hall we walked to the manor house, split into three groups and had a scavenger hunt of the house and grounds before heading down to a playground for lunch. The DIOSWVA youth paired up and each pair had a group of 5 British children to look after. After lunch, we played a little more on the playground until it was time to leave for Halifax to have ice cream then returned to St. Christopher's. We had about an hour of rest time then gathered as a group to plan the evening activities with older youth from around St. Christopher's. The Americans put together a power point for Quiz night with trivia questions about American culture. At "half six" we gathered for pizza and trivia. A fun time was had by all, as we got to know each other. We finished up around 8 & tidied the hall. We settled on the back porch of the Vicarage for a relaxing evening and short debrief of the day. Asked about where did he find the hands and feet of Christ today, Cole remarked, "It was great to see how the outreach of the church here helps the young kids be part of this community. It was really fun being with them and having conversations with them.  One of the missions of the St. Christopher's is to provide a safe place for the youth in Holme Wood and  it is really obvious as it is the center of the kids lives here."