Loving God. Loving People.

A day in the life of Tanya Srokosz…

Monday morning again…how does the weekend fly by so quickly?! 6.30 start, out of bed quickly, have a shower, get my breakfast and sit down to do my Bible study – excellent passage in Hebrews this morning. Text a verse round to a few people to encourage them and jump in the car to head to work.

Morning driving time is a chance for me to chat to God about my day and ask him to be part of it, to pray for people I care about and for situations that are taking time in my head.

8.00 – arrive at work, chat to the others on the early shift, put on the kettle and take the drinks order. What do I do? I am a Family Support Worker at a SureStart centre and the first face I see most mornings is Debbie Ricketts (see earlier blog) who is my boss. I love working with Debbie as we can encourage each other and pray together if we are struggling with situations during our working day.

Anyway, I’ve got my cup of tea, had a chat and spend the next hour or so catching up on emails and papaerwork and preparing for the visits I have that day.

Team meeting comes around at 9.40am, a great chance to see everyone and hear what is going on in the Children Centres, to share ideas and concerns.

12.00 – head out on a home visit to one of the families I am supporting to see how they are getting on and provide them with some parenting support and advice. What a privilege to have a job that allows you to invest in people’s families in the hope that they can reach their potential and access the support they need to cope with the many and varying pressures in their lives.

12.40 – back to the office, paperwork to do and definitely some lunch, my stomach is starting to rumble!

1-2.30 – New Birth Visits with a colleague, very enjoyable. We go out and visit families with new babies to tell them about the Children’s Centre and the support we can offer them, to advise them of all the services available to them, and also to see how they are settling into having a new baby.

Back to the office in time for Debbie’s tea round and spend the rest of the afternoon completing the paperwork from my visits, phoning other professionals involved with the families I work with and responding to emails. If I get a chance I will do some planning for a Stay and Play group I run later in the week.

All in all a good day. Drive home – this is a brilliant time for me to put on my Bluetooth headset and have a 30 minute uninterrupted chat with one of my family or friends, love it! Time to head round a friends for a cuppa after work and then out for dinner with some other friends before hitting my bed at about 11.30pm…lovely.

Day in the life of Sarah Perrin…

I like to be in work by 7.45am each day as it gives a lovely quiet hour to get some paperwork done before the chaos of a school day ensues, Thursday was no exception.  I have three main roles in school I teach Geography, I’m Head of Year 7 (which means that I have responsibility for the social & moral wellbeing and academic progression of 250 pupils) and I mentor failing/struggling teachers.  

Before school a couple of kids popped into the office to collect their daily report that monitors their behaviour.  Then during form time I saw some girls who were worried that their friend was being bullied, promising them I’d sort it out before the end of the day (adding it to my long ‘to do’ list).  Period one I was working with a teacher on behaviour management, she has a class of all year 10 boys – rather her than me – but she is making good progress.  During break time I had my weekly meeting with my form representatives.  After which I taught three lessons in a row.

When lunchtime finally arrived I made it back to my office to touch base with my pastoral assistant, to see what has been going on with the year group.  Fortunately it was a quiet morning so we sat down for a quick 10 minute lunch and had a chat about our plans for the weekend, which for me includes talking about going to church.

It isn’t long before I’m talking to various people about a number of ongoing (and a couple of new) issues.  In between all this I sort through my ‘to do’ list deciding what is most important for the rest of the day.  I phoned a couple of parents and responded to a few e-mails that have come in before I saw the pupils involved with the alleged bullying incident.  It was very sad talking to the girl involved as although I wouldn’t necessarily label it bullying a few people haven’t been particularly nice to her.  However combined with this she’s been keeping a lot to herself for a number of weeks which have compounded the problem, so we had a long chat about how to deal with such issues.  I then saw the other pupils involved who fortunately were very honest and admitted their part in it and accepted their punishment gracefully.

It was soon time for year 10 parents evening for, which lasted for 4 hours, by the time I got home, I was incredibly grateful to my lovely housemate who had made dinner.

So how is this a life of rescue?  Well as can be seen I come into contact with a huge number of people per day (on Thursday I would estimate it was 150-175), and each one has their own issues.  Whilst I am not allowed to be overt with sharing my faith with pupils I try to show each one of them that they are valued by the way that I treat them and by showing interest in each one of them.  Also when I am dealing with problems and giving advice I try to use biblical principles for how to act.  With my colleagues I can be more open although with most of them this is normally just mentioning church in conversations about the weekend etc.  I also would hope that they would say they see a difference in how I treat them and how I deal with pupils.  All I can do is continue to pray that God will use me and continue to give me the patience and strength to deal with the huge range of issues that arise on a daily basis.

Day in the life of Debbie Ricketts

The weekend goes so quickly, Monday is here before I know it but, I love Mondays. Don’t most people? I don’t think they do, but I really do. I look forward to the week ahead and being able to bring some change and hope to people’s lives. First things first though, Monday means biscuits, chocolates or cakes and fruit!! Not for me but for the staff team. I like to take in some nice things, so when we sit down for our team meeting for 2 hours I can cheer them up. It does help when we know we are going to have a busy week ahead.

My day started at 6.45am, with a cup of tea in bed from my wonderful husband. Then 7.30am I like to get to work so I can read my emails and get ready for what the day ahead has in store. I wonder what families we are going to meet today. Are we going to have to deal with any child protection issues? Will we see the mom and baby who came for the first time last week after moving into the area because she has escaped a violent partner? Will we have to find some furniture for a family who has recently arrived in the country and has come with nothing? Will the pregnant teenager come to her antenatal today to make sure the baby is ok? Has the benefit situation been sorted for the dad who has just been given custody of the children because his partner has chosen drugs over the family?

It may be one or all of these today. We need to be ready to support families no matter what their situation.

What do I do you are probably asking? I am a Family Support and Health Co-ordinator in a local SureStart Children’s Centre. I manage a great team of staff who offer support to families with children under 5yrs of age.

It might sound like doom and gloom but no its not. We may get a family come in who has had support from us and the life opportunities for their children have improved and they enjoy coming to the activities at the centre. A family who has just got their children back after going into care will come and say thank you for supporting them.  A mom with a new baby who felt isolated, but has now met lots of other new mom’s is enjoying her time with the baby and coming to activities.

When you see a child smiling because mom or dad have gained confidence to come out, are getting support with their drug use, or looking forward to the future makes every day worth while. When we get a ‘Thank you’ card you know it was worth it.

I should make time for lunch and do most days but I am always available for staff to come and ask questions or for advice about how to deal with a situation that has arisen. I never mind being interrupted. When 3pm arrives it’s usually time for a ‘cuppa’ and a biscuit if there’s any left!! Who’s going to make it today? I don’t mind until everyone shouts ‘YES PLEASE’, why did I ask? Not really, it’s nice to look after people. And… if it has gone quiet I might make everyone laugh by doing a bit of ballroom dancing in the middle of the office or sing a song. Is she mad you are thinking? No, I’m not mad I just like to bring some normality and lightness to what can sometimes be a hard day, I like to see people smiling and enjoying what they do.

It’s nearly time to go home and relax!! Even though I love my work I love to go home too. Oh no, I forgot, I’ve got a Governors meeting 4pm – 6pm, sorry Vince dinner won’t be ready. Never mind, its all part of life rhythms.

What have I learned today? More patience, ‘The Lord is my strength’ and it’s not always what we say but what we do.

Day in the life of Deborah Gray…

6.10am Wake up to alarm, groan, “I can’t do this”, listen out for house mate to get out of the shower, running through in my mind what seems to be the impossible list of things to do before the day is out. It is my last day at work before taking leave and a whole load of things were dumped on my desk the day before that needed me to make decisions on. I’m tired and would much rather roll over and pretend I’m already on holiday. This procrastination means I finally roll out of bed at 6:50am and I decide to put a chirpier head on and invite God into my day. Chat to God in the shower about whatever is on my mind, get ready for work and run out of the house to catch the train. I love this journey, my commute takes an hour on train, foot and metro and it’s the part of the day that I get to chat to God, perhaps listen to some worship music or read a book, right now I’m reading ‘safest place on earth’ by Larry Crabb, its all about a spirit filled life and a spirit filled community, I’ve been finding that I will read a bit and then ask God what that looks like for me. I have to say that this morning I’m not really up for Larry, and opt for skim reading the free newspaper, whilst in reality haphazardly trying to surrender my day to God. I know it is a day that has the potential to get me stressed and I want to instead lean on God and see things for what they really are.

As I get on the tram I bump into a new friend of mine who works in the same building as me but who I have got to know on my tram journey’s. A couple of weeks ago God had nudged me about asking her to join my book club even though I didn’t know her that well. She now has joined my book club and she also has come out with me and a few church friends to the ‘rush hour blues’ at the symphony hall last Friday. She’s asking me about my holiday and I return the question, this leads to me asking her a bit about her Buddhist faith, she is always asking me about church so I equally wanted to hear what’s important to her. We arrive at work and go our separate ways.

I walk upstairs and say hi to people in my team, have a chat with one colleague who has had a few days off, before starting my work. First job of the day is to discuss some cases with other colleagues in the building, I don’t have good news and I know there is the potential for them to become defensive, they are clearly not happy but in the conversation I have sought not to react to this and tried to acknowledge and value their perspective. It is important to me to be fair whilst needing to stick to a decision that has taken everything into account. I catch my mindset slipping into fear of what they think of me and remember that that was my previous way of thinking, my security comes through my identity in Christ and anyway, they know I’m just doing my job and I have built up a good rapport with staff since I’ve been there. I take a moment to regroup and then get a phone call from an old colleague, “instead of lunch can we meet now? “ Decision to put stress of work to one side and give sometime to my colleague over a cuppa. She is at a crossroads in her life and we have had many conversations over the last year, last summer I was reading the Tim Keller’s Prodigal God book and I couldn’t get her out of my head. I had mulled over whether to buy her the book for a while and had finally bought it for her as a Christmas present, this was the first time I had seen her properly since before Christmas. As she finished describing her situation it just felt like the right moment so I gave it to her, she looked at it and hugged it to her for the rest of our conversation like it was hope to cling onto – which in reality it is. As we get up to leave I give her a big hug and she said she would definitely read it, she looked like she was about to cry.

I go back to the office and defuse an escalating argument over the email between two colleagues. In reality I am thinking that I could do without this on a day like today. I have practice supervision later in the day with two people in my team and I need to concentrate on my observation notes, whilst I am feeling pressured, what I write impacts them so I again want to be constructive and fair. I need to focus and need a bit of perspective and so plug in my ipod and listen to a few lines of a worship song and ask God to help me, I then focus and get loads done. The day goes on much like this, supervision goes well, I have facilitated my colleagues to identify practice they are pleased with which gets them motivated and I can see them talk with enthusiasm. This puts them in a place to receive some constructive feedback which they are able to take on board graciously.

I return to my desk to work through the pile of referrals that has grown since the morning, I touch base with the colleague who is covering me while I am off and finally tie up all the loose ends. I leave work an hour late, but to be honest considering it all, that’s good and whilst I did have my moments, it had helped to include God in the stressful moments. I’m thinking this as I head to the tram stop, it’s to the cricket ground I now head for the evening. After setting up I enjoy good conversation with people that are on Freedom in Christ and Alpha. There is an amazing atmosphere and people are getting to know each other and sharing in each other’s lives over food. I realise that rather than feeling tired, I feel light and peaceful. In Freedom in Christ, I am encouraged by hearing stories from everyone; of grappling with truth, of changes they are beginning to see and things they find it hard to get their heads around. I share a bit about things I used to find hard and realise just how far God has taken me.

As I leave Freedom in Christ I get a text from the friend I saw earlier, it said she had already read the intro and chapter one of the book, she was reading it whilst also watching a programme on infinity and the big bang, she said that the book made more sense.

What does this have to do with rescue? Well I am reminded that God has rescued me not only for eternity but he has rescued me from fear of failure and of what people think. Today really challenged those areas, but God graciously showed me he was quite able to deal with it. And in all that he amazingly puts people in my path who I can talk to and relate to, who I can be friends with, who might just want to know about the God that is so important to me.

day in the life of Jackie Medler

My life’s a mess……..now before you start thinking we should pray for the Medlers ………..or perhaps they need counselling I should explain what I mean….. for the last three weeks or more we have been having some extensive work done on our home that we moved into last September. Floors up, old plaster removed, central heating pipes re-directed, new electrics, fire and fire surround removed…. and today that’s about where we’ve got to except that even in the “good” rooms upstairs we’ve now had carpets and floor boards up!

It’s pretty typical that on my “day off” I get to do a 101 things and today has been no exception – had to get up earlier than I would have liked as workmen came at 7.45am and it was non-stop from then on…

…Life is hectic but at the end of the day there’s still time to ponder how good God is ….and be thankful that I had a chance to talk about the work I’m involved with at The Bridge to the carpet fitters – although looking back have no idea how we got onto the subject!

As we’ve been doing this work at home we’ve revealed much about our house that would have otherwise been a mystery. Looking beneath the floor boards of our lounge revealed a very real danger – we could have caught fire! It would have been all too easy to have carried on re-decorating and having a new floor and been blissfully unaware of the danger beneath our feet. The electrics that were added to the previous extension were, to say the least, unsafe.

The work we are doing has become more extensive, caused more disruption (we now have no power to our one existing useable downstairs room) and been more costly but without it …..all that we are doing could have been for nothing.

This has been a really practical lesson as well and I’m appreciating why Jesus told stories and used everyday experiences to teach valuable lessons. My circumstances at home have illustrated to me the importance of what we aim to do at The Bridge, where I work. We help people look at the real situations in their lives as they approach recovery and part of that is exposing the hidden issues that perhaps they haven’t faced before. If we, and they, fail to do this then it is literally like papering over the cracks in their lives and so recovery (or rescue) like this often becomes a deeper and more extensive process than first thought. I need to remember as well that for those I work with the process may also be more painful and more costly than they first thought and I need to have patience and real love for them in order to reflect God’s love to them as that they get to have the opportunity of real recovery and hope for the future!

Day in the life of…Mark McGill

Had to work all week-end (23hrs work) to help a colleague and meet a deadline – got Thursday off instead.

New car arrived at dealership several weeks late, but I couldn’t have it as the e-paperwork was lost. It takes several days and phone calls to put right, much to the merriment of my open plan office colleagues who listen in, finding it hard to believe how I remained so calm throughout. Able to share with a colleague how I have learned to cope with anger. Quite independently, a stressed out colleague and I have an impromptu chat for another 1/2hr, he wants to borrow a book given to me by a counsellor (who just happened to be a Christian) called ‘Calm Down’ by Dr Paul Hauck ISBN 0-85969-319-8. Those meetings and prayer permanently change my life in 1998. I don’t have to tell him that I am a Christian as everybody know and word sure gets around.

Picked up new car and started to fill it up. Silly me I thought, I must have overfilled it, rather a lot as it happens as I discover I am standing in a growing pool of diesel, rather than running water. Get home only to find diesel still pouring out nearly as fast as I had been pouring it in. Recovery man plugs the hole in the fuel tank under the seat with a metal bolt he just happened to have in his van, we both have a laugh about it.

Day off arrives and I start it with an 11km hill scramble at dawn in Great Comberton (South of Pershore). Intermittent rain cannot dampen my spirits and I appreciate God’s beautiful and scenic creation and praise His name. Return home to change and warm up as I am feeling ‘chilled out’ in both senses of the word. Return to the garage to get fuel tank fixed.

Parked car swings out in front of me without looking. I stop and hoot but to no avail. Instead I get a ring side seat as the driver swipes across the front offside wing of my new car. “Sorry… I didn’t see you” she says. Initially speechless but calm throughout, I replied that it must be disappointing for all three of us (she was just dropping her friend off.) In the dealership, I won the ‘celebrity of the day’ award for setting the record of having a hole in the fuel tank and a crash on their forecourt all within the first 36hrs. Staff at the dealership thought I was taking it rather well and philosophically… it is only a lump of metal after all.

Went to the bank to sort out the newly activated card only to find that neither of us could read the new pin code and the card got suspended. Patiently accepted the fact that I would have to wait another 7 days (18 in total) for yet another new pin number to be sent out to me.

After a 2.5km (100 length) swim at Tudor Grange I felt chilled out once again. Got a No.1-2 haircut, contacted the insurance co’s and bought Jackie some nice flowers as I thought at least one of us could have a nice and happy ending to the day.

Biggest laugh and surprise of the day:- Knowing how angry and violent I used to be as a young man before I knew the grace and peace of God, that I not only remained calm and at peace throughout, but I found myself laughing and smiling at the wonderful and unexpected turn of events. What a day it has been, one that I won’t forget in a hurry!

And finally…switched the computer on to find an email from Adrian asking me to do a blog for the first time ever – thank goodness that I had something good to write about. Better than a day in the life of an office-based accountant!  Where does rescue come into it you may well ask?  Well God clearly rescued me (I’m a changed man!) and I’m pretty sure that some of those around me might have noticed too. Being a Christian continually rubs off on those around us, paticulary in the most difficult of times.

Psalm 145:8
The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

Luke 2:14
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

…Mark (Clarkson) McGill.

Real people…real stories…

…church is not a building, an institution or a structure, it is people! People who all connected together through their faith in Jesus however people who still each have individual stories.

This part of the Oasis blog is here to celebrate these stories as they are what makes Oasis.

Hope you enjoy them !

Love,

Adrian