keep saving me

I try to be good enough, but I'm nothing without your love. Saviour please, keep saving me.
Saviour please, keep saving me.

Back

Hi friends!
I have made it to the States and I am moved in to my new town and on my 2nd day of my new job. I am living in Dassel, MN which is about an hour from Minneapolis/St.Paul. It's a small, friendly town and I really like it so far. I am working as a youth worker in a church, hopefully doing some coaching in the school and doing some things in the community as well. I am looking forward to this opportunity and am excited to meet the youth! I am heading today to look at an apartment, and tomorrow I will be looking at 2 more! Never went apartment hunting before...yikes! :)

Thank you all for your continued support through my year abroad and return. You are the best. I love you all!

XXX

Hardest week of my life.

Hello friends and family,
I am getting ready to make the transition back to the States. This week has been absolutely chock-a-block full of saying goodbyes, having bon voyage get togethers, unwrapping presents, writing cards and shedding a few tears (a few more that a few...) I am realising reality of leaving these people that I love, and dealing with it the best I can. I am very excited to see all of you though, will need to make plans to visit, talk and call you. I leave in a day and a bit, on Tuesday at 8:55 am England time, so almost 3am your time. I will get in at 7 pm US time on Tuesday. Looking forward to it but dreading the last goodbyes here as well. It's hard to leave such a strong, warm, welcoming community. But I just thank God for them and for the blessing they have been in my life. I am lucky to have been able to be with them for 11 months. I love you all.
peace.

Musical

We had our musical, 'Let's Rock!' The kids were BRILLIANT!!! I am like a proud parent! They were really great, adjusting to some technical difficulties, they were absolute stars. I will be getting my copy of it soon so I am excited..because when you are directing, you don't get to really watch it..too frantic. Ha. But they were smiling and talking loud! :) After the show we had a BBQ and that was great fun. At the end, it was time for goodbyes to my kids, which was sad but I know they will do great things!

Lasts

Hi friends-
I have just had my last X Force last night. X Force is the youngest kids club we have that I have been helping plan and run every fortnight. It just didn't hit me that it was my last one until I was sitting with my small group and my girls were all asking me about it and giving me lots of hugs. While singing the last song I will sing on that X FOrce stage, it hit me. Singing, 'Help me be your eyes Lord Jesus.." my eyes were opened and I just soaked in the atmosphere and smiley kids! Then Sarah had me come back on stage, kneel on the tarp and one of the youngest kids came up and dumped gunge on my head! Oh what a night. Ha. Full of hugs after that. It is one of the best clubs I have been a part of and sad to say goodbye! Now I am getting ready for one of my going away parties, that is taking place tonight. And the goodbyes have officially begun... :(

You be You

Hi friends.
I have just returned from a good night of Rock Solid, our middle school youth group. We are rehearsing for our musical, Let's Rock! It has been a blast choreographing it and teaching the young people. They are ace actors, so fun to work with; their excitement is contagious. Tonight we learned the song called, 'You be You' which is all about being ourselves, not trying to be someone we are not because we think they are better than us. We are all made by God and special. It is so clear from being with these young people how true this is. They are all so unique and gifted in their own ways. We have one kids who is a wonderful singer and actor, dancer and performer. He is confident in his abilites and definitely shines on stage. Then we have a lad who is very amiable. He always does as he is told and is friends with everyone. There is a girl who has a great sense of humour and isn't afraid to be silly even with pressures at her age to be always cool. She enjoys life and laughter. All of the rest of them have their own uinqueness as well, but those are just a few. It is great to see them in a new atmosphere, doing singing and dancing, instead of what I have seen, sports. I love it and love seeing them grow in confidence on stage!

last conference :(

I have just returned from my last TFG conference. It was so lovely getting together with my friends once again, but extremely sad to say goodbye to them. Many of them I will see in October at our re-entry, but many of them I will not see again, some maybe not ever. We had the most beautiful service this morning, sharing in our tears, our hugs and in communion. I will miss each and every one of them dearly. I am so blessed to be a part of such a loving community.

Thank you!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! The FUN RUN went great! The weather was absolutely perfect, people showed up, the run went wonderfully, the toddle waddle was adorable and church outside was a hit. We had quite a few families stay for church that don't normally come to our church and that was great to see. Many people commented on how well it went and that it should become an annual event! Whoooo! God is good. Thank you all. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Prayer Request

Please please please pray for this coming Sunday and the Family Fun Run and outdoor service we are having. I am VERY nervous and really hope we get good numbers of people coming. And of course good weather! :) Thank you all.
Peace.

Activities

A new week. A busy week. We are getting ready for another X Force night on Friday. We will be talking about perseverance...and I am no longer in the weekly play...I unfortunately got killed last week, I was being "Stephen" in the week we talked about Stoning Stephen. But very excited to plan for this night! Big event on Sunday, the Family Fun Run. I am extremely nervous for the event, but pray that it will go smoothly and we will get a good number of people. The last thing I will be working on this week are the 2 camps we are running come June 1-4. One is the drama camp and the other the sport camp. We are needing to finish everything and make all our final plans. I am very excited but will be even more once we get things more figured out.

Hope you all have a wonderful week...
Peace and Love.
A.

Update

Hiya friends and family,
I am sorry I have been a little slow in the blog-writing...I will try to do better!

So I am only down to 3 months left here in the beautiful land of England. To some that may seem like a lot still, but I know how quick the 8 months have already flow by..and so 3 seems very short. I am definitely having mixed emotions about it all, thinking of this year coming to a close. It is scary, sad, exciting to see what is next, yet a part of me just wants to hold on to what I have here. I love this place and the people I now call my friends and family. Let me tell you a little bit of why I love them...
First there is Sarah, my supervisor and one of my good friends here. We do everything together when it comes to work. We ride to work together, work on our youth nights together, de-stress by punching and kicking each other at boxercise and quite often vent to each other. The other day, Sarah and I were setting up for one of our youth events and started singing a song (like ALWAYS). But this particular time it just hit me how unique it really is. We just started singing some song in harmony and it just makes me smile to think how good of friends we have become. I love being able to go to work and be myself, and sing and burp, joke around and express any difficulties or concerns I have. Thanks Sarah!!

Then there is my lovely little brother, Daniel. He is the most precious boy, always giving me cuddles and telling me he missed me. Today, after being gone for the weekend, he ran up the stairs and said, "Amanda, you are my best friend." He has said this to me before, but it is SOOO cute. And then he gave me a big cuddle (hug).

I unfortunately came down with tonsillitis...yes it was painful, but man o man, the care and concern my friends gave me was unbelievable. I went on holiday to visit some friends, and while there I received a call from one of my good friends. She was simply checking up on me, seeing if my medicine was working and if I was feeling better. It made me feel so loved.

My life has become so involved in the church and in the youth clubs, I am going to have a hard time leaving it all. BUT I still have 3 months...and let me tell you...we have LOADS planned still. I cannot wait to have our church retreat this coming weekend, followed by 2 clubs, then our Family Fun Run/Smelly Church, Sports Camp, Drama Camp, Fun Day...I think these are going to be great 3 months...

I cannot stop but think back to the days I was saying goodbye to my family and friends at home. I was sad, yes, but I knew I would probably see them again in 11 months. Now, thinking about leaving in such a short amount of time, I realise that I may not see these friends and family again, and if I do, it won't be for a while. Oh how we will have changed and life will be so different. Oh life. Oh future....

but for now, I will soak up every moment I have here...give everything I can to these events and to my youth, and embrace my family and my friends. I thank God every day for this place and for these people and the memories I have made with them. They are beautiful.

Answered Prayer

A quick story I want to share with you all.

As you know, I am running a Youth Alpha course, which is an introductory course to Christianity for youth from 11-15. Two sessions ago we asked the question, "Does God heal today?" I was really nervous for this session because of the fact that at the end of the session we were going to ask all of the young people if anyone wanted prayer for healing. I have never been a part of a healing service before so it was all quite new for me. Well, we got to that part and the youth all just kind of looked at us...no one wanting to come forward...until one girl said she would. This girl was having major allergy problems, and they were going to have to get rid of their new dog. The plan was to give the dog away sometime during that week because she was having to use and inhaler and just couldn't deal with the allergies. So Stephen and I asked all the other young people to join us in laying hands on this girl and we all prayed for her. The session ended and I left for another week of work. The next week came for Youth Alpha and this girl was calling others outside to come and see her dog. It was a cute little puppy and I was excited to see it...and then thought, wait..I thought you were getting rid of the dog! She later told us all that her allergies were so much better, she was off her inhaler and the doctor said they should keep the dog at least a month or two more to see how it goes. Stephen and I just looked at each other and started giggling out of joy! God DOES heal today...and we exerienced it first hand. God is SO good.

Holiday!

I just spend 5 days on holiday...in ITALY! It is a beautiful place..a different kind of world, with no cars and all the hustle bustly that goes with them! Everywhere you go is either by foot or by boat and it is lovely! The peaceful atmosphere was just what I needed..time to relax and enjoy the company. I met Darin there and it was so wonderful to see him!! We were able to travel to some neighbouring islands, walk ages getting lost around San Marco, eat LOADS of pizza and pasta..and he was even able to experience eating a bass...completely whole...sick. OH and we witnessed Venice under flooding and a snowstorm! Who would have thought!?

If you ever get the chance to go to Italy, I would definitely say you should go! It is a place like no other and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to experience it. It has definitely added more to the travel itch I already have!

Now I am back to work...some exciting things going on soon are:

-Soccer Sunday this coming Sunday - an afternoon at the Soccer Dome with the youth, playing football! Should be a great time.

-Big Breakfast the following Sunday, 28th of March. This is for our older 2 youth clubs, a time for us to have a meal, go to church together and then play some fun games.

-Good Friday service and activities for the youth

-Easter Special service!!

-DAD VISITS!!!! London here we come! :)

Peace to you. <><

Another week of The Pulse...and an even better turnout! I am thrilled beyond belief at the outcome of our second run at this week long club for the young people of the community. If you remember, the first time we had this club we had around 15 kids a day...and this time we had in the 20's! There were many kids there that don't come to our church or any of our clubs which was the most exciting part. AND we got a basketball hoop donated! Woo hoo!! So I was able to take the kids outside and play some ball..it was so fun!

The week was centered around being loved by God...that we are all created by God and He loves each of us so much. That we are all unique and should not be afraid to be ourselves because we were made that way by God. So often we forget that.

I ask for prayers for this upcoming week. This Friday we are taking our Youth Alpha group on a weekend away. This weekend is centered around the Holy Spirit and is hopefully going to be really good for them. Please pray that God will speak through our words, the kids will feel open to share their thoughts and feelings, that we are safe and have a great time.

Peace and love to all of you!

<><
Amanda Ruthe

Big Conference

A week in Wales, a week of learning and discussing, a week of making new friends and meeting with old, a week of being in the mountains, a week of comfort and worship. God is good. All the time. But especially these past 4 days. I was with all the other Time for God volunteers, there were supposed to be 90-100 of us, deep in the heart of Wales. I think Wales is the most beautiful place I have been to...full of green green countryside, loads of sheep, mountains, and the air smells wonderful. The week was full of small group time, where we discussed how our year has been going, any problems that we might be having, and where to go next. The last question wasn't quite answered for me yet..but in time...I met so many new people and they were all so lovely and it was a great time being surrounded by other volunteers. I got to see my YAGM friends and that was a blast! As one of them told me, it fills her heart to be with us, and I couldn't agree more. I love all of them so dearly and so enjoy being able to spend time together. So much time was spent giggling and sharing stories, playing basketball and table tennis, bananagrams and drinking tea! We went on a hike up the mountain where I got to really admire the beauty of the country...seeing miles beyond miles of green (and of course some white from snow!) I came home very tired but also awake. My eyes have been re-opened and my heart full. The conference has reenergized me and I am excited to start working again here with my youth. God is good.

Youth Alpha!

Oh my goodness! I just got home from our first run at Youth Alpha. It is a course for 10years + kids, our oldest being 15 and we are basically exploring what it means to be a Christian. We are going to tackle some good, tough questions and hopefully learn a lot about ourselves, God and each other. We had 10 young people come tonight, which is about the numbers we were hoping for. Tonight we talked about "Who is Jesus?" and it was really a great night. I was very nervous, as was my co-leader Stephen, but it was better than I could have expected or hoped for! The kids were very responsive and engaged and gave some brilliant thoughts and questions. God was so clearly there with us, helping the night move smoothly and keeping the YP attentive and interested. Thank you for your prayers, I cannot wait for the next session!

Amanda Ruthe