Friday, June 10, 2005

This week in London - Youth Clubs

This week at the Hub I had an interesting conversation with Tolga. Emma (a co-worker at the centre) is getting married next week. Tolga and I got to talking about marriage. He said he didn't ever want to get married. "What's the point, he said?" Most of his family has had an affair anyway, and marriages don't often last. Luke joined our conversation, and I asked him what he thought the point of marriage was. "It's to celebrate your love and show the other person how much you love them." It's probably the most interesting and serious conversation I've had with these teenage guys.
We also came up with new rules for the Hub this week. In addition to the usual "No alcohol, drugs, smoking, vandalism, etc." we have "no sexual harrasment" and my favorite "no bad attitudes". We've decided that we need to start getting tough with some of the guys, because we want the Hub to be a place where everyone feels safe, including our female staff and the girls who attend the Hub.
Last night were the clubs at Ley Street. We're really starting to develop some good relationships with some of the kids - especially some of the girls who come from a Sikh background. During story time, one of the girls summed up the story of persecution of the church by saying that the word of God about Jesus could not be stopped. I also had a good game of pool with one of the older guys.
Time to go - I'm actually writing this in the middle of moms & tots on Friday morning. We're having a party for Emma because it's her last day here before she goes home for the wedding.

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