Fall is here...

Well fall is here. Sorry it has been so long since I last posted on my blog. Well life is busy. I have been enjoying American life and seeing some more of the states.

For starters the youth group has been growing and is taking up more of my time. This has been interesting and challenging because my kids are both amazing and huge pain in the butt. But its all good. Church is also keeping me busy and still learning the whole American deal. I am also learning how much I still have to learn to be a great leader and how weak I actually I am. And how much I stil have to go.

I still really miss home. And everything else is good. My life seems to have ups and downs and then I look at my kids and see how worth the downs.

I also juts have to dry down my road and look at the wonderful colours of fall and see how amazing Gods worlds is and how he did a good job of it. I will be back on the posting front...

Need a catch up..

Been a while since I posted last, so I am catching up on a little bit of time. Well I now have left the state of Maryland to go to a theme park and also been to watch the Ravens (who won) better than my football team in the UK which officially suck bad now.

Anyway enough about sport and on to life I have been really busy with work. The youth group has grown significantly to about 20 kids and is going all the time. I love my kids very much they challenge me every time I meet with them and come out with the most beautiful things that if the adults just sat and listened they would hear a group of people who get God because they haven’t been distorted by the all of the world views and just get God. For instance a kid in my group came out “why does the church spend so much money on the inside of it when the world needs God so much”. He got it he gets what God wants.

This is what I enjoy most about my job is these kids are great. So I have started thinking about my dissertation next year and am now looking at spiritual formation of young adults as my main topic so far. It is a huge passion of mine not to do youth group for the sake it but to do it to further all of the thing we want to further with adults. So I guess you will hear more of this over the coming months as I throw ideas around in my head…

Well all is going well over the pond and I am very thankful for all the messages of support.

Need a catch up..

My New baby and a quick update

So I thought I better post about my new baby. My brand spanking new Mac Book Pro. I am very impressed with it altho it has left a huge whole in my wallet. It was worth every penny. I love her. shes all silver and shiny. And I actually using her fore a good purpose. Like graphics, one areas of job other than being a youth intern is too do some of the graphic work. So I have done alot of posters and flyers etc. I really enjoy this side of my job. However I am beginning to have to get use to just sitting behind a computer for hours in a day. Altho my new toy is helping make that easier.

An update..

Things are going so well.. I would like to say a massive thankyou to all my familes over here. I am learning slowly to call this place my home. People have been so good to me here. Youth Group is going so well we are considering spiliting up again. So thats postive and my team is great. church is going well, I am beginning to get my head around there terminology. Life is tough over here still because I dont have my friends and family but I am beginning to get other friends and other family.

Hope you are well..

Ali

Prayer Letter

Hello Everyone,

Well here is my second prayer letter from over the pond. Well life is very interesting and quite different from what I expected. Although I am enjoying it I still miss Knutsford and all my friends and family. So that is the first thing you could all pray for is my continuing settling in process.

Anyway this is my house (picture that wouldn’t send so use your imagination) that I am living in and with my lovely host who are called Dallas and Betty Pearson. They have two grown up daughters named LeAnn and Missy. I get on really well with both of them and its just like one big happy family. I am ever so grateful for all they have done for me.

So since we last spoke I have been really busy with church life and meetings and everything else that is involved in working for a church. My boss the pastor Bruce Hopler is a great guy and has been a massive influence on me beginning to feel at home in this crazy place. I have had a Youth Group ‘Launch Lunch’ which was a lunch to launch my team’s vision for the work of young people in Cornerstone, this went really well. I shared my testimony, which was quite scary, but seemed to come across really well.

I had a great visit from the Pearson family. We went to DC and did some sight seeing in temperatures of over a 100 degrees, which was so hot, and we all lost a few pounds. So my first to DC was really nice. And it was nice to see one of my best friends in the world.

Coming up in my life in the next month that I could really use your prayer for the starting of the youth group, which meets on a Wednesday night and this will be interesting to see how people react to the ideas we have and hopefully we will see lives changed.

Prayer Support

• My continuing missing home
• Settling in
• Pulse Youth ministry and the youth group
• For continuing health and getting sleep
• And for all the guys over here that are about to go off to college

I really appreciate all your support and please email me and send me letters keeping me updated on life.
God Bless Ali x

Pulse Youth Ministry

Hey Guys well Pulse Youth Ministry started with a bang. Sorry Addison, well we had about 10 kids tonight for our start and it seemed to go ok. Apart one the kids was sick, well I am so sorry she is the church Admin persons daughter and I felt ever so bad. But hey you live and learn. So we had our first group and it went really well and I was happy with how it went and the kids seem to respond really well to what we tried to do.

We also had a launch lunch on the 26th a Sunday after church which I though went extremely well and we had about 30/40 kids and parents discussing the document we wrote and it was a great time of discussion and me sharing my story of the car crash and all.

So life has been really busy.. keep in touch and pray for all my kids they are the best!!!

ps. massive thank you to my favourite Welsh family the Tyler family for the Logo, its all for you Huw!!!

Velvet Elvis

So I have started reading Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis apart from loving the graphic work of it. I really like Rob Bell and love the analogies he uses. He speaks about stuff, I feel very strongly about, and issues in our faith that we need to address.

He gives a great challenge I wanted to get some thoughts on it. He says 'The challenge for Christians today is to live with great passion and conviction, remaining open and flexible, aware that this life is not the last'. Wow some challenge to a faith in apparent decline. Tell me what you think?

Tough First's

So went to my first funeral, was a colleague ff whom I really like called Terri Bouma, her father died. This was my first ever funeral, wow wee the two kids Jenna (18) and Alyssa (14) were amazing. They held up alot better than I would have. An inward beauty shined from within them. I was cut deep by death and had alot to think about since then. What would happen if someone from home died? I just prayed Gods will over all my family and am grateful I know where they will be whatever happens, one day we will all be together in heaven. Rest of week has flown by. Had a weekend full of parties with good church foke. Its amazing hearing all there issues and knowing the world is full of problems and there not dis-similar all over the world. This year is going to teach me alot about my ministry and how I fits in with all I do in the future.

The Willoughby's have been in town this week which has been fun and great to have them. I really appreciate the issues they have had with moving country because now I am in there situation. It has made me think of all i miss from home the evenings me Ron and Dee would sit out on the deck and talk about the world and how we can do it all better. I love you all.

Another Update from Stateside

Well life is going well apart from what seems life a Johnson weakness in the guys. My knee has failed me yet again. It is improving but still quite painful. So layed me up for a couple of days but is fine now.

I have been really busy in writing and preparing the launch of a document called A Strategy for Change, this is this is own vision for the Youth Work of Cornerstone and how we are going to do about that. This has been really interesting for me, but is taking alot of time and thinking. I am so excited about the potential in this church. The launch of the document and logo is going to be on 25th August. This is going to be my first real communication test because me an my team will have to present the document to the whole church.

I am loving my time here and feel so at home with the Pearson's but I am missing the comforts of home both my amazing friends and family. But I am confident in Gods plans for me while I am here. He is Lord of my life and I thank him for this opportunity everyday.

A little thought......

Here is an article I wrote for a UK Magazine let me know what you think

The call to go…

In the bible Jesus says ‘therefore go and make disciples of all nations’. This call is massive because it affects all we do and could send us to all four corners of the world. Have you ever sat in the waiting lounge of an airport and watched the vast diversity of people, who come through that lounge; some really old, some young, people from all over the world; from all different religions and from all different walks of life. Jesus tells us to go and make all these people into disciples of His.

Sometimes this call can be overwhelming, all 6,602,224,175 people that live on this planet, with us. How can we reach them, with them all being so different, not even speaking the same language or understanding the language I speak how can I reach them? This big question is one many have pondered over. I recently pondered the very same question as I moved from England to America. Even though we supposedly speak the same language, it’s still a whole different culture and a whole different lifestyle. Reaching these people is a completely different challenge than in UK. But the challenge to ‘go and make disciples still applies and it’s not something you can run away from. In the bible Jonah was called by God to go to the city of Nineveh. Nineveh was renowned for its wickedness and its rejection of God (notice the similarity of some places in the world today), yet God had a great plan of redemption for this city and Jonah was part of that plan. Jonah however didn’t like the plan and did a runner but God had other plans for him and through the use of a whale took him right back to reconcile Nineveh.

Nineveh is not dissimilar to a lot of places in our world today, full of lies, greed, need for wealth, large gaps between the rich and the poor and unsatisfied people. What I have seen since being in America is people all over the world have similar traits or characteristics. They all want more whether it’s a new car, house, phone or the latest set of clothes. No-one is ever truly satisfied with what they have, they are always looking for more out of life and never look at what God has blessed them with. Jesus is the only thing can really satisfy anyone completely. This is the message we should go take a generation of people who seem unsatisfied with life, where ever they are from, whatever age, sex colour or religion they are from. This is the call Jesus places on our lives to go to the ends of earth with His good news, to the Nineveh’s and places which are just like that in our world.

Baltimore City

So I went to the city of Baltimore for the first time as with every city its so different, bigger than I exepected but was really nice to see. Here is a picture of the football staidum, the home of new favourite team the Baltimore Ravens. The city is nice and has a lovely habour area and seems like a nice city. I am loving being here yet I am starting to miss home, just a little, but I am really enjoying being here. The people are so lovely and the church is doing amazing things for me. Hope all is well in the UK and send me email or leave a post to say hello.

Transformers

Went to see Transformers this weekend. That has to be one of the greatest film of all time. A classic good v evil, I want to be Optimus Prime. Hes the best Transformer ever, Bumblebee does however come close. My first film in America was a complete success. We went to Arudel Mills Mall was great. Everyone however old, young or whatever sex you are. GO and see it, its a must.

25th July Prayer Letter

Hello Everyone,

So here is my first prayer update. I now been in America for nearly a week, it has been a rollercoaster of a week and has had its ups and its downs but I am at home here. I staying at the home of Betty and Dallas Pearson, they live in a very nice heart in the city of Columbia Maryland, close to both Baltimore and Washington DC. I have spent my first week getting to know everyone in thea church and my new boss Bruce Hopler. The church I am working for is Cornerstone Community Church (the website http://www.cornerstone-d6.org/). Its a large church in a warehouse in Columbia.

The flight was long and I felt nervous until I started to talk to the person next to me, she was a Church in Maryland. Which an answer to a prayer my Nanna had prayer early in the day. Praise God.I have spent my first week with my head in books and papers, trying get my head around the heart of the church and America culutre. It is so BIG and they drive on the wrong or maybe the right side of road. Got myself a car, a ford escort, which I am now legal to drive.
I am really happy and settled in. Here but here are some key prayer points that you can pray for:
1. That I will continue to settle in.
2. That as I meet people doors will open.
3. That I connect with the young people.
Contact on how you all your doing over there would be much appreciated. My blog is http://ali-johnson.blogspot.com/ (where you will able to catch my thoughts, see some pictures and post messages). My postal address is:

6312 Sunhigh Place
Columbia
Maryland
USA
21045

My Telephone number is 410-290-5874.

And feel free to send me an email. Thankyou for all your prayers.

God Bless

Ali Johnson

The Country of the Big

Well I have now been in America for a little over a week now. But I am having a wonderful time. I am loving the States and the people have been eer so freindly to me. I arrived here on 19th July 5.15 local time and met my amazing Pastor is name is Bruce and he seems like a really God-fearing man. Then I was taken out for Dinner and given a tour of the area and taken to my home for the year. Its true what they say everything is massive.

Then I met my lovely adopted parent for the year Dallas and Betty Pearson (left). They are ever so lovely and treat me just like there son. I am living in the basement with a lounge, tv, bathroom and a bedroom its so nice. Then we went to look around the church, its called Cornerstone Commuinity Church (click for link to website). Its a great church, so I attended both services 9.00 and 10.30 and was introduced at both. Then I was taken out for lunch to Fudgerockas was a good way to meet people. Then I went to the mall and looked at the Mac shop and dreamed of my 21st birthday present. Its has been quite easily settling in and getting to know people becuase they have been so freindly. Hope all is well in the rainy UK.