Team 4 update #3

Wow, the team is now writing prolifically. Next installment...

day 10 - 8.30

today was the sandcastle competition, it was great fun the kids got split into there three teams, and were really inventive, one team themed there castle 'egyptian' complete with larger than life size turtle and smaller than life pyramid! the leaders also made one, with mote and balcony, i thought it was the best but then i am a tad biased as i was one of the main castle builders along side josh and holly!
as it was a sunday the kids dnt have to do morning exercises o we got a half an hour lie in, but as my body is finally getting used to the time scedule i woke up at 6 anyway! typical, but i enjoyed thehalf an hour in bed that i woulnt have normally gotten.
we made picture frames this evening, and the kids all got a picture of there ward to go in the middle, they are so careful with there craft, give a 13 year old boy in england some sequens and cardboard and the likelyhood he would spend longertan fve mins on it is little, however al the kids take everything with such grace and thankfulness, it reminds you how much we've got and how little they have.

only two days left, i shall miss them all.

Camp team 4 update #2

Here is the latest from Catherine, our designated blogger for team 4.

Day nine: 7.00

craft competition and talent show happened yesterday, first the talent show, I was posh spice from the spice girls! One of the many ‘bad cats’ put on by the adults to make the kids acts seems even better, the show was complete with Britain’s got talent style judges, one of the kids acts was a beautiful rendition of the prodigal on to dance, really good, another ‘bad’ act was swan lake complete with men in leotards and an evil hunter killing the swans! V.funny. The craft competition had three age categories and within that prizes for girls and boys. They kids could make anything they wanted but for it wto be a valid entry it needed to include a paper plate a sheet of paper and a lolly stick! It was crazy good!

Day nine: 10.30

Today the talk was on jesus and there was a time for response afterwards where many many kids asked for prayer over there live. It was immense, very special. In the evening we played the infamous ‘biffer’ where there are 10 stations hidden around camp and the kids have to do the activities at each camp and then run between each making sure that they never let go of their partners hand. There are however biffers. These are people (me included) who run around wearing war paint and generally being scary throwing flour at the kids. If hit with flour, they have to sit down and call for a doctor who will tie a bandae round there arm, before the can get up and keep moving again. It was great fun, but im exhausted, so goodnight J

2009-10 Premier League Predictions

Here they are as far as my sub-par IQ can calculate them.

1. Chelsea
2. Manchester United
3. Liverpool
4. Arsenal
5. Everton
6. Aston Villa
7. Manchester City
8. Tottenham
9. Fulham
10. Sunderland
11. West Ham
12. Stoke City
13. Bolton
14. Blackburn Rovers
15. Burnley
16. Hull City
17. Portsmouth
18. Wigan
19. Wolves
20. Birmingham City

This would mean that the same 4 teams will go to the Champions League again, that Everton and Aston Villa will once again be the leading contenders for the Europa League and that Wigan, Wolves and Birmingham will be back down in the Championship (second tier football).

Not a very bold or interesting prediction other than that I think the Mankers will fall from grace a bit with the departure of Christiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez. They will not be claiming their 4th straight title which is small consolation if indeed Liverpool make it 2 full decades without a league title.

What do you guys think?

British Team Update

For this last camp of the summer we have a lot of folks from England (London and Cambridge) and a brave soul from amongst them is blogging on their behalf. Catherine Rogers has been writing daily updates and has emailed them to me. Here is exactly what she has to say... unchecked or edited by me...

kerch - Day one; 7/09, 10.55 pm

Its very late and we've just come back from a late night swim in the sea ! the water had phosphorous in it and shimered like the reflection of thousands of stars from the night sky. The last few days have been crazy; we left at 1.30 from cambridge, meetng the london bunch at heathrow at four. We then caught the 6.25 plane to frankfurt to catch the connection to ukrain. However the first flight took longer than expected, so it was a bt crazy trying to get twenty two people's passports checked an securtified (is that a word?) in forty five minuts, it seems ok, but frankfurt is massive and we were runing all over the place. I forgot to take my watc of at secrurity in this minor panic and ths got stopped, allothough i did explain that i could take my watch of and walk through the gate again they insited of patting me vigourously all over, which i wouldnt have minded as much if they hant made me take my belt of first and i happened to be wearing the baggiest linen trousers you ever saw! i ended up in a crouched position so they wouldnt fall down, whilst the rest of the youth continued to watch and laugh! ah well, at least we made the plane :)

Today all we really did was organising the next ten days an adjusting to the culture. The people here are lovely; you really feel their imense hospitality . I kow it may sound odd but everyone is so welcoming, you cant help but feel comfortable.

I can't wait for what tomorrow holds:

Day three: 09/09, 07.00 am

Yesterday was very reaxing, and despite the thunderstorm warnigs the wather was very good for eglish standards, so when you wernt i one of your various meeting subjects (crafts/sports/morning exercise) the beach which is only ten minuets away was visited by nearly all. The evening activities envolved eating smurs, an american concoction envolvng melting you marshmallows over the campfire (yeah, there was one of them too) and squising it with chocolate inside two crackers thus melting the chocolate. a delicious , different, tasty snack. We also played numerous campfire 'bonding games' as well as limbo and the occassional line dance! I found myself surprised at how early it was, as the sunsets so eary here, even when its hot, so after about an hour and a half in arkness i realised it wa only 9.00!

This morning the children arrive so i thought i would fill in the blog before my 'roomies' wake up! hmm breakfast at 8.15...

Day three : 09/09, 11.00 pm

Today was D-day, the kids arrived!

I am aboutly wacked so this gonna be short...

They arrived in dribs and drabs some time between 10 and 3. They were immediatly checd for lice and infectious deseases. I was put on baloon modeling outised the queue for the 'hospital' to entertain the chldren whie the were waiting, and afterwards, with the children who did have lice (the kids with infectious diseases were immediatly sent home, although i dont think there were any) as the children with lice had to have there hair shaved of, i think i found it much sadder than any of them, one girl had long wavy blond hair down to her waist, but didnt seem that thrown by it to me, i guess i just kept giving her balloon flowers and dogs and the occaional hat, to be that upset, also they have probaby been through much more than i could dream of, and by loosing their hair they get to come to the camp! I was on ward 2, which was the second oldest ward out of four, so ruffly 11/12 year olds, althought there was an 8 and a 12 year old, as they had siblings/friends in the ward. I put them to bed with Eliasah and we told them about ourselves.

day four: 10.09, 10.50.

aparently it was to 'cold' go to the beach today but on english standards it was pretty warm, instead we played scavenger hunts with them and various sports, this evening we had the opening ceremony which was simply hillarious! we all dressed up as super heroes, i was batgirl, but among the bunch there was a superman a wonderwoman and a bannana girl! the kids all had to be invloved, naming there wards (the dorms were they slept and did most of the activities, ward 1 being the oldest and ward 4 being the youngest) super kids, super family, super village and happy teenagers. it was a great evening, and a brilliant firt 'full day' my day ended by reading to my ward the story of ''the happy prince''

day six; 7.00

devotional start at 7, and my whole rom was up and so i got woken up to, but i decided not to get out of bed so i filled in my journal istead, an explanation of why i am up so early. In the mornings i go to my ward at 7.30 and do there hair and then do the morning exercises at 7.50 with breakfast at 8.15, however yesterday it was tipping it down, so we gave the kids some wht of a lie in as we can do morning exercises, getting them up at 7.50 to do the girls hair, due to the rain we watched a film (the tale of desperoux the mouse) and in the afternoon interest groups inside, such as needle work hair and make up, christmas tree making, some completated constructinthe boys seemed to enjoy envolving LEDs and duck duck goose. i myself did facepaints. despite the rain it was good fun. the story today was ruth an wasvery inspiring.

day six:8.20

so the rest of my team are clearing up the crafts, which were duck puppets, that everyone loved, so i thought i would fill this in now to get out of it (i did help te last few days) iknow i know, excuses! the story today was david and goliath and was acted out very funnily by two men in skirts, great fun all round! as it was raining gain, i found myself watch the incredible in russin with various children on my lps, a very bizarre situation, but we have it at home and i have watched it enough to know the plot and the good jokes so i didnt feel that left out. it was james birthday today o this evening we are going to the beach for a late night campfire (he sun came out around 12 and 'dried up all the rain') but as you arnt llowed to come back on your own and they threw around 'latest 1' i thought i would catch up on some sleep, as i am feeling a bit sleep deprived and generally exhausted, what with the hypernes of the kids and the long days and late nights. i hope the wether stays good for tomorrow o that we can finally take the kids to the beach!

day eight: 7.00

yesterday was the midpoint of the kids being here, the first day we went to the beach and for the bedtime stories in my ward, the best evening yet. we were teaching them how to use the bible they were given, then had a competition to see who could find the verse the fastest and then asking what they thought the verse meant, the were so responsive, some of the answers we got were so insightful, for example one of the girls admitted that she finds it hard to believe in god, when he doesnt appear to answer her prayers, and another explained that by loving god you can love other people more easily, these are 8-12 year olds, who are not necessarily from any biblical background, the speed at which they have grown with us and god amazes me, for example, on the first night, one of the girls prayed, by the second night we got giggles, third we go a sentence, but yesterday we had a volunteer! among all this joy one of the lads in my ward broke his arm in two places during the wide game on day 7, and will have an operation on tuesday, meaning he will miss out on the rest of the week. prayer always needed.

I hope that gives you all some idea of how the team is doing. Please pray for us.

Early warning

If there's one thing I've grown to hate about blogs, it's a long drawn out explanation for not posting, so.... sorry. Moving on...

The English football season starts in roughly 24 hours and 42 minutes from right now... and counting. That means you might have to endure another 10 months of posts about football and Liverpool. Or - as I have clearly demonstrated recently - maybe not.

Either way, as soon as I finish this post I am going to type up my predictions for this year's season. My goal is to best my performance last year, which was somewhere around an average of 3 places off, depending on how you calculate it. I think I should be able to do it but this season the league appears to be packed with absolutely dreadful clubs just waiting to be stomped by mid-table teams and beat Liverpool at home (see Stoke City 2008-09).

The next post will hit as close to the kick-off of the first match (Chelsea v. Hull City) as Blogger can possibly make it. Anyone who would like to put in their guess for the season (I think that is probably limited to about a half-dozen of you at best) feel free to post it yourself or comment it on this or the following post.

PS - Anyone who wants to join in on the fun online game called I Know the Score can sign up here and we can keep track of how well we actually do know that score.