Seeing as pretty much everyone else has done it, I've moved my blog too.

Just go here.

It's been a good week and I'm now enjoying my day off which gives me some time to catch up on blogging. Currently enjoying listening to Mike's new tunes on My Space (you can also listen here - www.purevolume.com/liketheracecourse).

 We just had a really enjoyable lunch with a guy from El Paso, New Mexico who is here in Summerville with his wife visiting family. He runs what sounds like an excellent youth ministry program on the border with Mexico. Interestingly he actually lives in Juarez in Mexico, but commutes on his motorbike across the border to his office! They need to run that story on the American news instead of all the ones about Mexicans 'commuting' here... on a side note, how do you 'accidently' allow 12 million illegal immigrants into your country?

We recently signed up for Blockbuster's online rental scheme as our local music store very sadly closed down. They also rented DVDs at a dollar a time (maybe why they ended up closing!), so we had to find something cheaper than the crazy prices Blockbuster stores now charge. For $18 a month we now get 3 rentals at a time, plus one free in store rental a week. As a result I have been watching a bunch of old and new movies recently as well as ploughing through West Wing Series 5 (which has actually been very good despite losing Aaron Sorkin's skills). I've watched Tristam Shandy, Flightplan, Four Brothers, Billy Connolly Live, March of The Penguins, and Brokeback Mountain. Probably the worst of these had to be Brokeback, which for all the fuss actually was pretty dull and poorly acted. March of the penguins was actually probably the most interesting (how do the Penguins do it?!), and Tristam Shandy certainly had its moments, but mainly just wanted to make me go and watch Alan Partridge! A-ha!

 I've also acquired some new CDs. The Eraser - Thom Yorke, Dashboard Confessional's new one, Passion - Everthything Glorious (Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin etc), Smashing Pumpkins - Adore. Haven't really had the chance to listen to them enough to decide if I like them or not, but so far I think Eraser wins the prize for being most interesting, although as with most of the newer Radiohead stuff we'll see how much I listen to it in a month or so. Passion and Dashboard are fairly predictable and I need more time for the Adore album. Has anyone heard the new Keane album?

Work is winding down for the summer as all the trips are done. Currently I am tidying up from the summer and planning the next year's trips and programs. It has been a great year and I am looking forward to the next 12 months and seeing what God has in store for us. The Apprenticeship program looks like it is going to grow this year and I am excited that we have hit a groove with our programs and trips. It makes it less stressful to think about what we are going to as we are not constantly seeking to invent new things. One of thebig things this year is going to be developing youth ministry at Holy Cross' newest location on Daniel Island (15 minutes drive) from the Sullivans Island location. There are loads of opportunities here as it right next to both a High School and a Middle School. One of our apprentices (Jonny Keys) is going to be living within half a mile of it so it should be interesting to see what happens.

 We're going to take a weeks vacation starting next weekend but we're going to stay right here in Mount Pleasant and, for once, enjoy all that is on offer on our own doorstep!

Tonight we have some friends coming round for dinner before heading out so see our local 'soccer' team, the Charleston Battery. They're on a winning run, so hopefully we'll see a good game tonight. Apparently the Miami team they are playing features Romario and one other ex-Brazilian star. Any way, it's about as British an experience one can get around here, although the temperature will be about 30C. But then there is a heatwave in the UK at the moment...

“I was reading this guy named Bernie Krause, who records nature sounds for film and TV. He was saying that, in 1968, in order to get one hour of natural sound, like no airplanes no cars, that it would take him about 15hours of recording time, and he was saying that today, to get that same one hour of undisturbed sound, it takes him 2000 hours of recording time.”

Hey everyone,

Sorry this has been so long in coming, but it feels like I have been away for a month as I have done 3 trips in 5 weeks. All of our trips are over now so I figured that I would give you an update on each...

New Wine USA

This was an excellent weekend in Statesville, North Carolina. For those of you who have done Soul Survivor or New Wine int he UK it is basically the same thing. St Andrews, our neighboring Episcopal Church has been chosen to head up New Wine in the States, and this was the second year that they had done it. 650 people attended and about 50 of those were High School students which was the age that we took, along with a handful of college kids. Any way, we had an excellent weekend and saw God doing many powerful things in our students lives, along with one guy becoming a Christian. In general it was just a really fun weekend as there was plenty of time to hang out and have good fellowship with each other. We had a couple of gazebos set up with camp chairs under, and the best times were when all of us were under there just chatting and joking together.

Camp Bonnie Doone (aka Crusaders USA)

Wow! What an amazing week! And it was the first one we had ever done! Running much like Crusader Houseparty (early morning swims, morning groups, arts and crafts (although sadly no chocolate making Jane...!), siesta (a big hit with the leaders!), book reading, seminars (although they weren't optional), The Rag (of course! I will send you the videos once I have them! Very funny!),

Word of the day from The Redneck Rag duo 'Thunder & Lightnin''!

OC Games, Docco, and of course waitning at the door of the dining room to be let in by the Adjy (aka JB)! We had to change some of the timings as the camp wasn't flexible ontheir meal schedule (hopefully next year), but that allowed us to put in seminar time after Siesta, which was definitely a success. The kids had a choice of two, but had to go to one. Our padre were two married youth ministers from Vancouver (via Australia and the US...), Ken and Julie Moser, and they did an incredible job with the MGs, QTs and most importantly the evening meetings (a little longer

that CHPUK - 8-9.30pm). I was praying that we would have 40-50 people and 57 signed up in the end! We had an excellent leadership team of Junior and senior leaders which really helped make this go incredibly smoothly.

Morning leaders meeting

Shock at doing the room inspection and finding the boys cabins were tidy!

One game that needs to be introduced to Crusaders UK is kickball! This was definitely a big hit with the kids and leaders. Think rounders with a very soft football. You use your feet as the bat obviously!

Any way, it was an excellent week and I can't wait to have JK join us next year and see what he makes of it. I held off on doing our songs Jonny so that we can do them together next year!

You can see more photos at www.holycross.net/student.htm. Click on the Boonie Doone pix link.

There's loads more I can tell you, but I have to go...! God worked powerfully and we saw kids lives being changed. The feedback we have had from kids and parents has been incredibly positive, so here's to next year!

God bless,

Jonathan.