Week 6: Holiday Clubbing

The grand finale of the summer for Dunbar Churches was the annual holiday club, which had an Olympic theme under the title 'On Your Marks'. Getting a group of people from different churches to work together is surprisingly difficult, but the holiday clubs model how it should be. A generous mix of talent, personalities and ages thrown together for the common good of kids. Great again to have some teenagers involved as they have an irreverent humour that is lost on the kids but keeps me on my toes as they push the limits. And it was also great to see an increase of kids attending. We must be doing something right. Personal highlights: Well so many to choose from but one was seeing an elderly woman who has mentored a young lad for 2 years now on a project I run, finally meeting his mum and family. Somehow they had never met and when they did it was like long lost friends reunited. Generally it was all a good laugh at 'OYM'. I enjoyed my daily appearance as an olympian...although I need to work on the skin tones for my Usain gig.

I was very pleased with my Jess Ennis outfit with an inspired washboard stomach from Isabelle.

In the evenings we did out 'yoof' programme. It was very chilled out and we got the masks out for our photo challenge. Here's Lady Gaga and Beyonce down at the Meths...the oldest Methodist Church in Scotland.

Final night had to be a bonfire down the beach. Pure magic to end off a busy summer!

Week 5: Scoughall Camp

This was 3rd or 4th year helping out on the SU Camp over in Scoughall. Although it is less than 8 miles away, it is so secluded that you feel like you really are away from it all. And yet 1000's of people know it all too well and make that journey back. The camps have been running there for over 50 years and have had an impact on so many people who now have fond memories of it. I was moved this summer to see an old Scoughall'er reunited with his old tent leader. I was out taking some snaps by the Peffer Burn next to the camp when I bumped into a couple of blokes who were chatting about the "God songs' they used to sing by the burn. I introduced myself and it turned out one of the men came to Scoughall between 1981-83. I realised he was in a bit of mess. Drugged up to the eyeballs and incredibly vulnerable. The man with him turned out to be a Salvation Army support worker who had brought him to Scoughall that day because he was so upbeat about it. As we chatted he recalled his memories of Scoughall and some of the people. It was a long shot but I suspected one of our more senior team members Gary Pews would have been at that camp. Sure enough he was and Gary came over to chat. My guess is that this guy was on a downer and things in his life had not turned out well. But he remembered Gary and was so excited to see Gary. "I bet you won't remember me' he said to Gary in a sort of defeated tone. But it was a moment of brilliance as Gary remembered this mans name and not only that, where he was from and where he moved to. Tears filled up in this guys eyes as a place that had meant so much was again delivering the goods. He had been noticed and remembered. Sadly we had to leave him, so I don't know what came of him. It was a great reminder of how important it is to take time out for the individuals on these camps. Photo: Scoughall's luxury accommodation

The rest of the camp was up to it's usual high standard. I like the relaxed approach to the "God' stuff. It's more an ongoing conversation with the whole camp, which for me is better for kids who struggle with meetings. I have a role at Scoughall which is to work with comedy genius Martin Boyd to make films about the bible stories, involving the kids as much as we can. We have a right laugh doing them and surprisingly we remain fairly loyal to the original story...although I am not sure Gideon's army made their attack on Space Hoppers, or that he wore a cravat! Photo: The view of Dunbar from Scoughall. So near and yet so very far

Week 4: Manchester Olympics

We headed south for a week to catch up with the family down in Manchester. Our Sarah & Rob were about so we headed of to the local park with Thomas. I'd forgotten that 'the park' is a magnet for all walks of life and for that reason it is an interesting place to be. Stuart managed to get himself a game of footy with a load of lads & girls. It's important to note that Dunbar is almost entirely made up of white people. I think I'd be safe in saying there are less than 20 people of black origin in this town. It was great to see him part of city life, playing with kids of all sorts of ethnic backgrounds and a goalie wearing a burqa. Also funny to see all their dad's watching form the sidelines smoking something....well illegal. The afternoon got a little bit scary when Thomas was chased by a pitbull terrier belonging to a load of lads. It was friendly enough, as were they but it's not the sort of dog you really want to let loose amongst a load of kids. There were several screams from mothers telling their kids to freeze...followed by several screams of expletives directed at the shellsuited youths. Also entertained by the awful mural on the pavilion that has been painted over, probably by Community Service people who have adhered to the strict H&S rules. That means they only painted out the lower level, leaving behind a mysterious phallic looking image. See what you think!

We went out for a few drives here and there, like Marple's ROman Lakes. Nothing Roman about them but lots of savage ducks and geese terrorising kids eating sandwiches. News that the Olympic football was at Old Trafford was not new...but we hadn't realised it was actually on whilst we were there, before the official opening. So we booked tickets online and headed off to collect them the next day. There was a ridiculously long queueing area for tickets, but not a soul in it apart from some Senegal fan trying to tout tickets. It looked like it was going to be a total flop. Role on match day and we felt obliged to go over the top with Team GB support and did the whole face paint, wigs, tattoo thing. Partly to try and muster up some enthusiasm for it. It was a pleasant surprise to arrive on the bus to see thousands of fans all on good form. It being Team GB's first big event, TV crews from around the world gathered outside the Theatre of Dreams. A taste of what lay ahead of the nations Olympic fever was being savoured. As we'd made the effort, we were interviewed by The Sun, and Stuart managed to get filmed by several TV crews from around the world.

The football itself was poor, although I think most people were just there so they could be 'at the Olympics'. You got 2 games for your ticket so we enjoyed United Arab Emirate vs Uruguay and Team GB vs Senegal. UAE were the adopted team of the fans as Suarez was playing for Uruguay and got boo'ed every time he even looked at the ball. The problem with Team GB (apart from not being very good at footy) is you can't get a good chant going. 'Team GB! Team GB!' wears a bit thin after a bit. The only other downside to the evening was that they had sold out of pies before the game had even started. Now that is a disgrace.