Winding down after Poland

"Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened."

-- Dr Seuss 

It's all over. I'm surrounded by a mountain of luggage, laundry and a load of duty free, having stumbled through the door of my home back in England. It was a fairly easy trip, nothing to report and I am looking forward to some much needed sleep.

There aren't words to describe how much of an amazing experience I had in Poland. Following the presentations, people took to the great outdoors, participating in social outreach, worship and Ultimate Frisbee, not to mention the absolute plethora of dancing sessions. I never thought I'd dance and even now I am propelled into a state of disbelief at the idea, but I've somehow learned three in the space of a week. My feet are on fire.

Having said that, I am inspired.

It goes to show God does powerful things and is an advocate of change. Bringing people together is the crux of it, but the whole point of this trial is to prove that no worship is confined just to hymns and fanciful buildings. Young people can lead in new, innovative and creative ways, sharing lives, life skills, stories.

What can I say? I'm just excited to expand the movement, doing my bit to try and promote #youthUNIFY as well as God and the incredible people that are behind it.

I'm going to miss this quirky bunch, but the future is feeling bright.

YMCA community :)

This has been my third trip overseas with the YMCA in the four years that I've been working with YMCA white rose in Yorkshire - and the first time that my wife has joined me half way through. Mainly, I suspect, because we weren't married on my previous two trips otherwise she'd flown out to join me then as well.

One thing I love about working for the ymca, and the opportunity we have to go on trips such as Unify, is the family feel to it. The sense of community. The sense of doing life together. 

As a natural introvert I sometimes get overwhelmed by the busyness and the fact that you have to put on a social happy face all the time...or so you think. Sometimes I just need to retreat to my room and have 5 by myself.

Today, I've been able to play tourist with my wife whilst the rest of the delegates have blessed the local community in different ways. Some have led a sports outreach in Lublin town centre; others have made a ymca banner for the venue we've been staying at; others have been at a orphanage or a old peoples home, whilst others have been to a Nazi Concentration Camp from World War II to give flowers and bible verses to those visiting the centre. 

In the midst of it all, Gods been in it. Part of me has wanted to join in with the conference - but sometimes, the Godly thing to do is to spend the day with your family - whether that be your wife, your parents, your siblings, your grandparents or aunts and uncles and cousins etc. Its great being a part of the YMCA family - and it's great being able to include your biological family in that as well. 

If you've never been to visit another ymca, I'd encourage you to go and do so. It needn't be a ymca overseas - there's plenty of great YMCAs in the UK, and the chances are that there's a couple within a hours drive of where you live. Google them. Invite yourself to go and visit them and find out what they do. Build friendships with their staff. Invite them to come and visit your ymca and find out what you do. If you're struggling to find a ymca to go and visit them come and visit us at ymca white rose in Yorkshire - my email address is Jonathan.buckley@ymcawhiterose.org.uk. 

Or, if you wanna meet 15-20 YMCAs in one day, come and join us at the UK unify residential next month at regents college, Malvern. Day and residential tickets are available - it'd be great to see you - Google 'Unify YMCA' and you won't go wrong :)

God bless

Jon buckley

Youth Unify Poland August 2015

Dancing and presentations

"You gotta dance like there's nobody watching."

-- William Purken

I've just come back from the presentations of all countries here - two hours of pure insight into the ins and outs of every YMCA and a little bit of the culture to top it off. It's been an experience with a few of our own taking to the microphone.

England, Scotland, Ukraine, Russia, Columbia, Germany, Belarus, the USA and plenty more added to the mix.

Speaking of culture, we've been learning how to dance.

As a Brit, the two left feet let us down, but our hosts managed to make salsa and ceildh dancers out of us.

Hope for us yet.

God bless!

Poland 102

"You never understand your first language until you learn a second."

-- Anon


So several hours and one relentless attempt to connect to the Wifi later, I'm happy to report that we are settled in at the conference. I have spoken in 4 languages already despite being here 1 day.

On first impressions, everybody has been keen to get to know each and with the shaky Wifi, communication has been even better. 

Early days, but so far so good. I'll report in a couple of days if the internet holds out.

I also have a really cool idea for the Lords Prayer, but I'll see how that plays out.

Youth Unify - Poland, 2015

Well...24 hours into our adventures in Lublin, Poland, for the first ever Youth Unify conference, and we're having a ball. I've had the privilege of travelling to Sweden and Germany with the ymca over the past few years, and I've always been staggered by the diversity within the movement - and it's struck me again here in Poland.

For those of you don't know, Unify is a grassroots movement within the ymca which started a few years back after a conversation between a couple of CEOs at the world conference in Hong Kong. From there, there has been a couple of unify events in England and in Europe, but mainly for staff and volunteers. This is the first event aimed specifically at young people.

The heart of Unify is to create a space to discuss and explore how the Christian mission of the organisation is played out in practice today. The YMCA was founded on strong Christian basis, and if we're to continue then the Christian basis of our organisation has to remain strong. That's not to say that anyone has an ownership of what that looks like - but the beauty of unify is that it's creating a safe environment for those discussions to take place.

So...were having a great time here in Poland. God is here - as He is everywhere - and good things are taking place. The next UK unify is taking place at Regents College in Malvern in September - it would be great to see you there. Check out ymcaunify.wordpress.com or follow #youthunify on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to find out what we're up to :)

Which countries are your readers coming from?

This is the page views from Friday 14th August, there are six young people from YMCAs in England on a Leadership programme this week in The Phillipians, Japan and Singapore, There are also 15 young people from the YMCAs in England on a Christiam Mission Conference in Poland.

Lets see what sort of readership they attract during the next week through sharing their experiences!

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	27
United States	14
Spain	4
Israel	4
Russia	3
France	2
Sri Lanka	2
Romania	2
Germany	1