Those 5 days in London

Many of you have been somewhat surprised that I haven't gone yet (for those of you desperate to see me go don't worry I'm off on Wednesday) so let me clear up the whole, 'wait, I thought you'd gone already, why are you in Taunton?' question.

By the way best reaction of that was Dan Webb, who genuinely said, 'ahh' and jumped slightly when he opened the door of his office to find me standing outside last Wednesday.

Orientation...

Me in St. James' Park, w lovely mitts 

Sunday 24th Febuary, the service at Trull church ends and a series of slightly emotional goodbyes, and many kind regards of 'good luck' and 'have fun' and a few 'try not to die' follow. The slightly awkward thing is this: I wasn't actually leaving the UK until 13th March. So why the week of goodbyes, two weeks early?

Well partly because I was desperate to get away from the people at Trull, (joke, I will miss you all lots!), but  mainly because I had 5 days up in Northwood Hills in north west London, preparing me and the team for our time away.

Having met up with my co-leader Rach, and done our touristy bit (which included naming birds in St. James' Park) we eventually, in true Latin American style, arrived at Fairfield church in Northwood Hills, 20 minutes late.   

The week's format went as follows:

Wednesday-Thursday - Leader Training, 
We met the leaders of the two other step teams, and spent a day and a bit learning tones (which was okay because Rach takes loads of notes)!  

Thursday Evening - Sunday - Team Orientation, 
Our teams arrived and we spend the rest of the time doing all kinds of different workshops, and training, and general time to get to know the team. 

My team were/are amazing, we get on really well (whether that's the case in 4 months we'll see...) and those five days were a real blast. I won't bore you with the details of everyday, but on the Friday we went into central London for a photo challenge (classic Christian team building) so I thought I'd leave you with some of the pictures from that. 

Me up a tree in Green Park, not sure why...

I had to ask to wear someone's hat, and then shake their hand. So I thought, 'what better place to ask than the Ritz.' 

Casual kick about outside the home of football...

Me, being the ever supportive leader that I am...

Team Bo-ru 

After watching a short video which showed the areas where we were going Allie summed up my feelings by saying, 'ahh, I just want to go now, why wait?'. Well, only 2 more days now...

JJ