Priority Areas Gathering- Family Matters

The last few days I was blessed with the opportunity to attend The Priority Areas Gathering which had a theme of "Family Matters." The Priority Areas committee is responsible for the support and development of the Church of Scotland's work within its poorest 68 communities. All the churches that the Young Adult Volunteers are placed in are priority area churches. They have this conference every year with a different theme. I am very happy to report that the conference was extremely beneficial.

I enjoyed hearing stories of many other priority area churches, their accomplishments and the aspects of their communities that still need development. It was the first time since I have been here in Glasgow where I have been able to reflect on what I have been doing and reflect on my community. Over the past three days I was able to look frankly at my community and my role as a volunteer and I was able to ask questions and think about ways to improve.

We also heard from a retired minister of a priority area community and his wife who shared their experience and what they learned. They talked about suffering being unavoidable and how even though we suffer, God is there suffering right next to us. They also talked about power and how the church tends to try and have power and people want power, even if they want that power to do good. What we need to realize is that power corrupts, and that in the priority areas there isn't a lot of power. The people in poor areas instead have love, acceptance, perseverance, and with all those things they can change their situations. And since there are 68 communities struggling with the same types of issues we can actually work together and unite as a family. We can share ideas and advice.

In groups we came up with values we thought were significant in the priority areas. Some of the ones in my group were support, trust, acceptance, status quo is a no go, hospitality, vulnerability, and outward looking. We spent the three days focusing on how these values are important in each of our communities and what we can do to make these values come to life.

It allowed me the time to realize that Gorbals has so much potential and that there are so many great things they are doing in the community but that there are also places for growth and change. I feel called to bring forward what I learned at the conference and to think of new ways to get more people from the community involved in Sunday Church but also to get the Sunday church people more involved in the day to day community programs that happen each day. In my group a lot of the other churches were noticing that there is a gap between the people that attend church each Sunday and the people that attend community events in the church during the week. We all wanted to bridge this gap and have more involvement from both groups.

It was an eye opening opportunity for me to realize an opportunity to jump in and make some changes in my community. The conference allowed me to network with other communities in the same situation, and it was a time for all the priority areas communities to share their accomplishments and their strengths. I am so glad I was able to attend and I hope to be able to take back all the things I learned and make some changes in Gorbals.

During the free time I was also able to go see a viewpoint of where the highlands start so I got some great pictures of the changing autumn leaves.

 These two pictures are taken outside of the house we stayed in. It was called Gartmore House.

 A picture of a tree outside the house. The falling leaves were just too beautiful to not take a picture.

 

These next pictures are all of parts of Trossachs National Park which is where the line between the lowlands and the highlands of Scotland lies. We went to a viewpoint where you could look over the glen (valley) or look up to the rolling hills. I hope to go back and hike around next time. Today when we were leaving some of the mountains we passed already had snow on them!

A Birthday to Reflect

Today I am 23 years old. I have spent multiple birthdays away from home but for some reason this one feels extra different. Being 23 means I am getting older. It means I need to actually figure out what following my dreams means. 23 means I am an adult, out of school. 23 means I should be settling down, finding love, building a career. But I'm struggling because for the first time in my life there is no plan, there is no future and I have no idea what I want. I wish it was easy and I wish there was a big sign pointing me towards the future I want and am supposed to have, but it isn't that easy.

Since being in Scotland I have been able to step away from societies standards. I have been able to take a breather from the stamdards expected of a graduate from university. I have been able to truly think on my own about what I might want to do with my life and it is scary. I had all these ideas of what I wanted to be and what jobs I wanted to apply to when I graduated but now I am second guessing all those thoughts from before. For the first time I don't know what I want. I don't know who I am supposed to be or what I am supposed to do after this year. The unknown is scary and as humans society expects us to have it all figured out and put into a nice picture all the time. But that is unrealistic. So this birthday I wish for more clarity, for less pressure, and for guidance from God on what I am called to be doing in my future.

Blessings,
Julie