Name: Michael
Birthday: 12 October
Hometown: Whitley Bay, North Tyneside
Involvement before joining YMT: Lourdes Pilgrimages, Christian union group, Youth SVP
Reason for joining YMT: To live in a community with great people and to to help strengthen my faith and understanding of Christ
What are you looking forward this year? Everything, Sister Helen!, Having loads of fun doing the work of Christ
Testimony: I have been a Catholic all my life and I decided to postpone university for YMT as I felt a calling from God to carry out the work I will be doing.
TV Shows: Veronica Mars, Lost, Big Brother, Black Hole High, Kyle XY
Movies: Monsters, Inc., Back to the future trilogy, The man who know too much (1956)
Books: Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events
Places to visit: Africa, South America, Boston!!
Quotations: “Don’t stop movin’ to the funky, funky beat!” – S Club 7
Describe yourself: Fun, lively and addicted to television.

Thank you all!

Last modified on 2010-03-05 11:14:18 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

Since arriving back from Africa, I’ve had so much fun on all the retreats!

Thank you to Our Lady and St. Bede’s Year 11, St. Leonard’s Year 9, St. Mary’s Year 7 and St. Joseph’s Years 5 and 6!!

I’ve had so much fun, and I’m so happy to be back at the youth village on retreat.

I hope everybody enjoyed reading the blogs we sent through and liked our photos. They’re all still on the YMT website so flick back to “Step into the Gap” to read more about the project and also our time out in Africa.

Celebrate everywhere, wave your hands up in the air!

Last modified on 2010-04-10 22:55:24 GMT. 2 comments. Top.

Hi everyone,

I just want to extend a massive thank you to everybody in the Pulse stream at Celebrate 2010 and tell you all what an amazing week I had. When I arrived in Ilfracombe last Thursday I had absolutely no idea what to expect as I had never been to anything like Celebrate before, but once Monday came around and we all were introduced to each other, I knew it eas going to be a fantastic week!

I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed everything in the stream from the CeleBRITs music videos, to the fashion shows, to all the music, and experiencing all the wonderful gifts and talents that you all have.

I want to let you know just how much I enjoyed being part of the Fiver Challenge.. it’s not something that happens every year at Celebrate so to be involved with that is a real blessing. A massive well done to everybody for contributing to the massive amount!! Having experienced to types of projects that money will go to, and visiting many people and communities whose lives will be changed as a result of your creative ideas, bounding enthusiasm and strong dedication, I feel so inspired by everything that happened this week. When I spent my month in Liberia, I was truly affected by the real lives I was given an insight to, and I was so overwhelmed by each and every one of you who stepped up to the challenge. So a big congratulations for that!!

I also want to say a big thank you for all your friendliness! Everybody in the stream was so kind and never failed to say a cheery Good Morning even though everybody was knackered! It really helped get through the week, so thank you!

A big, big shout out to Christ’s Cartoons.. I adored having each and every one of you in Joy and I’s small group, and it was so much fun and such a joy to lead you. I’ll take away a lot of fond memories from this week, especially remembering our High School Musical video!!

Finally, I hope you can all step up to the challenge of Witness. You’ve all been given great gifts, and I believe in you to go out there and be a speaker of truth to all mankind. Change the world people of the Pulse!

Thanks again for such a wonderful week, and I hope I can see some of you again in the future, perhaps Celebrate 2012?

God Bless, Michael.

We’ll be a shouting generation…

Last modified on 2010-07-03 18:45:02 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

After almost a year of looking forward to Summer Festival ‘10, I arrived back to the Youth Village yesterday feeling quite emotional and sad that it was all over. It was one of those clear events like the Sister Helen conference, and our trip to Celebrate that I knew for sure was coming and would be one of the absolute highlights of the year. I wasn’t wrong.

This year’s Summer Festival was my first, and I had heard a lot about it from friends from my secondary school who had been and also from a couple of the team members who had also been in previous years. The thing I was most excited for was seeing all of you who came to the Youth Village at some point throughout the year again, as well as meeting lots of new faces. I was also really excited for working with my small group and for the workshop that Sasha, Robert and I led.

As the Summer Festival went on, all of these thing were amazing, but it ended up running so much deeper than that. I was so inspired to see everybody enter into everything with such enthusiasm and through this you are really taking steps towards living your lives to the full. Remember God is with you all the way, and I hope that you can step up to the challenge of allowing yourself to live up to your full potential.

And so I want to say a big thank you. Thank you to each and every member of my small group, and everybody else who came along to Ministeracres for the event. You have all really made my experiences worth it, and my highlight doesn’t just remain as Summer Festival, but indeed working with all the young people like yourselves whom we have worked with on retreat, on missions and during events over the last ten months. Without you, there’d be no Summer Festival so thank you all for coming along and being open to the experience.

Throughout the three days we were exploring the notion of our own personal journies and although Summer Festival marks perhaps the end of the biggest journey of my life, I’ve now realised that it’s opening up a journey for myself which is perhaps just as exciting. As I depart the team in two weeks, the passion inside of me has been lit and I want to continue working and fighting for truth. And I invite you to take up the same challenge. If we all bottled up our experiences, nobody would learn anything. Without YMT, I’d have never had such amazing encounters and I want to share them with people. Tell people about what happened at Summer Festival, let them know what you experienced, what you learnt. Who knows what may come of it – all of our experiences affect other people as much as other peoples’ experiences have an effect on us.

“Sometimes it falls on a generation to be great” – we can all belong to that great generation, and we can all let our greatness blossom.

Thanks for such a great three days everyone, and the best of luck to each and everyone of you for your futures.

God bless,
Michael.