Swindon
Taking Good News to young people in Swindon since 1950
Autumn 2014
youthforchristnews
Registered Charity no. 274402
A Visit from the Archbishop of Canterbury On Saturday September 13th, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby visited the Diocese of Bristol. With Evangelism one of the Archbishop’s key priorities, the planning team were keen for him to visit some of the work that Swindon Youth for Christ does reaching out to young people with the Good News of Jesus. We therefore arranged for the Archbishop to come to a Messy Saturday event organised by Shine Pinehurst – an Anglican Fresh Expression, where we setup our Mobile Youth Club, the BIOS van, to engage with young people at the event. Whilst there the Archbishop met members of the SYFC team, heard about the community work of the BIOS project and the wider work of SYFC in schools, on the streets and with churches. Chris Priddy, SYFC Director, said: “The Archbishop was amazed by the huge amount of work we do every week and greatly encouraged by the support we receive from local churches and Christians. We asked him to write on a graffiti board the answer to our Big Question of the Week which was ‘What does an Archbishop do?’ Justin wrote his response; He has the fun of talking about Jesus to everyone.” The Archbishop certainly showed that as he chatted to some of the young people that we work with. “It was really exciting to have him visit SYFC. He spoke to us and it took a few minutes for us to remember that he was the Archbishop of Canterbury.” Chris echoes those sentiments, “I was personally very impressed with Justin’s humility and humanity. He is extremely approachable and very passionate about seeing the Gospel shared with all people. His recently launched St Anselm’s initiative sounds really exciting and demonstrates his commitment to young Christians here in the UK.” Archbishop Justin also wrote a prayer for ‘Young People’s Sunday’ which took place in Swindon on September 28th. Now in its second year, it’s a day organised by SYFC where the churches in Swindon join together to pray for the young people of the town. In his prayer, the Archbishop thanked God “for the young people of Your Church in this town, for the energy and creativity they bring to us, for all we learn from them and all they contribute to our life together.” He went on to ask that God would teach them wisdom and the fear of the Lord, granting them gifts of faith, hope and love “to empower them with vision and strength to will and act for His glory.” It was a real privilege to meet the Archbishop and to show him a little of what we do, we even got to take a selfie photograph with him! We hope that you will join us in praying for ++ Justin and the incredible role he has both in the UK and around the world.
Directors Notes
During October we went on tour; the SYFC team visited as many churches as possible to share with them information about our work, showing them our latest short video and handing out our new ‘Bringing Hope’ leaflet. If you missed the video you can watch it online at our newly redesigned website. It was fantastic to meet so many people who have memories of being involved in the ministry of SYFC through the years and I am continually praising God for the impact SYFC has had in so many peoples lives since 1950. Perhaps you have a story to tell of how SYFC has been involved in your journey of faith. If you do and you’d like to share it with us, perhaps for us to share in this newsletter, then please do get in touch as we’d love to hear from you. Inside this edition you will find out about the impact that our ministry has been having recently as we invite young people to hear, see and respond to the Good News of Jesus. 72% of churches in the UK have no young people in them, yet 85% of people first make a faith commitment as a teenager. We are committed, in Swindon and beyond to working with and alongside local churches to help them to reach out to young people with a message of Hope that will transform their lives and to discipling them within the church community. This is change you can be a part of. Please would you consider standing with us in this by supporting the work of SYFC. - turn to the back page to find out how.
Swindon Youth for Christ, P. O. BOX 2352, SWINDON SN2 1WE (01793) 829795 office@syfc.org.uk www.syfc.org.uk
Last school year we had 30,182 opportunities to share Good News with young people
BIOS : Life on the Streets Over the summer I had the immense privilege of being able to work with over 600 young people through activities that the BIOS Van was able to be a part of. For a large number of sessions the BIOS Van partnered with Swindon StreetGames, this enabled us to meet with lots of young people, many of which had never seen the BIOS Van before. Through this work I was able to connect with lots of young people who were in the summer transition between year 6 and year 7. I was able to tell the young people that we will be in a majority of their secondary schools at some point within a week. I also had many great conversations with young people who were worried about the transition to secondary school; it can be so hard going from being the oldest year at your primary school to being the youngest year at your secondary school. Young people face so many pressures from peers, often they feel they need to change who they are in order to fit in. I was able to have many great conversations with young people about these pressures, please pray for the young people as they settle down to life at secondary school.
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SCHOOL BASED GROUPS AND SESSIONS
COMMUNITY YOUTH GROUP SESSIONS
253 SCHOOL LESSONS AND ASSEMBLIES
StrengthsFinder
In April 2013 the Youth for Christ team were asked to explore their strengths using StrengthsFinder. I had not heard of it before and I was slightly dubious, so as I sat at my computer and answered the multiple choice questions, I had no idea that the following September I would be taking part in training to enable me to be an accredited StrengthsFinder Coach! The BIOS van was also involved in some evening work over the summer, The results from the online questionnaire came in and straight sometimes this involves just sitting in the middle of a field with a group of young away I was struck by the opening sentence ‘You see the potential people engaging in conversation, sometimes these young people will have in others, in fact quite often potential is all you see.’ been experimenting with drugs or alcohol before we arrived. This encourages conversations about risk taking behaviour, personal safety, health and the law; it’s ‘That’s me completely’ I thought and eagerly continued to read. the relationships that we have built up over the last few months that enable us to And as I continued, I began to recognise myself in what I read. have these conversations. Through these conversations we are able to encourage I had further coaching to help unpack all this information. I and support these young people to make positive life choices. thought I knew myself pretty well and what I was good at, but this shone a new light, so that’s when I looked into doing further A young person who is well known to the police has been coming to the van session in her area for a number of weeks, she initially caused some issues but she training. I could see that if I was to use this method of thinking among the young people I work with it would be amazing! also engaged with the BIOS youth workers, mainly So in September I took part in the first ever UK through sport. A few weeks ago she noticed one StrengthsFinder accredited coach training, which was brilliant. of the youth workers had a bike with a saddle that I am now starting to use this tool in schools with the young was falling off so she asked if she could fix it. She people I mentor. Its fantastic to see how StrengthsFinder’s tried tightening the bolts but that didn’t work so positive approach to helping the young people understand she took the whole saddle off and put all the bolts themselves and the situations they face gives them a great back together, just as she was tightening it, one of new perspective on life and am really looking forward to the bolts which was very rusty, snapped. Another seeing the impact it’s going to have in future use too. young person told her to just leave it because it wasn’t her bike anyway, she could have listened to Meeting a Dalek at North Swindon Fun Day “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear him but instead she chose to cycle home pick up a is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our new saddle and some tools and come back to fix the bike! darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to Another young person we’ve met started self-harming because she felt that was be? You are a child of God. We were born to make manifest the glory the only way that she could deal with some problems that she was facing. She of God that is within us.” Marianne Williamson came down to one session to specifically speak to one of the youth workers who - Rosie Grant-Willson she felt really showed her that they care and they had a great conversation about relationships and staying safe, bullying, self-esteem and self-harm. Another young person come to the van to simply make use of equipment, they walked up to me after being on the laptop for a while and said, “I just used the internet on the van to do my homework which I couldn’t do at home because we don’t have the internet.”
Investing in Young Leaders
Every week the BIOS team meets with over 300 young people, each and every young person is designed and created by an incredible God and is completely unique, sometimes our job is about sharing love with these young people, listening to them, playing a game with them, chatting to them, explaining faith or answering their questions. We always need more volunteers, if you think you could spare and hour or two weekly, biweekly or monthly to listen to a young person and Meeting the President of Rotary UK after receiving a donation from the engage with them then please contact us. Rotary Club of Swindon - Amy Cox
Baptism Last academic year a brother and sister started coming to the lunch club we were running at Bradon Forest School. They knew that I worked for Youth for Christ and that I helped to lead the youth work at my placement church. Then one week they started coming to church. I invited them along to the church youth group that I was helping to run on a Sunday afternoon and they came along and joined in that group. They got involved in all the discussions and conversations we had and were also part of a group that led one of the church services and played in the worship band. Last week those two young people made an amazing step of faith and got baptised. It’s been great to see the incredible journey God has taken them on and a real privilege to have been a part of that. Its always exciting to see young people grow in faith and grow closer to God. - Nathan
This year we have 10 young people meeting with us each month to learn leadership skills and explore God’s calling on their lives. The Growing Young Leaders course is such an amazing thing to be a part of. I love seeing how God is using these young people and what incredible gifts, skills, abilities and talents he has given them. They are not just the leaders of tomorrow, they are the leaders of today, many of them already serving their local churches. Please do pray for this group as the year progresses. - Chris Priddy
Year 6 - Year 7 Transition Last year there are 2500 students in year 6 in Swindon. 1500 of those received an ‘It’s Your Move’ book, published by Scripture Union, from a local church or Abi at our in:School project. Wouldn’t it be great if next year 100% of students could be given this book. Is this something your church does? If not please get in touch with us to see how we can work with you to help make this 100% dream a reality. In September Abi Corry went on Maternity leave and on the 10th October baby Micah entered the world. All the family are doing well and we send them our love and prayers. September also saw the arrival of Hannah. Hannah grew up in Swindon and has returned after University to do a Gap Year with Scripture Union. As part of this year she will be working with the in:School project and we look forward to benefitting from her skills and experience working with children.
IMPACT 2014/15
Schoolswork Update
The bi-monthly youth worship event ‘IMPACT’ has now been running since 2008! Our first event of this academic year took place in October. 60 young people gathered for an evening of worship, prayer and exploring the bible together.
As September comes round every year, we have the opportunity to reflect on what we do and the part that we play in school life. Last year we saw a growth in schools buying in to our LUSH relationships education programme and also in our other lessons.
At this event we used a range of creative bible exploration methods to think about what it means to be ‘salt and light’. We were also wonderfully led in worship by the new youth band - it’s so great to see young people leading others in worship, using their musical gifts to honour God in this way. Dates for future events are below. ‘A very enjoyable and thought-provoking IMPACT’ - message from a young person who attended October’s event.
However with the launch of the BIOS Van we actually had a small reduction in the number of afterschool clubs that we run. These were clubs that only had one young person attending so we are seeing much more fruit from the equivalent sessions we are running in the community instead. We also delivered fewer assemblies than the previous year and worked in one less school on a weekly basis. This is not to say we had a bad year though we spent a lot of time deepening relationships with a lot of the young people and have built up our lunchtime clubs and afterschool clubs into sustainable groups with the same young people coming each week and inviting more of their friends. The start of this year has also seen schools who haven’t asked for assemblies for many years ask for them and we already have assemblies booked in for Christmas and even Easter 2015! Youth for Christ in the UK have also recently launched a fantastic new website to support the delivery of RE in schools. If you have an interest in RE teaching in schools do take a look at www.REquest.co.uk which was launched by the Archbishop of York in October.
Time: Sunday’s 6:00 - 8:00pm
Venue: Elim Church [Near North Star Roundabout]
Osborne St., Swindon, SN2 1DA
Oct 12 : Dec 07 : Feb 08 : Apr 19 : Jun 14 Join us on
We want you to get involved in planning and running IMPACT if you are interested get in touch with us. Run in partnership between local churches and Swindon Youth for Christ info@impactswindon.com 01793 829795
We are now working weekly in St. Luke’s School so that brings up our total to 11 Swindon schools a week again. We thank God for his faithfulness and all of the opportunities that have opened up in schools this term, along with the opportunities to share His love with the young people. Please pray for the continued work in our Swindon schools, that we have an opportunity to share the Good News with more young people this year. - Laura Butcher
New Gap Year Volunteers Every year we are blessed by people who choose to give up a year of their lives to volunteer with YFC in Swindon. These incredibly servant-hearted people receive training and support from Youth for Christ and spend their week working with young people right across our town. This year we would like to introduce you to: Hi! My name is Emily and I’ve come all the way from Australia to join the Swindon Youth for Christ team this year on the YFCone gap year. At the end of my schooling I was, of course, faced with the question “what do you want to do with your life?” I felt a massive pressure to go straight from school to university but I just had no idea what I wanted to study. At this point, three things stuck in my mind: 1. You want to go to England 2. You love working with young people and 3. You love Jesus. As an internet savvy young person, of course I combined all three of these things and turned to Google for the answer. Type in “youth ministry gap years in England” and YFCone pops up! In my mind, everything clicked into place and YFC just seemed like the right place to be. This first month that I have been working with the Swindon YFC team has been incredible. The team are amazing and have made me feel at home. The young people that I have worked with so far have been really inspiring, which really makes me just feel even more like I’m meant to be here. The young people have also surprised me because they actually want to talk to me and sometimes even want to hear about why I love and believe in God. I can see so much potential in every single one of the young people I have met and I’m so excited to keep working with them and helping them to grow in life and faith. Hi! My name is Melissa- Louise and I’m from Taunton, Somerset. I have come to work with SwindonYFC for the year to develop my relationship with God as well as equipping the young people which I will be working with throughout the year. I have complete faith that the Lord has placed me in Swindon for a reason, currently I do not know why this is, but I’m standing on his promises/plan for my life and believing that I can be the change that he wants to see in Swindon. Over the following year I will be working with in schools, doing detached work, youth work within the church and working with the BIOS Van. I am so excited to see what is in store for me over this next year but ultimately I am looking forward to seeing the change in young people which the Lord desire’s to see in his Children. Nathan was with us last year and he enjoyed his year so much that he came back for another year. This year, as well as working with SYFC, he will be serving with Highworth Community Church.
eq : Evangelism. How to share you’re faith with your friends.
Your Story : Their Story : Gods Story
The 2015 Tour syfc.org.uk/eq eq@syfc.org.uk 01793 829795
Volunteering with SYFC
This interactive workshop style youth group session will dispel the scary myths about evangelism, give you confidence in sharing your story and help you to realise that you are the person God has called to share your faith with your mates.
We rely on local volunteers to help run our sessions and are so thankful to them and the time, energy and love that they put in. Barbara is one of our local volunteers who comes out to our Chiseldon session every Wednesday, recently she said that she has really enjoyed volunteering and said “it gives me a chance to contribute to my own community.”
The Swindon Youth for Christ team are taking eq on tour.
VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES WITH SYFC
We would love you to invite us to come and share with your youth group. We’ll bring everything we need for this fun, interactive and multi-media equipped session, we’ll come whenever you’re youth group usually meets and we’ll tailor the workshop to the needs of your group. To find out more or to book us to come to your group please get in touch.
If you would be interested in working with us to transform the lives of young people then we have lots of opportunities at after-school, early evening and later evening sessions. Just email volunteering@syfc.org.uk to find out more. We promise you’ll have a lot of fun!
Wendy on Placement
During the summer term I joined the SYFC team on a placement for my training as a Methodist Minister. I had a great time, lots of fun, felt very included and welcomed – and also absolutely exhausted at the sheer volume of work done by the inspiring SYFC team in a week! I spent time in school lunchtime and after school clubs, RE lessons, in evening youth clubs and out with the mobile youth club BIOS Van, at IMPACT, a Church service taken by Chris, trustee and team meetings and the Annual Showcase. I observed their work with young people, mostly from outside of the church, and their interactions with school personnel, interested members of the community and volunteers. What I found was that love and passion for God and for young people shines through all that SYFC does, and leads to work that makes a real difference in the lives of young people. At first I couldn’t see where God could get through the bad behaviour and disrespect that sometimes faces them, but came to appreciate the quality of the relationships built by the energetic, passionate staff, that left spaces for the Holy Spirit to work. The prayerful, professional way SYFC is managed and the support of faithful people in the churches sustains the work on the ground, making this an incarnational Christian organisation that is living faithfully towards God’s future. I have seen God at work from the very core of this organisation, through its administration, management and oversight, its staff and volunteers, to each session delivered and each encounter with each young person. When I asked the question ‘how can SYFC live faithfully towards God’s future?’, one staff member replied ‘keep going, keep doing what we’re doing.’ Although all organisations must change and move in response to the change of times and seasons, I believe that that staff member is right, this organisation is listening to God, and God can be truly found in all it does. Thanks to everyone for making my placement so meaningful and useful – and I would recommend to anyone getting out there and seeing what our amazing SYFC does. Following my placement I am now serving as the Chair of Trustees for SYFC. Our Annual Showcase event, held every June/July is a fantastic opportunity to find out about all that SYFC does each year. If you missed it in 2014 I would strongly encourage you to join us in 2015. - Wendy Tucker
Angry Girls and Noisy Boys This poem was written in response to several encounters I had observed between SYFC staff and young people around the BIOS mobile youthclub van and at school lunchclubs. The young people portrayed represent more than one young person or event. The ‘unworthiness even more obscene’ is a Christian Young man with Asperger’s Syndrome.
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She addresses the world in a roar of anger, of challenge, of defiance, of fear, of the joy of living and being young, of pain, of question, of flamboyance, of release and her voice bounces off the faces of the houses and is caught up on and dances wildly with the cacophony of the funfair. The obscenities, thrown like punches at the unresisting, unjudging Acceptance that stands, smiling, eyebrows slightly raised in a wall of Love along the side of the van. It is obscene to her that Love, that Acceptance and she doesn’t know what to do with it… It has given her time, an ear, a chair, itself and she doesn’t know what to do with it… It has given itself to unworthiness even more obscene than herself and its Acceptance offends deeply. The deep obscenity of Grace offends to the core Grace that extends beyond her, even beyond her She doesn’t know what to do with it…
He addresses the world in a roar of joy, of inequity, of challenge, of defiance, of flamboyance, of youth, of individuality, of noisy camaraderie. The questions, the challenge, the wish for acceptance, the need for attention, for notice bounces off the walls and rings in the ears long after the other ringing sends him on. ‘There is no God’ he says to the image of God. This Grace is not obscene, it is foolish, irrational, pointless. Unresisting, unjudging Acceptance that sits smiling, eyebrows slightly raised in a net of Love around the room. It is unyielding, accepting impervious to the worst that he can send reverberating playfighting with the cacophony of his fellows. It has given him time, a smile, a bean bag, Itself And there is something that attracts Grace that will not let him go And he wants more… - Wendy Tucker July 2014
The work of SYFC is only made possible by the amazing COULD YOU OR YOUR HOMEGROUP SPONSOR A SESSION? generosity of churches and individuals like yourselves. £25 per month enables us to run Could you consider investing in the future ministry of SYFC? 1 School Lunchclub or 1 RE or LUSH lesson or 1 set of Assemblies or Perhaps you could consider becoming a monthly financial 1 Rock Solid Club or 1 support session with a young person in crisis. Why not choose a specific event to sponsor and pray for? partner or send a special one-off gift now, to help us develop the work over the coming months. Or could you commit to sending us just £5 or £10 a month. All you need to do is ask us for a Standing Order Form and Every amount donated makes a significant impact on our work. return it to our PO Box address and if you are a tax payer Visit www.syfc.org.uk/donate to donate online, we can claim 20% of the sum donated back from HMRC. or call 01793 829795 to request a standing order form.
KEEP IN TOUCH Yes I would like to be kept informed about all the fantastic work of SYFC, please send me Newsletters, Updates and Emails. Alternatively you can sign up online at www.syfc.org.uk Name : _______________________________________________________________ Address : _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________ Postcode : ________________________________________ Email Address : ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Phone Number : _________________________________________ Church Attended : __________________________________ PLEASE SEND YOUR COMPLETED FORM TO: SYFC, PO Box 2352, Swindon, Wilts, SN2 1WE. THANKYOU.
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