Swindon
Taking Good News to young people in Swindon since 1950
Spring 2015
youthforchristnews
Registered Charity no. 274402
“All I want for Christmas is Love” Christmas is always a busy but exciting time of year in our calendar; this year we had the opportunity to tell over 1000 young people the Christmas story through assemblies, an activity day at Uplands and in our usual lunch and afterschool clubs at schools right across Swindon. Following on from the success of last year’s exploration of the Christmas Story through art installations in Swindon Academy, we created version 2 - the story of “what happened next?” looking at the their exile and empty stable, Herod calling for all the baby boys to be killed and Jesus’ presentation at the temple. We sometimes can get ourselves into a trap focussing on the birth of a baby and not looking at who he grew up to be, forgetting to look forward to the rest of the story. These installations prompted discussions about prophecies being fulfilled and it being revealed that Jesus is the Son of God. Once again we were invited into Uplands to lead sessions on the Christmas Story. We ran the lesson four times and using creative activities went on a journey with the young people thinking about the angels, the journey to Bethlehem following a star and the birth of Jesus itself. It was a wonderful day further building relationships with these young people who we see each week in the playground. For the first time in a number of years we were also invited into Churchfields to run Christmas assemblies. We focussed on the theme of unwrapping joy and Jesus being a gift of joy. We also encouraged the students to think about how they could bring joy to people in their school, community and the world. It was a great opportunity for building more of a relationship with the school. Our other work in schools also led to many Christmas conversations, one such conversation was when we took advent calendars in to school. They were from The Meaningful Chocolate Company and told the Christmas story and had a storybook behind the Christmas day window. At one session, Emily our yfcone, was sitting down with a young person who wanted to read the story out loud to her. Emily and this student then went on to talk about what Christmas meant to them. This edition’s cover photo is from an activity we did in school that shows that for many young people, what they are really looking for at Christmas is to know that they are loved. - Laura Butcher
Directors Notes In January we hosted some training on the issues of Self Harm and Eating Disorders presented by expert Dr Pooky Knightsmith. 80 people attended representing social workers, councillors, school PSHE and pastoral care workers, youth workers, mental health professionals and parents. The training was superb, but it highlighted to me how massive these issues are for so many young people. You simply would not believe the stories we hear from young people about how desperate their situations are and what horrific things they have experienced in their short lives. Every week as we meet to share and pray together our hearts break for those young people that we have spoken with that week. No young person should have to experience the things these young people do. So many young people in our town are struggling to cope with the challenges they face and it is worrying and upsetting to hear from young people who are self harming or struggling with an eating disorder.
“I don’t want my life to be like this anymore, can you help” - a young person who approached us. Each week we stand with these young people, meeting them where they’re at and sharing Gods love with them in hugely practical and meaningful ways, listening to them and caring for them where they are. I believe God is weeping with these young people who are struggling and calling us to “Go and find them”. Please help us to respond by supporting SYFC.
Swindon Youth for Christ, P. O. BOX 2352, SWINDON SN2 1WE office@syfc.org.uk www.syfc.org.uk
“What I do,
Stops Who I am”
There are often times where I wonder what kind of impact I am having on the young people I come across. I think the truth is, quite often we may never really know, but now and then we are shown a little bit of how heaven is touching earth. It’s hard to say which part of my role I enjoy the most. I work as part of an amazing team. My passion is for demonstrating Gods love by reaching those that are often referred to as the “hard to reach”. Recently I have been working with year 11 students who are regularly in isolation because of poor behaviour, disruption, anger, the list goes on. Since taking part in the first ever UK accredited StrengthsFinder Coach training I have been using it in school to help these young people recognise and understand their strengths and how they can better use them. It’s often like a lightblub being turned on for them. Often they can find themselves in a negative cycle of behaviour, which is really hard for them to break and they have no idea that they can be good at something. Having discovered their strengths through the StrengthsFinder tool they are able to, often for the first time, find ways to break this cycle by focussing on their positive skills. One young person, who is at risk of permanent exclusion, in response to discovering and reflecting on his strengths wrote “what I do, stops who I am” I have really been able to help him work through some of his negative behaviour patterns, helping him to find a more positive future. What I love is being able to tell these young people that despite the way they might see themselves, they are created to be amazing. It can be tough, but we are all a work in progress, alive with possibilities. If we could all live our lives for what we were created for - Wow! A little bit of heaven touching earth.
Schoolswork Update The first term of 2015 has been dominated by delivering LUSH lessons. LUSH is our relationships education programme which we deliver in Swindon Schools. It focuses on developing healthy relationships but also looks at some of the issues young people face preventing them to make healthy choices. In the last year we have rewritten some of the programme in line with government guidelines on PSHE and have one session dedicated to issues that the young people face such as gossip and peer pressure, to ‘sexting’ (the sending of explicit images) and pornography. From working with young people I have seen first hand and have had conversations about the effects that sexting and pornography are having on relationships and it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart that young people feel they have to live up to something they’re not, it breaks my heart that young people have a skewed perception of healthy relationships, it breaks my heart that young people don’t feel good enough for another person, it breaks my heart that young people are exercising risky behaviour because they are not told otherwise, it breaks my heart that young people are not told how intimate sex is and that it is not just a physical act. To speak about these issues, we need to talk about them, so I have found myself standing in front of 100 students at a time exploring the myths that the pornography industry portrays and how dangerous it can be. There have now been studies done on the detrimental effects that pornography has on relationships with some staggering results and I am proud to be standing alongside them and teaching young people that they shouldn’t be turning to pornography, and that their relationships will be healthier without it. My prayer for this is that young people will be able to talk to their peers and adults about it and be able to get good positive advice.
“Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is convenient for us” Romans 15 : 1-5. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of people around us, asking ourselves “how can I help ?”
With this focus on LUSH we have continued our weekly work in schools, one such session is our PSHE slot in St Luke’s with yr 7/8 classes. So far this term we have looked at New Year’s resolutions and also communication. I have really enjoyed my work back in this school and have thoroughly enjoyed being able to encourage these young people in making a difference in the world. It was these groups who organised the fundraising to enable a Bolivian child to receive an ID card giving them the access to healthcare and education, something which is impossible without such a card.
That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles but waded right in and helped out. - Rosie Grant-Willson
Please pray for our ongoing work in the schools across Swindon and for having more opportunities to work in them and engage with people all across the town. - Laura Butcher
Commonweal ChatRoom On a Wednesday afternoon we run a lunch club at Commonweal School. As we began the school year we could tell how enthusiastic this group was going to be. Upon arrival at the RE room on our first day we were closely followed by a keen young person who had heard about our club at the school’s Enrichment Fair and decided to come along to the group all by himself. We have had an average number of about 10-15 young people coming to our club each week; though the group has fluctuated in number occasionally as some of our regular attendees have encouraged their friends to come with them, inviting them to come and find out about the Christian Faith too. At the beginning of our year we asked the young people to think of some questions that they had about Christianity. It was interesting to see the kind of things the young people wanted to know. The questions that they had ranged from things like; ‘is Satan real?’ to ‘was Jesus black or white?’ Over the year we have been aiming to answer some of these questions whilst also tackling topics such as bullying, worry and friendship. This group has been particularly rewarding as the young people have been so excited to be at the club and to engage in discussion with us. We are looking forward to the rest of the year with this group and helping them to know the love of Jesus through us and for themselves. - Emily Stark
Encouragement from a Young Person ”BIOS, IMPACT, Growing Leaders Youth Edition, LUSH, the ChatRoom, Pray for Schools, Exam Prayer (which I have found very helpful), RockSolid, SundayNightLive, Youthie and In:School do exactly what you say: they bring hope to young people. Thank you for everything you do and thank you for being such an integral and important part of my life. You bring such amazing news of hope and love and strength in God in such relatable and helpful ways. Every volunteer and leader I meet, exudes confidence in God, passion and truth. Thank you SYFC :) “ - Via our Website
Sunday Night Live
Meet newCoffee friends, at Costa hear be inspired Drivegreat Thru, music, West Swindon. 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
Every 3rd Sunday of the month 8:00pm - 10:00pm. Live Entertainment with a Twist of Faith. Aimed at Swindon’s young adults.
BIOS : Life on the Streets
Over the last few months the temperature has dropped and yet we are still seeing hundreds of young people each week. It breaks my heart to hear stories of young people who can’t go home until a certain time and are just hanging around outside waiting for time to pass. Over the last few weeks I have also come across a few young people who told me they had run away from home or who are spending nights on the streets because they have fallen out with their parents. The young people we work with each have extremely complex issues facing them, it can be easy to get annoyed with them because of their bad behaviour but we at BIOS seek to look past their tough exterior and work with them to look at the root of their problems. We hand out blankets and hot chocolate and sit with these young people and engage with them, so often all they want is to be listened to and know that they have a voice. A young person that I was chatting to a few weeks ago said;
”I wish I was beautiful because then my life would be perfect.” This is a heart breaking line,
the world in this technological age dictates what ‘beauty’ is. Unrealistic standards are set that young people strive to reach, whilst always being told that they need to do more to make themselves look better and therefore be better people. Young people need to be told that they are beautiful and completely individual, which is a positive thing not a negative thing. Over the weeks leading up to Christmas our questions of the week covered questions such as ‘what does Christmas mean to you?’ and ‘all I want for Christmas is..?’ this question in particular was an interesting one to discuss. For some young people their thoughts were completely materialistic but others put a bit more thought into the question and gave answers such as ‘for my mum to get well,’ ‘to be happy,’ ‘for my dad to come home,’ ‘no more cancer,’ ‘all I want for Christmas is love,’ ‘for my family to stop fighting,’ ‘peace,’ and ‘to be with family.’ For young people to feel that they are able to share answers like these with us shows that they trust us, these topics are topics that are on the hearts of the young people we work with. In giving us these answers these young people are willing to become vulnerable with us, which is a massive privilege. Also in December we had a whole load of advent calendars and I gave a couple away to two young people that we see on a Wednesday night in Chiseldon. These advent calendars contained a Christmas story booklet and the young people asked me to read it to them, so we all sat there in the middle of a field wrapped in blankets drinking hot chocolate as I read them the story of the true meaning of Christmas. This then lead to questions and discussions, these girls were shocked that Mary would have been about their age when she was asked to take on the terrifying and amazing privilege of bearing God’s son. Young people are rarely given the opportunity to imagine what they would think and feel if biblical stories happened to them today. We also took some advent calendars into Hreod and were giving away the chocolates from them. The advent calendars that we had told the Christmas story with one part behind each door and the young people I was chatting to said ‘we don’t want the chocolate, we want to finish reading the story of Jesus.’ One of the activities around Valentine’s Day looked at love and my graffiti board for the week had in the centre of it ‘love is…’ this encouraged some really interesting conversations. I was able to chat to groups of young people about 1 Corinthians 13 and the perfect love that is described there and also Jesus’ command to ‘love your enemies’ and whether that is possible and what that might look like. If you would like to find out about the questions I ask young people each week please find us on Facebook or Twitter as BIOSswindon. At BIOS we provide much more than an Xbox, we provide love, care, a listening ear and words of support, peace and hope. If you would like to volunteer with us for an hour or two either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly then please do contact us. - Amy Cox
Primary Schools Ministry
Support RE in Schools
As I start my 6 month of working with in:School, I’m really starting to feel more “at home”. In my work in Liden I now regularly take assemblies and teach RE to year 1 &2 classes looking at why Christians go to church and what places are special to them. I like to spend my breaktimes in school playing ‘off ground tig’ with the children! I really love spending time with the children and am starting to feel like a presence in the school as they run to tell me about the trip to church they took or a Bible they got given as a gift. As well as spending time in Liden, I have done assemblies and RE lessons in Nythe Primary School and I am looking forward to having opportunities to visit the other schools in East Swindon, including an opportunity to spend some time in the Nylands Campus. I’m really enjoying going into schools and hopefully allowing the children to glimpse a bit of Jesus through me. - Hannah Mulcock
Since January I have started going into the school on Fridays to help with RE lessons. In the first session I supported I was interviewed by the year 11 class on the Christian views on animal testing. This is a difficult topic that I knew a little bit about; the teacher emailed Chris afterwards saying “He did a sterling job and the students were still discussing his points right until the end of the lesson. I certainly learnt some things as well.” I have been back regularly since and I’m loving helping in the class. The young people are getting used to me being there now and they’re asking me more questions and asking for help from me. Some of the young people that come to our lunch time club are also in the lessons which means we can carry on the conversations from class there too. The lunch club has grown as well and we regularly have between 15-20 young people in the group that come every week. We have been talking about the topics they have told us they want to learn about, such as the Bible, bullying, peer pressure and freedom. I have also had chance to share my testimony with them; It was great that they asked me lots of questions at the end. - Nathan O’Neill
th
eq : Evangelism. How to share you’re faith with your friends.
Your Story : Their Story : Gods Story
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.
The 2015 Tour syfc.org.uk/eq eq@syfc.org.uk 01793 829795
The Swindon Youth for Christ team are taking eq on tour.
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.
The REQuest website is a fantastic free resource for exploring and learning about Christianity within RE. The site is run by Youth For Christ, and features, Christians from all the main denominations in their rich diversity. It seeks to equip, educate and enable teachers and pupils to ask and answer the big questions surrounding the Christian faith. When speaking with an RE teacher recently in Swindon I mentioned the RE quest website. He told me he thought it was fantastic and was already regularly using its resources.
Introducing our new Treasurer: Gavin Mapstone My name is Gavin Mapstone and I’m now a trustee for Swindon YFC. I worship at St Margarets Church in Stratton with my wife and three children, though I know Chris Priddy and Laura Butcher from Upper Stratton Baptist Church where I was baptised in 2013 and Chris and I ran a Dad’s toddler group together. For my day job I’m an accountant in the public sector and Chris invited me to become a trustee for my experience within finance and governance. Chris and his team are great stewards of the resources they have and make sure that every penny possible goes to supporting their ministry which makes my role easier. I would say the hardest challenge is balancing the need to manage funding responsibly with trusting that God will provide the resources the team need to deliver their message of hope to Swindon’s young people. Since becoming involved with Swindon YFC I’ve been inspired by the courage, dedication and passion the YFC team have for spreading the good news and the lifeline they offer to young people who feel alone or unloved. We’re tremendously lucky within Swindon to have such an active YFC centre and I pray that God continues to provide the funding to grow and strengthen this great organisation. - Gavin Mapstone
65 Years.... Is it time to retire yet? Swindon Youth for Christ has now been taking Good News, Hope and Love to young people in Swindon for 65 years, BUT we’re not finished yet, retirement is not calling us! Every week we work with over 650 young people right across Swindon introducing them to the love of Father God, the salvation of Jesus Christ and caring for them through often extremely challenging and distressing situations.
ANNUAL SHOWCASE
June 26th 2015 7:30-9:30pm with free desserts at Freshbrook Church We’d love you to join us, just email office@syfc.org.uk to rsvp.
COMING HOME TOUR
In October we will be hosting a team from British Youth for Christ who will be coming to inspire us all, as the church of Swindon, to continue to reach out to and care for young people. Details will be out soon and again, we’d love you to join us.
Church Small Groups
Volunteering with SYFC
I attend a homegroup linked to the Stratton Team Ministry and as part of our fellowship we try and collectively support a local Christian charity. Last year we supported the Swindon Food Bank. This year we have decided to support Swindon Youth for Christ by covering the costs of their lunch club at Kingsdown School. This group provides a relaxed setting for students to explore the Christian faith and the big questions in life. We have committed to donating £25/month as a small group to sponsor the cost of running the club, this works out as £3.50 per small group member per month so it is not a large financial burden. We find this adds an extra dimension to our worship as a group through learning and praying about the activities of SYFC and adding an active dimension to our home group where we can have a positive impact beyond our fellowship. We are very lucky in Swindon to have such a thriving Youth for Christ centre but it’s future impact will always depend on us supporting it and we are grateful to be able to play a small part in that. - Gavin Mapstone
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.
SUPPORT SYFC .....
IF you are part of a small group and would like to find out more about sponsoring one of our activities close to where you meet then please do get in touch.
1 in 5 young people say they have no one to talk to about the problems they face. By volunteering with SYFC you can offer a young person that opportunity - someone who will listen to them, care for them and be genuinely interested in them and their wellbeing.
VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES WITH SYFC 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. Joining us for just 1 hr a week or once a month can still make a massive impact and we promise you’ll have a lot of fun!
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 us 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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