Swindon
Taking Good News to young people in Swindon since 1950
Summer 2014
youthforchristnews
Registered Charity no. 274402
Why We Do What We Do... ‘We believe in Jesus, we believe in young people and we believe that together they can be spectacular.’ In a world of noise, distractions, pressure and confusion we spend our lives telling young people about the God who created, loves and cares for them. We do this through the way we share with them, the groups we run, the conversations we have, the questions we pose and through meeting them where they are. We do this because we love seeing young people understand who they are, experiencing freedom from the pressure the world puts upon them and realising that Christians care because God cares. We are concerned that the church seems to have gained a negative reputation - becoming known for what it is against, rather than what it is for and we want to change that. We want young people to know the church and Christians for their; love, care, listening, hospitality, generosity, joy, light, hope, peace, welcome, helpfulness, spirit, faith and acceptance. We work on behalf of, alongside and in support of churches right across this town, on a mission to young people, to proclaim Good News in relevant, creative, understandable, real and often fun ways. I’m excited about the stories you will read in this newsletter of how the Christian faith is being shared, explored, demonstrated and proclaimed. I’m also really excited for you to read about our newest vehicle; following the Soapbox bus in the 1980’s and the This Way Up bus in the 1990’s, we have just launched the BIOS Van - a mobile youth club for the 2010’s. This van builds on the heritage of the vehicles SYFC have owned in the past and enables us to support young people in their communities. Please read and be encouraged, please pray for our ministry and please consider believing in young people with us, by supporting SYFC financially also. Thank you. - Chris
What We Do... Regular Weekly Activities:
7 x Lunchtime Clubs [ChatRoom] 2 x After School Clubs [Rock Solid] 3 x Community Youth Clubs 12 x Mobile Youth Club Sessions 4 x Mentoring Sessions 1-2-1
Additional Regular Activities: Relationships Education Lessons RE Lessons Schools Assemblies School Chaplaincy in:School Primary School Ministry Growing Young Leaders Course Support work with young people
Events:
x:Site Children’s Event IMPACT Youth Worship Event Sunday Night Live for 18-30’s
Sharing the message of Good News One thing that I love about my job is I can try and bring the Bible alive a little bit for young people. Now, I love reading, but the Bible is a scary book just to pick up and read if you’ve never really come across it before and I guess for me it sometimes can be too, there’s just so many pages and such small writing! The Easter story is just one particular story that people are missing out on. Starting with a party in the streets on Palm Sunday we read the twists and turns of a meal, an arrest, a trial, a betrayal, forgiveness and the ultimate sacrifice of love! It seems to be more of a fact that young people are not hearing the Easter story as they are growing up, that many of them only know Jesus as a swear word, this is something that YFC all across the country is trying to reduce, our aim is to take the good news of the Easter Story, of a God who loves us so much, who would sacrifice his own son, so that we can live, to every young person in Britain. In the run up towards Easter we delivered assemblies at Commonweal School and Swindon Academy where we were able to share this story with every secondary school student. We also had a prayer space in the Faith Room at the Academy which took young people through the story of Easter. It started with them adding a palm leaf to a tree whilst thinking of things that made them really happy, and then followed the pattern of the story with stations around: the last supper, the garden of Gethsemane, carrying the cross, Simon helping Jesus, Father forgive them, the cross, the resurrection and finally the great commission. By going through the Easter story in this way we enabled young people to learn the story and interact with it, getting them to think not only about themselves, their attitudes, their situation but about their wider world, locally and internationally too. Please pray that this ongoing work at the Academy brings up further conversations with young people and that they want to explore the life changing story for themselves. - Laura
Swindon Youth for Christ, P. O. BOX 2352, SWINDON SN2 1WE (01793) 829795 office@syfc.org.uk www.syfc.org.uk
Live on FLAME-FM
Joesph Price Hello, my name is Joseph Price, I’m 18 years old and currently attend New College Swindon where I am studying a BTEC in Software Development & Web design. I am currently praying about going on to do a degree in Music and Theology at a Bible/Music College called Nexus in Coventry. I am a born-again Christian and have had the great privilege of being able to attend the young people’s worship event, IMPACT on a number of occasions. After joining the IMPACT Worship Team last year, I was later asked to become its Worship Team Leader. Now as you can imagine, this is quite a challenge since it involves not only taking on the responsibility of leading, but also organising the band so that we operate as an effective team. This has been an incredible and exciting experience, as I have been stretched and challenged in many ways. I have seen a strengthening of my relationship with God and seen the importance of developing leadership skills. This second point is one of the main reasons why I jumped at the chance to get involved with a great leadership course that I would recommend to any young person who feels called to be a leader in any way, shape or form. The course is called ‘Growing Leaders’ and is run by two brilliant Youth Workers, Chris Priddy and Lianne Semans Smith. During this course, I feel that God has been developing and moulding me to be a better leader, however I realise that my journey does not end when the course does, but I have come to recognise that life is just one big learning curve. In the long run, I have been equipped with many excellent resources to help me along the way. I have learned to value the Bible even more than ever because I have seen that it is full of great examples of leaders and my favourite, besides Jesus is David. I feel that I have a lot in common in with King David because he loved to use music as a way of worshipping God. I would like to become more like David, a man after God’s own heart. There is a verse that has really inspired me and it is the pinnacle of the whole course “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12. Doing the course and being a part of IMPACT has helped me to develop my skills as a leader and enabled me to draw closer to God and I believe both have helped me to become a more effective worship leader.
A few months ago, the team were telling me about FlameFM, a Christian radio station run by Swindon Churches Together once every few years during the month of May. They mentioned that SYFC had the opportunity to take a slot in the schedule so I volunteered to create, produce and host my own radio show! I decided to call it the YFCOne Show as I wanted to focus on telling people what it’s like to take a year out, with Youth for Christ, to work with young people in Swindon. I asked Nathan and Joanne if they would join me each week in the studio so that we could all share our experiences together. Having them with me made me feel much more confident about being live on air! The YFCone show went out every Wednesday from 5-6pm and each show was based around different aspects of being a YFCOne Gap Year student. We played a variety of Christian music and had an interview each week with various different people we have met this year. We covered: What it’s like to do a 2 year long, gap year in Swindon; what the YFCOne experience is like in other areas of the country and featured the new BIOS Van project. Within each show we added special sections to advertise events that were coming up and a time for Nathan, Joanne and myself to share our youth work highlights of each week. The series of shows gave me fantastic experience. It was great fun to both plan and deliver each show. I felt so happy about the support of people who tuned in to FlameFM in Swindon, and those back home listening online. - Emma.
Growing Young Leaders On June 4th 11 young people Graduated from our year long training course designed at investing in young people who have leadership skills and potential. It has been a real privilege to journey with these passionate, talented and enthusiastic young people. We’ve seen them grow in faith, leadership ability and confidence as we’ve studied leadership in the Bible together and followed the GLYE course from CPAS.
In April we took the group to Legge House for a 24hr retreat. We explored with them the gifts, skills and abilities that God has given each of them. Throughout the course the young people get involved in leadership roles in their church and have a mentor who they meet regularly with. Please pray for these 11 as God continues to use them in a multitude of ways. If you know someone who may be interested in joining the next course then please contact the SYFC office - office@syfc.org.uk, 01793 829795.
Chairty Shop Take Over
Volunteering with SYFC
On Thursday 8th May we took over ‘The Shop’ in Cavendish Square as a summer fundraising event. The SYFC team received a lovely welcome from the ladies who run the shop and got stuck in helping to speak to customers and be useful shop keepers! It was a lovely surprise to see the shop constantly busy from the moment we opened. The Shop was a wonderful environment to work in and the time passed quickly there. ‘The shop’ is a lovely charity shop to visit and it was great to have the opportunity to meet people from the community. We also parked the BIOS Van outside to show people our new mobile youth club that has many different activities and games for everyone to enjoy. We had a great time meeting people and raised £200 towards the work of SYFC. - Joanne
One of our youthwork volunteers recently sent us a message, this volunteer used to be one of the young people who came along to a lot of the different events that we ran in Pinehurst and now he is a volunteer at the youth club we run there. The message he sent me read ‘You guys have changed my life completely, if it wasn’t for you guys I’d be with the wrong people now so thank you.’ So often as a youth worker you may never hear how you have affected the life of a young person but when you hear someone tell you that the work that you did changed their life for the better, it truly encourages you.
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. We promise you’ll have a lot of fun!
Schoolswork Update We have had a busy time in schools since the last newsletter. We are still working in ten Secondary schools weekly and have had other sessions and assemblies to fit in too. Laura has been involved in teaching the youth work course at Swindon Academy where she was able to share with the students her love for youth work and how her faith has impacted her life and her work. Our faith is so important to what we do and we are all here because of it. Laura describes simply ‘falling’ in to doing youth work but now looks back and see’s that this is completely what God has called her to. It is amazing to have the freedom to share like this as they have to learn about faith based youth work for their course. It was great to be a part of training and investing in those aspiring youth workers. We also spent a lot of time preparing for an RE day at Nova Hreod where we taught all the year 10 students, exploring the issue of Euthanasia as part of their compulsory RE. Although not a very cheery topic, we actually had a lot of fun exploring and challenging opinions which were held by the students. The session aimed to challenge their views and to think through all the arguments both for and against Euthanasia and finally take part in a debate about what they believe. These skills are imperative for life, it is important to question what we believe so that we build a strong faith and search for what is right in a myriad of choices and beliefs which may face us. In the search for truth and belief, questions always arise. I have questions, you have questions and young people certainly have questions. This term we have been looking at the questions young people have about life, God and everything. Some were asking God for help in exams, others asked if the world is supposed to be so good, why are there bad people? Also, why do bad things happen to good people? In our lunch clubs we have been exploring these with the young people, sometimes they can be issues which even we as team struggle with, but how amazing that we can say, “we don’t have it all sorted” and be honest and open about our faith with the young people. Please pray as we meet with young people in schools and share their faith journeys with them.
YFCone Updates
Funding SYFC
What next for our 201/14 YFCone team?
We are hugely blessed by the financial support of churches, individuals and supporters right across Swindon and beyond. Without your support we would have no ability to do the work we do.
Joanne: I’ve now been working with SYFC for 2 years and the highlight has been being able to use my music gifts to serve God in lots of different places - with a music class in Swindon Academy, at Sunday Night Live and IMPACT, at my host church, on FlameFM and in school assembly. I want to stay in Swindon next year but I’m still waiting to find out where that may be! Nathan: My highlight of this year has been working with the group at Bradon Forest School. It’s a brand new group that SYFC launched this year and I’ve enjoyed seeing it grow and sharing my faith with the young people there. I’ve loved this year so much that I’m sticking around for an extra year working with SYFC and young people in Swindon. Emma: I literally can’t name one highlight, I’ve loved every group that I have been involved with and had such an amazing year. In September I am going to Regents College to study Drama and Theology.
BIOS Mobile Youth Club
The core work of SYFC is funded by donations from Churches and Individuals. The work of BIOS is funded entirely by sponsors and funding bodies. The work of in:School is funded by the Diocese of Bristol and donations from local churches and individuals.
On the 24th April we held a launch event for the BIOS Mobile Youth Club, this was a chance The core work of SYFC depends on for businesses across Swindon, many of which have put money or resources into the van your generosity and I would love you to come and visit the van. This was a great event and I was able to talk to many different to consider helping us to continue people about the work that BIOS is involved in. It was amazing to see so many businesses represented and to know that they were all there to support BIOS and the work that we do. our mission to young people in The BIOS van has been a big hit with both young people and adults in the areas that we cover and many of the Swindon. Thankyou young people have shared with the team their favourite bits about the BIOS van. One teacher in a secondary school that we go into weekly stated that Thursdays were her favourite lunchtime because of the BIOS van! Some young people come to the van to make use of equipment that they don’t get at home, one boy recently 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 internet.” Other young people come to the van just because they want someone to talk to, someone that will listen to them, it amazes me that in a session we can have the van set up with all its equipment and sometimes you can have no-one using that and instead there is a group of young people sat around in the chairs talking to and sharing life with the youth workers present and this is what the BIOS van is really all about, creating a space for young people and engaging with them. We recently created a graffiti board with the question on it ‘What qualities do you look for in a friend?’ This was a great point for discussion and it opened up some great opportunities to chat to the young people about whether they possess those qualities themselves. A few weeks ago I was sat chatting to a year 9 girl and she looked around the community centre car park and said “We should make this place beautiful.” Since then we have been able to work with some of the young people to do a litter pick and some gardening in the area, this has also sparked conversations about caring for the community you live in. So often great conversations are sparked by something that a young person says first, and that is what youth work is all about, building those important relationships that enable honest conversations to take place. I have found that I have been able to engage with some younger children as well as teenagers and recently I met a 6 year old boy who I chatted to and played a game on the computer with. His dad then came to see what the van was all about and so Rosie chatted to him. After a few minutes the boy started laughing and cheering and his dad turned to look at me and said “I have never seen my son so happy.” Sometimes all young people need is someone who is willing to spend time with them, care for them and listen to them, the BIOS van enables this. It parks up in schools and communities where the young people are and engages with them to encourage, enable and equip them to make positive life choices. - Amy.
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 : _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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PLEASE SEND YOUR COMPLETED FORM TO: SYFC, PO Box 2352, Swindon, Wilts, SN2 1WE. THANKYOU.
It’s Your Move In June and July, in:School turns its focus to the year 6 children and aims to offer support to the schools and children during this time of transition from primary to secondary school. This is done by handing out the ‘It’s Your Move’ books (published by Scripture Union) to year 6 children, but alongside this, we offer assemblies and interactive sessions which cover the topics of change, challenges and choices. As of our print deadline in May, we have seven sessions booked up in four schools and another six schools interested. Other churches around the town are also providing these books for their local schools, so if you are interested in supporting your local school in this way, either this year or next year and would like to find out more please contact in:School via abi@in-school.co.uk.
in:School Update Easter Cracked Open is a fun, exciting and relevant way to make Jesus known in local primary schools. In April, in:School (alongside a number of local churches) were able to deliver ten Easter sessions to the year 5 children in eight schools which meant that over 280 children were able to engage in a variety of activities which took them on a journey through the Easter story. One teacher referred to the workshop as being ‘a valuable learning activity for the children and provided the experience of visiting a place of worship’. Another teacher commented on how ‘all the children were really positive about their visit as everything was well explained’. It was also really encouraging to hear that the illustration we use in our workshops about Jesus dying for us on the cross was described as being ‘well judged and very effective’. Alongside our year 5 Easter Cracked Open workshops, in:School also had the privilege of working alongside Upper Stratton Baptist Church to lead a workshop for the 60 children in year 1 (a total of three sessions) at Beechcroft Infant School. With a team of five, we were able to provide a workshop full of storytelling and fun craft activities. The school’s year 1 coordinator said in response... ‘A huge thank you! Everyone who attended absolutely loved the idea. Staff said it was pitched perfectly for the children and you made the elements of the story very clear. The children that I saw on their return certainly had a lot to say about it all. We have used this format for our story telling sessions in RE next term so thank you so much for the idea and many thanks again for your hard work and dedication into making learning fun and meaningful for our children.’
Flame FM During May, in:School had the opportunity of hosting two shows on FlameFM. If you were able to listen in we hope you enjoyed the shows and were inspired by what is already going on between churches and schools in Swindon. You may also have been encouraged by what you and your local church could do in the future! For those who missed the shows we talked on air about the many Easter workshops which took place, shared a SAT’s survival guide for children and parents and played some fantastic children’s ministry songs. We also had interviews with Lianne Smith (Scripture Union) about the town-wide children’s event X:Site, with Dianne Brookes about the Open the Book initiative and with Wayne Dixon about the It’s Your Move books.
SUPPORT SYFC .....
If you think your local church would be interested in finding out more about how you can link with your local school, then please do get in touch! Email us at abi@in-school.co.uk or call on 01793 829795.
The work of SYFC is only made possible by the amazing COULD YOU OR YOUR HOMEGROUP SPONSOR SOMETHING? 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 freepost 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.