Hope and a Future Magazine Edition 6

The anchor in a dizzying world

Author and speaker, Arianna Walker, on why hope makes all the difference for young people

Acting differently

Five years on, Darian shares the remarkable impact TLG had on his life

Built on hope

Why hope is the solid foundation beneath everything at TLG, including inspirational stories like Helen and Leon’s

IN THIS ISSUE:

Hope is coming home

It was so close - the taste of victory almost on our lips.

For three sun-baked weeks, the Morfin household lived life on tenterhooks in hopeful anticipation that finally, after 52 years, football would indeed come home. I’m sure I don’t need to describe how that particular story ended and I’m certain readers from the other home nations would be glad to be spared another Englishman going on about the World Cup again! But there was something totally thrilling – so full of joy – about those three weeks.

Across my home city, the place was buzzing with excitement. The city square was filled with enthusiasts of the beautiful game and even the buses were displaying hopeful messages in support of the eleven men taking on their Croatian counterparts. It was electric!

The thing is there’s something exhilarating about hope. It sets the pulse racing and it widens our eyes to picture a future that might just happen. That’s why at TLG, we’re driven by hope. We’re motivated by helping every child to see that, despite what life may have thrown at them, there is a bright future for them.

Darian’s story on page 8 is exactly that. What could have been another life turned into a statistic is still brimming with hope five years on thanks to TLG.

I’m also excited that TLG’s friend, Arianna Walker, is our guest contributor on page 6. Arianna shares our vision to see the local Church bringing hope to the nation. It’s compelling reading and I know you’re going to love it.

Whether this is the first time you’ve picked up our magazine or you’ve stood with us over the years, thank you for believing that change is possible. It’s together that we can bring that exhilarating hope to the struggling children and families in our local communities.

Tim Morfin TLG Founder and Chief Executive

Photography by Ian Harding

Hope at the Lunch Table

Leon and Helen’s Story

Guest writer: Arianna Walker

Tim at England’s last World Cup warm-up game in Leeds with (R-L) son Dan, friend Ethan and nephew Riley.

at the lunch table Finding hope

Out of the blue, Leon and his mum Helen found themselves invited to TLG Make Lunch at their local church in Hull. It was once a long and challenging 6 weeks, but now the summer break is one of their favourite times of the year.

“Before Make Lunch, school holidays were pretty long really. Financially just get by and the club really helps. Some of the other mums struggle even more. So for those that can’t afford fish and all the other things they cook at Make Lunch, it makes a real difference – especially for people on low benefits.

Even if it’s just one meal, if you’re not cooking it does save you money to provide a meal for that day. If I know he’s been fed a proper meal at lunchtime it

means I only have to give him something smaller later on. It’s much more manageable. I’ve heard other mums at Make Lunch saying, ‘I wish they did this every day.’

I can still remember the first time I came to the lunch club. It was so welcoming. My neighbours had knocked on the door because their kids wanted Leon to go with them and so let him go. My next-door neighbour took him and I went to go and pick him up. He’d had such a brilliant time!

He’d had some food but he’d also played lots of games too. So I started coming along too and that was nearly two years ago!

It’s marvellous. It makes me feel happy because I know that Leon’s taken care of. He’s getting a hot meal and he’s playing somewhere safe. It’s definitely building his confidence as well. It makes him happy – more happy than he was. He’s more chirpy about things because he knows he’s got friends and somewhere to go.

Make Lunch has given me a place to meet new friends too. Everyone is so friendly and it gets me out of bed. I’d recommend it to anyone.

Because of Make Lunch, I’ve started going along to church too. Our church meets on Friday nights and that’s really good for me. At first I just sat there because I didn’t want to get up and sing. I wasn’t against it; I just didn’t feel comfortable singing. So the first two times I went to church just sat there but Leon really enjoyed the bits they’d organised for the kids and that made me keep going. I’m not even sure I’d have kept going if Leon hadn’t enjoyed it so much. But I continued going and gradually began to join in the singing. Now, I have a really good sing and I look forward to going! Once go, I feel a lot better for having been. It’s helped my belief and my relationship with God has grown.

In fact, it’s totally changed my idea of what church can be. like going, meeting everybody there, catching up with each other and finding out what’s going on in each other’s lives, having a good sing and giving to the collection. You had to be really serious in all the churches I’d been to before. But at this church, everybody’s just themselves so you wouldn’t even think you were at church really! It’s like a family.

Because of Make Lunch, I now work some voluntary hours in the church’s charity shop. I enjoy that and I know I’m appreciated. I like knowing that I’m helping.

Leon is 7 now and he’s always changing his mind about what he wants to do when he’s older. One day it’s a golfer, the next day it’s a taxi driver. But really, all I’m hoping for is that Leon’s happy.

With Make Lunch and church in our lives, know I don’t need to worry about that.”

With over 1.5 million UK children eligible for free school meals, holiday hunger is a shocking reality for children in every community.

Whether your neighbourhood is large or small, wealthy or deprived, there are children that desperately need your church’s help.

Visit

Photography by Ian Harding

Leon and mum Helen

Fun and games at Make Lunch in Hull

THE anchor IN A DIZZYING WORLD

BY ARIANNA WALKER

It can sometimes seem like young people today are growing up in a more challenging environment than ever and desperately lacking hope. We asked Arianna Walker, Chief Executive of Mercy UK, to share why ‘hope’ makes all the difference for young people and what the local Church can be doing about it.

“A

friend of mine, who is a professional ballet dancer, once told me the only way to keep your stability when spinning pirouettes is to keep your eyes fixed on one steady point as long as you can, and quickly turn your head and refocus on the same point. She also told me it’s how to stop yourself getting overwhelmed by the number of people watching you from the audience. The pressure to succeed, to get it right and not to fail is lessened when you are fixed on one point, not on the many faces in the crowd.

I have come across so many young people whose internal narrative is one of hopelessness. The lack of a fixed focal point, something or someone to help steady them means they begin to believe they are ‘less than’ - they wonder ‘what’s the point of trying because I’m only going to fail?’ They believe that their past mistakes determine their future and that, no matter how hard they work, they will always fall short of an unattainable standard. The lack of hope, the lack of an anchor, means there is a generation of young people pirouetting out of control and many are falling flat, when it should be their time to shine.

And this is where I see the local church come into its own. We, as the people of God, have a fixed point, an anchor for our soul, a confident hope in a better future. We have a plan and a purpose that brings an unfailing stability in an unstable world, and all this is found in the person of Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has a plan and a purpose for our lives- a plan that will do us good, not harm and will give us a hope and a future.

“WE HAVE A PLAN AND A PURPOSE THAT BRINGS AN UNFAILING STABILITY IN AN UNSTABLE WORLD, AND ALL THIS IS FOUND IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST.”

So many young people are struggling to find that fixed point in a world that is constantly moving the goal posts and in a society where the audience watching our lives now consists of thousands who follow at the click of a button. The pressure to conform, to fit in, to live a life worthy of its audience is immense and the effects are dangerous - especially when so many young people lack even the fixed point of a safe home life or stable parents.

To me, the same principle can be applied to hope. Hope is an anchor - a fixed point. It is the confident expectation that something good will happen, an internal decision not to get swept up by the spinning action of life’s destabilising motion or the many faces that are watching our lives, and to keep our gaze transfixed on something or someone that offers us stability.

Our churches can be places where this scripture isn’t just written on the walls or printed on cute postcards. Our churches are, should be and could be places where this scripture is lived out - where it’s found in the very essence of the atmosphere and permeates throughout the culture.

Hope is found in the songs that are sung, in the words that youth leaders and spiritual parents speak over the younger generation. It’s found in the encouraging arm around a young person’s

shoulder, or in the coffee shop where words of wisdom and strength are imparted into young souls, providing a fixed point in a spinning world. It’s found in the prayers prayed for those who are hopeless and the practical support provided for those who need it. It’s found in the finances spent to embrace and validate a younger culture - building skateparks, running youth groups; meeting young people where they are at, not where you think they should be.

In a world that is spinning out of control without a fixed point to steady it, it is the Church of Jesus Christ that can stand firm and speak of a future worth living, who can signpost a generation to a God who is never changing, always loving and can provide a message of hope to the hopelessbecause once upon a time we were hopeless too.”

Arianna Walker is an international speaker, author and the CEO of Mercy UK – a Christian charity committed to educating leaders, equipping individuals and empowering churches. Mercy UK runs free of charge residential homes for young women with life-controlling issues, delivers pastoral leadership training days for church leaders and ‘people helpers’ and produces discipleship resources for individuals, church groups and prisons.

Acting differently

Darian is one of thousands of young people who were excluded from school. Statistically, his life should have followed a devastating path. Thankfully, he gained a place at TLG and five years on he’s living a life filled with hope.

“I

wasn’t someone that loved school. I was rude and I didn’t listen to teachers. I just did my own thing. I guess I was angry really and I found it really hard to trust adults. I used to always think that they were just telling me to do things to exploit their authority not because the school rules were there to keep me safe and look after me. My schoolwork struggled as a result. I’d always get up before I’d finished my work and I fell behind.

It reached a point where I got taken out of school. I don’t really remember exactly how it happened but I remember feeling hopeless. I felt like I’d blown it. I felt like my life was over.

I think what I really needed was someone to talk to. I needed someone to listen and understand me. Things were tough at home and there were always arguments. I guess I needed somewhere calm as the rest of my life was a storm.

I was given a place at the TLG Education Centre in West London. It was really small and at first I thought it was a bit intense. But it didn’t take me long to grow to like it. It was different to normal school. They had spaces to chill out and they gave me time to talk about how I was feeling.

They gave me lots of encouragement. I was so used to just hearing negatives about how bad I was. But at TLG, even when I’d had a really bad day, they’d always find something that I’d done well and something I could go home proud of.

Hannah, one of the staff members at TLG, made the biggest impact on me. She’s what I’d call a true teacher. I owe everything to her because she showed me what I could achieve. She wouldn’t give up on me and she helped me to believe in myself, even when I thought I couldn’t do something.

There was something different about the teachers at TLG. They weren’t just doing it for a job. They really cared. Even just knowing that they were praying for us was nice. I knew that when they said they would pray, they actually would!

TLG gave me a once in a lifetime opportunity. We went on a trip to Ghana to volunteer in some projects there. It was life-changing for me. It showed me that I could do something different with my life and it made me realise how much I have to be thankful for. It made me want to use what I had to help other people.

If it weren’t for TLG, my future would look totally different. The teachers helped me get into Richmond College. The day I got kicked out of school, I never thought I’d get into college! From there I joined the Chickenshed Theatre Company in North London, where am now. I’m doing a degree in inclusive performing arts. We create theatre with young people of all abilities and backgrounds. We’re currently touring a show called ‘Crime of the Century’ around schools and Young Offenders Institutes that helps young people to understand the dangers of gang violence and knife crime.

It means so much to me that I’m able to make a difference in the lives of young people. I’m going to use my experiences of struggling in school to help them. I’m going to give them hope just like TLG gave me hope.”

On Saturday 11th May 2019, we’ll be celebrating how, over 20 years, God has transformed lives for good - just like Darian’s - through TLG. Join us on this exciting day and discover how you can be part of our future vision.

Photogaraphy by Lily Bungay

(Left) Darian at TLG West London in 2013 - our Education Centre partner with St. Paul’s Church in Hammersmith

Built on FIRM FOUNDATIONS

We’re serious about transforming the lives of children battling through some of life’s toughest circumstances on their own. In fact, so far this year, we’ve supported thousands of children in need of the vital help that the local Church offers.

The reality remains that we really couldn’t make our life-changing work happen if it weren’t for your generous donations. For every £1 we receive, just 9p is spent on raising funds to respond to the increasing need.

In case

you’re interested:

Q: Why do you always ask for direct debits? Are you hoping I’ll forget about it?

Will you transform lives for generations to come?

Charitable Activities - 90p

Governance - 1p

Fundraising - 9p

A: No, not at all! For us, and for many other charities, we’re more financially responsible when we know what money we can expect each month. You’re helping us to build for the future and meet the ever-growing need. So, go on - what are you waiting for?

Q: How do you make sure that you’re fundraising responsibly?

Did you know?

TLG spends less than the national charity average on fundraising.*

Every donation to TLG makes a life-changing difference for struggling children – maybe even in your community. Will you act now to make sure a child receives the future they deserve? Visit www.tlg.org.uk/donate

A: Because we believe in treating you fairly, we’re a member of the Fundraising Regulator and you can always view our latest audited accounts on the Charity Commission website.

Q: Is your magazine expensive?

A: Through our magazine, we’re able to keep you up to date with the incredible impact that TLG is having through your donations. So at 18p per copy, it’s a bargain!

“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.” - Psalm 100:5

The effects of growing up in some of the toughest circumstances can be felt throughout a child’s life. For them, and for their children, will you consider leaving a gift in your will?

Your legacy will bring hope and a future that echoes into generations to come.

Visit www.tlg.org.uk/legacy to discover more about a free basic will-writing service and to read our legacy gift myth buster. Alternatively, call 01274 900376 to speak to one of our team today.

Something has changed for Good

Over and over, Evija was called in to the school office; Villjams, her son, was in trouble again.

Looking for help in a brand new country, little did she know that hope was just around the corner thanks to her local church.

“I

sometimes wonder whether the struggles that Villjams has had began from an early age. We moved to Scotland from Latvia when Villjams was fourteen months old. But when we first arrived, the neighbourhood we lived in wasn’t good. It wasn’t an easy place to live and so when Villjams started school, he really struggled for the first few years. He wasn’t settling.

We managed to move to a new area, which was much better, but I do think that those first couple of years at the other school really affected him.

Villjams’ biggest struggle is interacting with other children. I’d say he’s like a sponge because he can take things very personally. When someone calls him a name or says something he doesn’t like, he absorbs it and it’s hard for him to let it go.

He can get upset and angry if he has to share. He’s very clever and he enjoys lessons but in the playground he would often fall out with the other children. He sometimes became aggressive and time after time we’d be called into the school to hear about what he’d done wrong. It was a difficult time because I was worried and it was hard to know how to support him.

The school warned us that Villjams needed help now because in two years’ time he’d be at high school and things could get a lot worse. They told us that Villjams was going to start meeting with a TLG coach, Sharon, from the local Baptist church. It was such a relief!

to understand everyone but I haven’t laughed so much in a long time! Villjams loved doing the raft building too.

I met Sharon for the first time by the school gates and immediately I knew that she was kind and caring and that she would be good for Villjams. She meets with him once a week in school for an hour and it’s really helped him to open up a lot more. He’s learning to share and get on well with other children so school isn’t so scary anymore. I’d say the biggest difference I’ve seen is that he’s happier; he smiles more now.

THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE I’VE SEEN IS THAT HE’S HAPPIER; HE SMILES MORE NOW.

Sharon has become a great friend to our family. In fact, Villjams is always talking to me about Sharon! We went for a barbecue at her house not long ago and it was so nice to get to know her and her family more. Moving to the UK, most of my friends are actually Latvian but it’s so nice to have a friend in Sharon who’s not from Latvia.

Sharon invited us on a weekend away in the Scottish mountains, organised by TLG. I was excited to go but I was a bit scared as well. Because English isn’t my first language thought it might be difficult

It definitely helped us to grow closer as a family because my husband normally works at the weekend. But he’d managed to get some time off so it meant a lot to be able to spend time together.

Having Sharon in our lives, well it’s changed my opinion of church. I come from a background where church is very serious. But Sharon’s church is so different from what I’m used to. There’s so much they organise for children and for the community and everybody is just so friendly. They’ve given us hope that Villjams will cope well in school in the years ahead and that makes me so happy.

Since Sharon came into our lives, it’s different now. Something has definitely changed for good.”

Sharon belongs to Stirling Baptist Church, one of a growing movement of churches across the UK making a difference for children just like Villjams.

To find out more about how your church could transform the lives of struggling children, visit www.tlg.org.uk/your-church

Photography by Becky Joy Gorman

Villjams and mum Evija at this year’s Family Faith Adventure Weekend in Perthshire

Pray with us

“To get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees.” - Billy Graham.

Thank you for joining with us as we ask God to transform the lives of struggling children across the nation.

“Yes, my soul, finds rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress and I shall not be shaken.”

Psalm 62 v5-6

HOPE FOR THE UNHAPPY

Did you know that young people’s happiness is at its lowest since 2010?1 It’s not fair for any child to feel weighed down by heartache. Pray that the God of hope would shine brightly in their lives and that every child would know that their loving Father in Heaven has a plan to bring them hope and a future. Pray that each and every child would have a caring adult in their lives to walk with them through the darkest moments.

EXCLUSIONS ON THE RISE

We are heartbroken that the latest government statistics reveal a shocking 16,350 more children excluded from English schools. Devastatingly, that’s 10% more children experiencing rejection from the school system. Pray that God’s justice would reign and that every child would have an education that loves them and supports them through both the highs and lows.

WINTER DRAWING NEAR

As the evenings grow darker and temperatures drop, for families struggling to feed their children the need to provide a

hot meal becomes even more urgent. Pray for churches partnered with TLG who will be running Make Lunch during half term and Christmas. Pray that they would be able to reach new families that urgently need their support. Ask God to raise up even more churches to bring hope through a TLG Make Lunch kitchen.

Receive our prayer alerts!

Don’t just wait until the next magazine to pray for TLG. Join our WhatsApp broadcast to receive urgent prayer updates on behalf of struggling children and families across the UK. It just takes two very easy steps:

1. Add +44 (0)7712 705947 to your mobile phone contacts.

2. Text ‘PRAY’ in WhatsApp to the number above.

You’ll begin to receive free prayer updates straight to your phone. Don’t worry – we won’t use your number for any other purposes and if you don’t want to receive any more messages, all you need to do is text STOP to the same number. Also, it’s totally private. Your number will only be displayed to us.

We urgently need an army of like-minded supporters who believe

Thank

I/we would like to become a Hope Giver and donate a monthly amount of:

Please claim gift aid on my donations to TLG today, in the past 4 years and in the future. confirm have paid or will pay an amount of Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for each tax year (6 April to 5 April) that is at least equal to the amount of tax that all the charities of Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) that donate to will reclaim on my gifts for that tax year. understand that other taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do not qualify. understand TLG will reclaim 28p of tax on every £1 that gave up to 5 April 2008 and will reclaim 25p of tax on every £1 that give on or after 6 April 2008. Please notify TLG if your name, address or eligibility for Gift Aid change.

pay TLG The Education Charity Direct Debits from the account detailed on this instruction subject to the safeguards assured by the Direct Debit Guarantee. understand that this instruction may remain with TLG and, if so, details will be passed electronically to my

(For office use only):

on the 1st 15th (please tick) of each month, until further notice. The first payment will take place in (month): M M Y Y

Photography by Becky Joy Gorman

YEAR CELEBRATION

Join us! SATURDAY 11 TH MAY 2019 at

Join hundreds of others in celebrating what God has done over 20 years through TLG. With powerful stories of transformation, inspirational teaching and unforgettable worship, this is set to be the biggest event in TLG’s history.

Already announced!

LOU FELLINGHAM

Songwriter & Worship Leader

MALCOLM DUNCAN

International Speaker &

Author

Book your free tickets online today: www.tlg.org.uk/twenty