Redefine Easter Feast

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Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8

At the end of the Easter Break we had a special night at Redefine, where we laid out a feast for all the young people to enjoy. It truly was epic, and like Jesus feeding the 5,000, we had baskets of food left over… At least until the following week when all the remaining crisps and snacks were gleefully gobbled up as we watched the ‘Minions’ movie at a Reverb night.

I can definitely say that here at LLYFC we don’t know how to do minuscule and small scale when it comes to celebration.  We always enjoy celebrations on a grand scale with generous amounts of food, fun & fellowship.

This night was no different.

To accompany the actual feasting on food, we looked at the metaphor of ‘feasting’ on God’s Word: the Bible.

This imagery of God’s Word being like food is found in the Bible; with the idea of it being life giving, nourishing, tasty and even sometimes a bit difficult to digest, but worth it in the end (makes me think of prunes & celery for some reason). “…man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Deut 8:3. “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:103.  “Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: ‘Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.’ So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, ‘Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but “in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.” I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.” Rev 1o:8-10.

It was an evening to remember, and really reflected God’s generosity and the extravagance of His love for us.

It left us with a lot of food for thought and we are definitely looking forward to the next Smorgasbord!

Spark On The Road: Holyhead

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For some background, Spark was the brainchild of one young person who bought a team together of other young people to run an event to support even more young people across North Wales!12961310_1029710860456389_5891959997538634512_o

As LLYFC, we hold the team accountable and shepherd these events through from start to finish. So far we’ve run two: the first at the end of last Summer with Rob Beamish coming to speak, and the second at Christmas with a dinner. Both have been amazing events!

12957554_1029710980456377_2801422948270159878_oThis weekend we held our first ‘Spark on the road’ event at Elim Church in Holyhead. We had just under 50 young people and youth leaders show up from Bangor, Holyhead, Llandudno, Llanfairfechin and Old Colwyn.

The evening included games, worship, two fantastic testimonies by Redefiners (Fu & Lauren), Grill A Christian/Gospel talk with text in questions (with Tim) and a great meal to end.

The night was a tremendous success! It was amazing seeing youth groups mix and new friendships being12998440_1029710867123055_1622656958474303371_o forged. It was a great night for non Christians to watch their peers worshiping God – and they responded really well to the ‘grill a Christian’ session. The team of young people running it are really coming into their own and are maturing very quickly!

We’re excited to see this organically grow, excited to see Christians networking, and excited to see people hearing the Gospel for the first time – bring on the next!

Nerf Night

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We had a terrific night at Redefine last Sunday running a ‘Nerf War.’ Lots of different games, teams, rounds, scores and general mayhem! We we’re also able to run a short ‘leaders trial’ beforehand and work an effective Gospel message into the evening.

Both Dewi and Chloe (volunteers) led teams in ‘team deathmatch’ and ‘capture the flag’ scenarios (2 to 1 Dewi!). Then we tried to survive a ‘zombie apocalypse’ and ended with a ‘last person standing’ elimination round.

Everyone massively enjoyed it (huge understatement – you should have seen Facebook afterward!) and it was easily one of – if not the – best social we have ever run. Well worth it!

Soul Survivor 2015

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We all survived ‘Soul Survivor’!!!!!!

Seriously though, it did rain a lot, although not of Biblical proportions as we saw in December in the UK, but it was a great time for everyone who attended; wet, but wonderful.

Lots of friendships were made, and a lot of fun was had, despite the weather.

Soul Survivor, is a great event for our young people. There are insightful and impactful talks, fun activities throughout the day, great resources, powerful worship and lifelong memories to be made.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

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A very brave lady, Mrs Baxter is deciding to “baldly go” where no-supporter of Llandudno Youth for Christ has gone before!

On Friday 14th August, Mrs Hayley Baxter raised money for the work of LLYFC by having a sponsored head shave. It was a great evening, with many of our young people supporting Hayley in her brave endeavour. Her husband was also there to give her morale support.

As part of the conditions of her raising the money, she said that she would keep her head shaven for a whole month after the event.

Thank you Hayley, for your bravery and support of the work of LLYFC.

If you have any great ideas like Hayley did, for raising both fund for and awareness of the work of LLYFC, then please don’t hesitate to contact us, or if you want to get involved with the work we do, again, please drop us a line, or check out our website.

Our First SPARK Conference!

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‘For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.’ 2 Timothy 1:6

Spark North Wales came out of the heart of the young people that attend our weekly Sunday night Bible study: ‘Redefine’. They wanted to organise an event for Christian young people in the North Wales area that would encourage and empower them to share their faith. Out of that desire ‘Spark’ was born.

It was great to see the young people meeting together regularly to plan this event and pray together for it. Everything from contacting speakers for the conference to designing the promotional artwork and flyers was done by the young people (with some help and support from LLYFC team members).

It was really well attended, with young people coming from as far afield as Penmaenmawr and Holyhead.

Many connections were made, and friendships built that will continue to be grown and developed, as was the case when at the end of December, the Redefiners organized a Christmas ‘Spark’ mini-event. This like its big brother was a great success, and a lot of fun was had.

Through events such as these, the young Christians in the area are being strengthened and encouraged in their faith, and are also developing their God given gifts and talents to serve each other and spread God’s message of grace and forgiveness to their communities. The Kingdom at work to see lives impacted and eternities changed.

But don’t just take our word for it; here’s some responses by the young people who attended these events:”It was AWESOME. All of us from Holyhead thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you” Brooke (Holyhead.)

More Spark events are planned for 2016; please check out Spark’s Facebook or Twitter account for more information.

Highlights & Roundup from 2015

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2015 was definitely a year of change and transition. The past year reminds me of what John 3:8 where when talking about the Holy Spirit, Jesus says “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Jesus paints a picture of God’s Spirit at work in believers being active and moving; no stagnation, no doldrums; but a vibrancy and life with an exhilarating unpredictability. It’s great how God keeps us on our toes, following Him in faith and expectation as we adventure with Him.

The past year has been full of adventure. We started with a large group of our volunteers attending the YFC National Conference, where they were blown away by the powerful and impassioned teaching of Wes Stafford (former direction of Compassion). They returned from the conference full of vision and ideas fro the year ahead.

Another great RE Day Conference over the Easter period was held with Ysgol John Bright, and many young people were given opportunity to think more deeply about the Easter story.

The hunt for a new place to make our home was started in earnest in the spring: it was time for us to pack our tents and follow God’s lead to where He wanted us to go.

Talking of tents and camping, our annual trip to Soul Survivor was lots of fun, with great fellowship amongst the young people who attended, despite the typical British Summertime weather. It’s amazing how many people can crowd into a small gazebo to huddle away from the wind and rain over a nice pot of spaghetti or whilst making toasted marshmallow smores.

A brave supporter of the work of LLYFC raised money for the work we do by shaving all of her hair off, and getting sponsorship for doing this amazing deed of selflessness (If you have any ‘hair-brained’ ideas to help us raise funds please don’t hesitate to get in touch)

Then it was full tilt into our premises move in July and August, with our last day in our Madoc Street premises being August 31st. So many memories to cherish and take with us.

Even before we had fully settled into Ty Llywelyn in September we held our first conference there on August 29th called Spark. This was organized (with a little help) by the young people, for the young people.

All of our regular events went from strength to strength, and we had a great Christmas period exploring the message of the Nativity, and finished off our Christmas program with a great Christmas buffet for all the young people.

2016 here we come.

 

Our Move To Ty Llywelyn and New Website!

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Well, we have moved! Yay! We have been in Ty Llywelyn Community Centre; our new home; for the past couple of month and we are loving it.

Thank you to everyone who helped with the move; from those who packed and carried boxes to those who faithfully prayed for us during our period of transition. We couldn’t have done it without you.

All of the events we regularly held in our Madoc Street premises have settled well into the facilities here; from our Thursday evening drop-in ‘Reverb’, to our Sunday evening Bible Study ‘Redefine’.

We are holding our ‘Monthly Meet’, training night here too, and have even run 2 fantastic youth conferences under the banner ‘Spark’, which were great successes: more on that to be read on p?.

Please come and visit us at our new abode; our administrator Todd can be found beavering away in our new offices every Monday and Friday between 9am and 5pm.

Our new contact details are: Llandudno Youth for Christ, c/o Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, Ffordd Yr Orsedd, Llandudno, LL30 1LA. email: llandudnoyfc@gmail.com. Tel: 07517 429 763. We also have a new website www.llandudnoyfc.com.

We hope you enjoy the rest of our Blog entries, and look forward to hearing from you.

Tim’s Mini Update – 2015

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This year has been a blast!

God has shown up continuall in power and grace to do amazing things.

We have definitely reached our next step in the journey now and can’t wait to see what God opens as we go for it. The big ‘lightbulb’ this year was seeing how God has continually grown and blessed our work in school, so we are taking that on in a big way. Ty Llywelyn is only a 5 minute walk down the road from Ysgol John Bright too! Thank you for all your support. Please keep standing with us and we push into God and push forward in His plans. This is going to be a big and daunting year and we’ll need all hands on deck!

Please help us with fundraising!

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Over the past 12 months we have had so many people support us financially, so first off a massive ‘THANK YOU!’

As we move into the year ahead and beyond and seek to increase our impact on the lives of young people around us, we will still need ongoing financial support for the work that we do.

One of the best ways you can support us is with a regular monthly donation (if you feel God is leading you to do this, please see the Support Form included).

Other ways you can help us raise funds is by being a representative in your church encouraging others to give to this ministry.

You could maybe hold a cake sale, a car wash (like some of our young people did), a sponsored event, a car boot/bring & buy sale,… the possibilities are many and varied.

In all this great, creative fundraising, remember to have fun and enjoy it, for

God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Cor 9:6-8