We want you!

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Not the great British Bake-Off, but this Summer we are looking for some enthusiastic and fun-loving volunteers to help us out with our Reverb Saturday Cafe @ St John’s.

We are always looking for more wonderful volunteers at this great endeavour that creates a safe and friendly environment on a Saturday for shoppers to rest and relax and chat over a nice cup of tea or coffee and nibble a cake. For those wanting something more substantial, we do freshly cooked filled french crepes & yummy toasted sandwiches.

It’s a really busy and fun day for all involved; and it is great to be part of something that brings joy to so many.

However, this Summer, especially on Saturday 29th of July & Saturday 12th of August, we are, due to people being away or unavailable, a little short staffed on those days. So if you know how to make a toasted sandwich, or are an ace with a tea bag and a cake slice, or you feel that you can take & deliver orders with vim and vigour; then we would love to hear from you.

And don’t be fearful that you don’t have what it takes; after all, in the wonderful words of wisdom from ‘Ratatouille’; “Anyone can cook“. So if that’s you, drop us a line and put on your apron.

“In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.” – Romans 12:6-8

If you have been gifted with the gift of serving; then this is a great opportunity for you.

Contact us by email: llandudnoyfc@gmail.com or ring the LLYFC office on: 07517 429763 (Mondays & Thursday 9am to 5pm and Fridays 9am to 1pm)

Be blessed!

Testing one, two, three

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Last week at Llandudno Youth for Christ; we held our last ‘Monthly Meet‘ training evening before the Summer holidays. It was as usual highly informative, interactive, engaging & fun. Plus there was a plethora of free snacks & drinks (both hot & cold) to meet everyone’s needs.

The subject of the night was ‘10 tips for giving better talks to teens‘. We looked at public speaking in depth; with practical exercises to help us understand how better to use our voices and also how to nail the content & delivery of a talk to grab and hold the attention of your listeners well.

Here are the 10 top tips (as a PDF) – Monthly Meet Vocal handout 2017

Have a read through the PDF and start putting in place the advice given; and I’m sure you’ll see your confidence in public speaking grow in leaps and bounds.

It was as always a great evening and well worth attending. We will be restarting our ‘Monthly Meet‘ training evenings in September. If you are interesting in coming along to our next monthly meet, or know of someone who would benefit from not only the training given, but also from networking with other youth workers in the North Wales region, then do please contact us at Llandudno Youth for Christ, and we can get you and/or them on our mailing list to let you know when the next ‘Monthly Meet‘ is going to take place.

We are really passionate about equipping everyone with tools that will help them more effectively disciple and nurture young people in their walk with God; so please do join us in September; also, for those of you that do come along to our ‘Monthly Meet‘, what other topics or areas of training would you like to discuss/look at?

Be blessed!

 

Mirror, mirror on the wall….

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We all know how to complete the quote in the title of this post; “Who is the fairest of them all?”

In today’s world, just as much as in the time the original tale of ‘Snow White’ was written, in 19th century Germany, people are looking for love and affirmation. However, unfortunately they often go looking in all the wrong places.

“Come, all you who are thirsty,
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
    listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
    my faithful love promised to David.” – Isaiah 55:1-3

This search for love is a deep seated desire and need in our hearts; and is indeed a good thing. God placed this in us, for we are made in His image, and He is love. For love to truly be love it needs an object for its affection. We need God’s love.

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” – Augustine of Hippo.

It is written into our spiritual DNA. We only find peace, purpose and our home when we abide in God’s love.

“I find rest in God; only he can save me.” – Psalm 62:1

However, we as I said, go looking in all the wrong places. Which is like looking into cracked mirrors. Distorted images that look like the truth, but are in-fact misleading.

We are told that if we wear this clothing, drive this type of car, hang out with this group of people etc. we will be popular and loved. We are pushed and pulled in so many different directions.

None of which help us find our true worth and value; and when we do look in our cracked mirrors, all we see is a distorted image that doesn’t help our self-esteem.

However, when we turn to God and listen to His voice; we see more clearly.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” – James 1:22-24

He calls us beloved. He gives us worth and He restores us.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” – Jeremiah 31:3

We have value, because He places value on us; not because of what we have or haven’t done, but because He made us and loves us.

Last night at ‘Redefine‘ we looked at self worth and self-esteem; and spent time encouraging each other by speaking good things about each other, in the same way that God continues to speak life and love over us.

We also held our monthly prayer meeting; and we are so grateful for so many people continuing to uphold Llandudno Youth for Christ in prayer.

May you have a great week and listen to what God says about you, not asking the ‘mirror‘ of the world what it thinks about you; but looking intently into the ‘mirror‘ of God’s Word (the bible) to hear what God says about you.

Be blessed!

 

“So I say thank you for the music…”

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The above title is an excerpt from the lyrics to an Abba song. It is so true to be thankful for the gift of music.

Last Sunday evening at our Bible study for young people group; ‘Redefine‘ we discussed and looked at the power and influence of music in our lives and what God has to say about music.

Whether you like classical, baroque, bluegrass, jazz, funk, folk, heavy metal or soul doesn’t really matter all that much. It is just a matter of taste and preference. What is amazing is the power that music has to bring health, wellbeing and healing into our lives.

After doing some research I found over 10 ways in which music benefits us.

Music can –

1 – Help Improve the quality of sleep we get. Listening to classical music has been shown to effectively treat insomnia in college students.

2 – Help ease pain in the body. Music can meaningfully reduce the perceived intensity of pain, especially in palliative medicine, geriatric care, or intensive care.

3 – Help increase our endurance and performance when exercising. By listening to our favourite motivating song or album, we can exercise harder and for longer.

4 – Helps with the body’s recovery after exercise.

5 – Help enhance blood vessel function. Scientists have found that listening to music made participants in the study feel happier and resulted in increased blood flow in their blood vessels.

6 – Help to reduce stress. Research has found that listening to music can relieve stress by triggering biochemical stress reducers.

7 – Relieve symptoms of depression. Listening to uplifting and calming music can help elevate people’s moods and alleviate the symptoms of depression (just ask King Saul)

8 – Help reduce anxiety as much as a massage does. Researcher have found that music’s effect on anxiety levels is similar to the effect of getting a massage.

9 – Help Improve the brain’s cognitive performance. Background music may enhance performance on cognitive tasks. One older study found that listening to music allowed test takers to complete more questions in the time allotted, and get more answers right.

10 – Help relax patients before surgery and ease their stress after surgery. A scientific study found that listening to music helped put waiting for heart surgery at ease. Another bit of research revealed that post-heart surgery patients that were duly bed-ridden were helped to remain calm and rest after the trauma of such invasive surgery by listening to music.

11 – Help ease recovery in stroke patients. Researchers in Finland concluded that when stroke patients listened to music for two hours a day, their verbal memory and attention improved and they had a more positive mood compared to patients who didn’t listen to music or who listened to audio books.

12 – Help people suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s. ‘A recent study shows that dementia and Alzheimer’s patients can recall memories and emotions, and have enhanced mental performance after singing classic hits and show tunes from movies and musicals.’ (For more on the how music helps with this see http://www.alzheimers.net/2014-07-21/why-music-boosts-brain-activity-in-dementia-patients/)

These are all benefits gained from simply listening to music. When we play an instrument, there are even more benefits to be gained; as explained in a short TED talk video written by Anita Collins.

In the Bible, we find that there was music at the beginning of creation (Job 38), and in-fact there is a whole book of songs right in the middle of the Bible (the book of Psalms). Also, there is continuous music going on around the throne of God (Revelation 5). God has given us a great gift in music.

It brings life and health and healing. It helps us thinks and feel more clearly. Best of all, we can use it to express our love and praise of God: We can us it to worship Him.

So I say thank you (God) for the music; and thank you to our great Redefine volunteers for looking at and studying God’s great gift of music.

This week, think about your favourite worship song, why you like it, how God speaks to you through it. Read through the Bible and look for how God uses music to speak to us.

Have a great week and be blessed!

 

 

Hope you had a great Father’s Day!

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A happy belated Father’s day to everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed the glorious sunshine and had a great time with friends and family.

It is such a privilege being a father, and it also has such immense responsibility. In his letter to the Ephesians the Apostle Paul writes “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” – Ephesians 6:4. Moses, when instructing the people of Israel to continue following God and His decrees, also says they are to “Teach them (God’s decrees) to your children and to their children after them.” – Deut 4:9.

We have a great responsibility to not only teach our children about God and what it means to have a relationship with Him; but we are also to model a life of faith for them in our day to day lives. This is an impossible task in our own strength; but as we let the Holy Spirit change us and transform us and empower us to do God’s will in every area of our lives, we can do it (Phil 4:13).

Also, let us not forget that we are not alone in our fatherhood. We have a great company of other fathers in our church communities around us that we can get alongside to give and receive strength & encouragement. We also have a great Father in heaven that loves us with an everlasting love and is the very expression of love. As we look to Him we are transformed by His love to better express the Father’s heart to our children and grandchildren.

This is such an important task and message.

Everyone needs to know the love of God the Father. To feel safe, accepted, and unconditionally loved.

The only true place to find that is with and from God.

Even if you are not a father, you can model the Father’s heart to those around you, especially in helping to encourage & mentor the younger generation.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” – 1 John 3:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.” – 1 John 5:1

A great resource that I have found to share the Father heart of God is the website – http://www.fathersloveletter.com/

Check it out and be encouraged. I have also been blessed by Max Lucado’s Wemmick Story books. Especially ‘You are Special‘ and ‘You are mine’.

So to all the amazing Fathers out there; I want to say thank you to you. Keep on loving and keep on demonstrating and living out the Father heart of God to your family and community.

Be blessed!

 

Here comes the sun….

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Well, in just over 5 weeks time the schools will have shut for the summer holidays! Wow, it seems like the year is flying by, but there is still so much to look forward to.

We’ve had a great year so far at Llandudno Youth for Christ.

We started the year off with a bang as a large number of our volunteers joined our centre director at the Youth for Christ UK annual conference in Manchester. It was a great event, where we got to meet up with other crazy & wonderful Youth for Christ workers and volunteers. We were all encouraged and challenged to believe God for more in 2017; and to really dig in deeper in prayer for the year ahead. To create a culture of prayer within Youth for Christ and to see many young people changed by the power of the gospel of Jesus.

Then we had a great spring term in the schools; continuing to deepen our links with Ysgol John Bright. Numbers have grown steadily at our Thursday lunch-time meeting ‘Recess‘, especially after our centre director Mr Mr Tim Gough held a series of assemblies in the school.

This also had a positive affect on the number of young people coming to our after school-drop in club ‘Reverb Youth Space‘, also held on Thursday afternoons at 3:15pm in Ty Llywelyn Community Centre in Llandudno. Here the young people come to relax and have fun with friends. They can sit in our quiet creative room and do arts & crafts; or they can play board games, pool, table football or retro video games in our games zone, then finally we have a more energetic space where we play table tennis or 4 square. We also hold a monthly ‘movie event’ at the ‘Reverb Youth Space‘, which is a great event for our young people to invite friends to.

‘Redefine‘ has continued to grow and consolidate, with a number of our young people stepping up to become young helpers who help the rest of the volunteer team with running the Sunday evening Bible study.

Speaking of Bible studies we also have a new event called ‘Afterhours‘ that is run after our ‘Reverb Youth Space‘ drop-in. This is a meeting where those that wish to can dig in deeper into the Bible and it is going really well after only a couple of months.

There is so much more to say that I’d run out of time to talk about what we have ahead of us. Needless to say God has been blessing us amazingly and abundantly so far this year, with great volunteers, great prayer support and great financial support.

We will continue to look to Him to meet our needs as we head in to July & August.

Especially as we head towards ‘Tim’s Big Jump‘.

Our centre director is going to be doing a massive bungee jump on the 27th July in Chepstow to raise funds for the work of LLYFC. We are looking at raising £5,000 towards all that we do to reach young people with the gospel. You can hear about it from Tim himself here. Please consider supporting us and sponsoring Tim; also, let your firends, family & churches know about this and encourage them to support this amazing feat.

Also, as we move into the summer we will be holding a host of different events for the young people in the area. Do continue to pray for us and the work that we are doing. Please also consider attending our next prayer meeting for the work of LLYFC; Sunday 25th June at Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, LL30 1LA, 7pm start.

Have a great week and thank you for your support.

 

Be Blessed!

Diolch! Gracias! Grazie! Dankie! Obrigado! Mercie!

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At Llandudno Youth for Christ, we want to say a massive and resounding ‘THANK YOU!’ to all of our amazing volunteers, supporters and young people.

You are all simply ‘Aces!’

Last Wednesday 7th of June we held our annual ‘Showcase’ with AGM of all of the events that we do, and it was so wonderfully supported and well attended. The Rev. Neil Kirkham allowed us to hold it in the beautifully renovated Gloddaeth Church in Llandudno (if you haven’t visited the church yet, I would encourage you to do so; they truly have done a wonderful job inside the building), which was the perfect venue for us. Thank you Neil!

During the evening, we had tea, coffee, fruit juices, crisps, cakes, fruit and sweets for all who came. Thank you James & Jessica for so wonderfully serving everyone with a hot drink and a warm smile; and all that despite any nerves you might have had for the talks you were going to do later in the evening. Thank you!

Also, thank you to everyone who helped with decorating and preparing the church for the meeting. Thank you Chloe, Andrew, Katie, Tim, Todd, James, Jessica, Darren, Simon & Noah. Also, thank you Simon for leading the worship at the showcase, and thank you to your amazing band; Chloe on Saxophone and Noah on drums, with your melodious backing vocalists Fu, Mei Mei & Jessica. Thank you!

Thank you to our centre director for supporting and inspiring us so well, and for informing everyone on the night in such a fun and interactive way of all of the different events we hold, from ‘Redefine‘, ‘Recess‘ & ‘Reverb‘ to ‘Afterhours‘, the ‘Convo Board‘, ‘Nerf Wars‘, ‘Spark‘ & the ‘Monthly Meet‘ to name some of our main events and projects that we hold. Thank you.

Thank you to the volunteers and young people that spoke so eloquently and passionately about the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ. Thank you James, Mega, Simon & Jessica.

Thank you to our treasurer Mr Chris Condrup for taking us swiftly through the finances for the past year and giving us a great picture of what we are aiming towards in the coming financial year.

Thank you to our chair of trustees Mr Paul Hadley for speaking such heartfelt words about the necessity of the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ in reaching young lives with the power of the gospel; and for praying so earnestly for God to move through everything that we do. Thank you.

Thank you to everyone that attended the Showcase to support the work of Llanduno Youth for Christ.

Thank you to all of those who faithfully serve and help out at our Reverb Saturday Cafe held in St John’s Church on Mostyn Street. We are so grateful for your amazing dedication to this outreach in the community that not only helps to raise much needed financial funds for the work of LLYFC, but also creates a safe place for people from within Llandudno and its environs as well as those visiting the area, to meet up and have a great time chatting together over a cup of coffee and a cake or toasted sandwich. Thank you.

Thank you to those who tirelessly and faithfully pray for us and all that we are doing. (Our next prayer meeting is on Sunday 25th June at 7pm in Ty Llywelyn Community Centre)

Thank you for those who champion the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ; promoting it within their local church to inspire more people to partner with us in taking the good news of Jesus to so many more young people to see a generation changed by the love of God.

Thank you, thank you thank you!

I’m sure I have missed some people out, sorry for that, but if you have ever in any way, shape or form helped and supported the work of LLYFC; then we want to say yet again…

THANK YOU!

“May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” – Philippians 1:2-6

Have a great week and Be Blessed!

Afflictions eclipsed by glory.

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For a lot of the young people that attend the many different events we hold at Llandudno Youth for Christ, the next two weeks are going to be one full of exams and revision and potentail stress.

That is on-top of the confusion, anger, fear and disbelief that they might be feeling following the recent attacks in Manchester and London.

We need to be praying for our young people in this time.

Praying that they find God in amongst all that is going on around them.

Praying for His grace, peace and love to reach out to confused and hurting hearts and minds.

Praying for them to find His strength in their weakness.

Praying.

Whilst I was thinking about all of this, I remembered John Mark McMillan’s song ‘How He loves’. This is the full version of the song; not the cut down, cleaned up and sanitised version we might sing together in churches on Sundays.

John Mark McMillan wrote the song as a response to hearing the news that a friend of his had died tragically in a car accident. It was his way of dialoguing with God about this event that filled him with so much anger, confusion and frustration. You can watch a great video here where he explains more about the background to the song.

As John Mark McMillan says “This song isn’t a celebration of weakness and anger. It’s a celebration of a God who would want to hang with us through those things, who would want to be a part of our lives through those things, and, despite who we are, He would want to be a part of us, our community, and our family.”

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” – Hebrews 4:15-16

In Jesus, God entered our world in a very real and physical way. He took on our humanity and became just like one of us. He was and still is our Emmanuel – God with us.

As not only the young people wrestle with their exams and with questions and doubts that will naturally arise in the wake of the past couple of weeks, but also as we all wrestle with questions of justice and mercy, faith and doubt, and other emotions that will be rising up within us; let us never forget that the God we love and serve, loves us so much more than we can ever imagine; and is with us every step of the way.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.’” – Deuteronomy 31:6

I chose afflictions eclipsed by glory as the title of this post; as we see so much affliction around us today, yet, with eyes of faith as we look to God we see so much of His glory; that it eclipses all of the trouble and strife. His love is the answer to our very great needs within us and in the world around us.

Read the full lyrics to John Mark McMillan’s ‘How He loves’ here, and listen to the full song here.

Also, This coming Wednesday 7th June at 7pm we will be holding our annual Showcase. Come and find out what Llandudno Youth For Christ has been up to this year, and what the plans are for next year too. They’ll be times of worship – led by young people – interviews and testimonies, and a Q&A panel of team and young people. There will also be much needed time to pray together as a community of Jesus’ followers.

It would be great to have your support if you’re able to make it!

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Have a great week, and remember that He love us!

Volunteers’ Week

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June 1st to Junes 7th 2017 is Volunteers’ Week – an annual UK festival of volunteering. The main aims of the Week are to recognise, reward and recruit volunteers. It’s a great opportunity to say thank you to all of the wonderful volunteers we have a Llandudno Youth for Christ.

From those who faithfully help out at our Reverb Saturday Cafe @ St John’s on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month; to those who commit to praying for the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ. We are so very grateful for everyone who volunteers at one of the many projects and events we run.

We would not be able to do this without you.

When thinking about ‘Volunteers’ Week‘ I thought of the account in the Bible where Joshua is fighting against the Amalekite army; and Moses stood on a hill overlooking the battle field, holding up the staff of God. Whenever Moses held up the staff, the Israelite army was winning, and whenever his arms dropped; the Amalekites would be winning; so two of Moses’ friends; his brother Aaron and another friend called Hur held up Moses arms until the Israelites had won the decisive victory. You can read the account in Exodus 17:8-16.

Just like Aaron & Hur, all of our volunteers help us lift up our arms to God to see a generation of young people changed and saved by the good news of Jesus Christ.

We are so grateful and want to say a big ‘THANK YOU!‘

Thank you for giving of your time, you creativity, your finances. Thank you for praying. Thank you for volunteering with Llandudno Youth for Christ.

If after reading this post, you think that you would like to volunteer with Llandudno Youth for Christ; then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Also, if you want to learn more about all that we do at Llandudno Youth for Christ; then please come along to our Showcase – Wednesday 7th June at 7pm in Gloddaeth Church, Llandudno, LL30 2SY.

Be blessed.