History Makers #PRAY365

/0 Comments/in /by

“Is it true today that when people pray,
Cloudless skies will break,
Kings and queens will shake?
Yes it’s true and I believe it.
I’m living for you.” – Delirious

This year Youth for Christ are undertaking a focussed, committed year of prayer. Their PRAY365 commitment (read more about it here). As part of this they have assigned different people at head office to adopt a local centre to pray for. In fact British YFC are committed to interceding for Centres/Projects each day at 11am. As a local centre, we know how important and powerful this is.

Pray changes things. As the lyrics to the Delirious? song ‘History Maker‘ above states, prayer can break the storm clouds of oppression and doubt. In chapter 8 of the book of Revelation in the Bible; the apostle John describes a scene in heaven where an angel takes the prayers of Christians and mixes it with fire from the altar before God and hurls it to the earth with devastating effect.

Our prayers do make a difference.

As part of YFC UK’s commitment to prayer, they are holding a ‘YFC Prayer Day on Wednesday 14th June 2017′ – Pete Greig from 24/7 Prayer will be speaking at this, our YFC National Day of Prayer held in the church of St. Martin’s in the Bullring in Birmingham City Centre with sung Worship led by Nick Herbert. This day has been put together after an overwhelming response from YFC Centres and Projects, and all involved are very excited about what God is doing. The event is taking place from 10:30am to 3:30pm, and even if you cannot make it to the event yourself; you can join us all in prayer wherever you are for God to have His way in the UK. To see the lives of young people transformed for eternity by the love of God and the good news of Jesus.

It is so exciting to hear about God stirring the hearts of His people to pray.

“If God be near a church, it must pray. And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” – Corrie ten Boom.

“Just as the first sign of life in an infant when born into the world is the act of breathing, so the first act of men and women when they are born again is praying.” – J.C. Ryle.

Just a few quotes about prayer from some influential Christians to encourage you.

We will also be holding our next prayer meeting at Llandudno Youth for Christ on Sunday 28th May at 7pm in Ty Llywelyn Community Centre. We hope you can make; and please do continue to support all the we are doing at Youth for Christ, both locally and nationally.

Be blessed, and as the song title says, let’s be ‘History Makers!’

Back with a passion!

/0 Comments/in , /by

Hi all! Well, this is the first week back for everyone after the Easter holidays I guess.

We held our first ‘Redefine‘ Bible study for young people this week after a week’s break on Easter Sunday. We will also be holding our first ‘Recess‘ lunch-time school’s club; our first ‘Reverb Youth Space‘ after-school drop-in club (3:15-5:15pm @ Ty Llwyelyn Community Centre), both this Thursday 27th April.

We have just had a great ‘Monthly Meet‘ training night with the Rev Tim Hall on Monday 24th April. He taught us so much valuable information regarding conflict resolution. I know that many people went away with great tools to use in their youth groups, homes & churches; and I’m looking forward to May’s ‘Monthly Meet‘ where we will be looking at the whole area of ‘design‘; from websites to poster, flyers, newsletter and presentations. It’ll be great.

We had our monthly prayer meeting to support the work that we do at Llandudno Youth for Christ; and as usual it was well attended, with a couple of new faces too. We are looking forward to May’s prayer meeting on Sunday 28th May at 7pm. We hope you can join us.

We are also looking forward to the months ahead of us as we head towards the summer.

There is so much going on.

We have Tim Gough’s charity bungee jump – ‘Tim’s Big Jump‘. Please do check it out here; and please support this crazy act of bravery for a good cause.

Let others know too.

Then we have our new teaching series at ‘Redefine‘ called “What makes us tick“. This is a series where the fantastic leaders that volunteer at the Sunday evening Bible study will be sharing about things they are passionate about and how their faith is supported or inspired by these things. Such as my own enjoyment of superheroes and comics and how in all of them people are looking for a Saviour; and how in Jesus we find the Saviour we have been looking for (in fact I did write a blog about that here.)

It’ll be an opportunity for us to talk about things we are passionate about; and we pray that the young people will be inspired to pursue their God given dreams and passions as a result of these Bible studies.

We will also be holding our AGM which will include a showcase of all the different events that we hold; and well worth coming along to – Save The Date ‘Wednesday 7th June’.

So as we move forward into the Summer, please do continue to support all that we do in prayer, with financial provision and if you feel that you would love to volunteer at any of our events; especially our Saturday Cafe where we need more volunteers, especially as we head into the warmer months; then please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Have a great Spring and be blessed!

Egg-sellent!

/0 Comments/in , /by

Happy first Monday after the Easter holidays!

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Easter break and that we find you on this first Monday after the Easter holidays, full of the joys of spring and not suffering from an overindulgence of chocolate eggs!

I was meant to post the following on Easter Monday; but due to the busyness of the holiday break, it slipped my mind. Sorry. Hope you enjoy the post.

Easter Monday is a holiday celebration in over 100 countries. In some countries it has different names. In South Africa it is known as ‘Family Day’, and is viewed as a day to spend time with friends and family. In Egypt it is known as Sham el-Nisim (Egyptian Arabic: شم النسيم‎‎,) – meaning literally “smelling of the breeze”. On this day people spend the day picnicking in any green spaces, such as public gardens, on the Nile, or at the zoo. They traditionally eat fesikh (a fermented, salted and dried grey mullet), lettuce, green onions, tirmis, and colored boiled eggs (Easter eggs).

Again we come back to the eggs.

Those eggs that now come in so many colours, shapes & sizes.

As regards the origins of those eggs. As spoken so wisely by a young scottish girl to her dad; the little girls asks ‘Is the Easter Bunny in the bible?’ The exchange is hilarious, but it certainly gives you some food for thought about how we celebrate Easter. You can see the original video here.

The whole Easter bunny thing could be a throwback to the pre-Christian festival of spring where the goddess Ēostre is worshipped. There is debate about whether this goddess of the dawn was a true ‘deity’ or just an invention by the venerable Bede; but that’s a debate not to be held here. Be that as it may, she was linked with the idea of spring, new life, fecundity & love. Hares were associated with her as a symbol of fertility. I guess eggs speak the same message. One of new life.

The Persian Zoroastrians had a celebration called Nowruz, that marks the Spring Equinox and as part of this celebration painted eggs were eaten. Again representing new life and fertility.

So it is not such a strange idea that early Christians adopted the practice and imagery of the painted eggs for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. The eggs symbolize the empty tomb of Jesus and the breaking of them can be seen as the stone being rolled away from the tomb and Jesus rising from the dead. In Orthodox Christianity the eggs are painted red to remind us of the blood Jesus shed on the cross.

So whatever you think about Easter eggs and their origins; it is good to be reminded that Jesus is alive.

Death is defeated.

He has come to give us new life (John 10:10, John 11:25).

His blood has paid the price for our forgiveness (Colossians 1)

Be blessed this Spring and celebrate the King!

Robot Wars – Extreme Cardboard Edition!!!!

/0 Comments/in , , /by

On Sunday 9th of April we had our last Sunday evening Bible Study – ‘Redefine‘ event before the Easter break. To make it a fun-filled and special night, we held our very own, and back by popular demand, ‘Robot Wars‘ evening.

We had 3 teams of engineers that were given sheets of cardboard, sticky tape, packing tape, cable ties, scissors, aluminium foil, card, tissue paper, a ball of thick cotton string, and a 3 wheeled garden planter base. Out of these materials there were tasked with constructing their very own ‘battle-bot‘ that would need to fight it out over a series of rounds to see who was the champion.

The contest was judged by 3 of our volunteer leaders; who were judging the contestants on the amount of control they had over the robot, the amount of aggression shown during the rounds and finally the amount of damage inflicted or sustained during a round. If a robot was completely incapacitated due to being irreparably damaged in some way they were automatically disqualified. Equally, if a robot was knocked out of the ring, this resulted in an immediate disqualification and loss of the round.

It was a lot of fun. Everyone got into creating and designing their robots with a lot of enthusiasm and good teamwork. It’s so good to see the image of God as our Creator shining through as we create things. Also the whole aspect of working together to see something made came out brilliantly on the evening; with everyone playing their part to produce their finished robot. Two of the volunteer leaders even created a new house robot to challenge our director Tim Gough’s championship winning robot ‘Sir Gingerlot‘.

When the field of play started we had 3 robots at the ready; ‘Barn-Alpha‘, ‘Poppet‘ & ‘Rollo‘ (I guess two of the teams were getting hungry from all of the building and creating and were thinking about chocolate snacks by the time it came to choosing names for their robots?!)

‘Barn-Alpha‘ was a sleek, hot rod or rocket looking machine, with ailerons on the side for control and a nicely shaped wedge at the front for getting under an opponents ‘bot’ to lift it up and incapacitate it.

‘Poppet‘ looked a bit more akin to a cardboard pig, with a large snout-like battering ram at the front and rolls of sticky tape at the back to balance out the weight.

Finally we had ‘Rollo‘, complete with ‘Rollo’ decal on the side of its fuselage. This too had a battering ram on the front, though to the side and not centrally located.

The first round went to ‘Barn-Alpha‘, who demonstrated better control and more aggression, despite not inflicting significant damage to ‘Poppet‘. ‘Poppet‘ fared little better against ‘Rollo‘ on the damage front, but due to ‘Rollo’s‘ lack of aggressiveness the round ended in a draw. ‘Barn-Alpha‘ then went on to win their round against ‘Rollo‘. It seemed that ‘Barn-Alpha‘ was going to walk away with the competition; as they had been in the lead for most of the event. However disaster struck when they entered their second round against ‘Poppet‘ and their undercarriage and wheels were mercilessly ripped off by ‘Poppet’s‘ large battering ram.

This was a huge blow to Team ‘Barn-Alpha‘ and after their bot was unceremoniously dragged from the arena, it was time for a final showdown between ‘Rollo‘ & ‘Poppet‘ to see who would emerge victorious. After 30 seconds of gruelling blows between these evenly matched bots, ‘Poppet‘ managed to knock ‘Rollo‘ out of the arena and earn the title of the night’s ‘champion‘ bot.

Congratulations were given and commiserations received; and the night was capped off by the exhibition fight between ‘Sir Gingerlot‘ and ‘The Tapenator‘. ‘The Tapenator‘ was not fairing well against the solidity of ‘Sir Gingerlot’s‘ tank like structure, despite having hobbled him by knocking one of his wheels off! In-fact it seemed like his days were numbered when ‘Sir Gingerlot‘ eliminated himself by knocking himself out of the arena trying to knock ‘The Tapenator’s‘ battering ram off!

Shock’s all round it seemed from the night. The little David’s managed to defeat the mighty Goliaths; a good lesson to be learned there.

It also is a good reminder to us as we head into the Easter week-end of God defeating sin & death on the cross.

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” – Colossians 2:13-15  “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” – 1 Corinthians 2:8.

On Good Friday as were remember Jesus dying for the sins of the world on the cross; let us also remember that He won. He defeated sin & death and rose again victorious. This was a great surprise to the devil and all his angels.

So this Easter week-end, let us celebrate and rejoice that Jesus has won. Jesus has paid the price for our sins; and that Jesus is Lord!

Be Blessed!

NERF WAR!!!!

/0 Comments/in , , /by

This Thursday 6th April we held our last ‘Reverb Youth Space‘ night before the Easter holidays!

To blast this night off and get the Easter break started with a bang, we had one of our epic ‘Nerf Wars‘

It was a battle royal between the Disney Princesses and the Pixar Sidekicks; with only one side emerging triumphant!!!!

We had a great response to this event; with 15 new faces turning up at Ty Llywelyn to take part in the last Reverb before Easter.

A lot of this interest from the young people was as a direct result of all of the assemblies that our director Mr Tim Gough had held at Ysgol John Bright in the last week of the Spring term. A big thank you to all of the teachers and staff at Ysgol John Bright for letting us hold assemblies in this past week. We really appreciate the work we are able to do with our local schools.

The teams, once they had gathered in the armoury (where all the ‘Nerf Guns’ were laid out; and in reality the 50s style diner at Ty Llywelyn) were given their rules for the night’s Nerf Battles by Tim Gough and then assigned into their respective teams; with two of our volunteers leading each team.

Then it was whistles blown and the battle commenced with the Disney Princesses; all eager to shoot their enemy with itching trigger fingers and pastel coloured pompoms at the ready. They were faced against the hordes of team Pixar Sidekick waiting to ambush them in the main hall.

Nerf foam darts were flying everywhere (in fact the cleaning team have still been finding the odd one or two around the building, despite our thorough clean-up with the young people at the end of the event); and our two judges were walking around, making sure that no-one was cheating or breaking any of the rules.

4 rounds of games were held in all; including a last man standing round; where it ended up with 3 players still being alive at the end of play. This lead to a Mexican stand-off tie breaker which revealed to us our ultimate winner who survived to be the ‘last man standing!’

I almost forgot to say; the overall winners of the night were…..(drumroll please)…..’The Disney Princesses’ (I’m slightly biased as this was the team that I was leading)

Everyone involved had a blast; literally. Everyone played well and safely, and lots of happy young people went home at the end a little more tired out than at the start, but a lot more joy filled than they arrived.

This was our last ‘Reverb‘ before the Easter Break; and when we get back after Easter we will be having a ‘Movie Night‘, complete with popcorn and snacks!!! It will be a blast; starting at 3:15pm in Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, Llandudno, LL30 1LA; on Thursday 27th April.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we engage with the young people in our area and share the good news of Jesus with them relevantly through word and deed.

Also, if you know of any young person that might benefit from one of the events that we hold; then please do let them know about ‘Reverb‘.

Be blessed!

 

All for 4 Square & 4 Square for all!!!

/0 Comments/in , /by

Last Thursday at our Reverb Youth Space after school drop-in we held our very first ‘4 Square Tournament‘. The order of the event went as follows:-
3.15 – 3.30 – Open practice
3.35 – 3.50 – Round 1
3.55 – 4.10 – Round 2
4.15 – 4.30 – Final
4.30 – 4.35 – Closing ceremony & prizes

It was a great evening, full of lots of fun and excitement; with quite a number of attendees. The competition was quite fierce at points, with two of our regular Reverb attendees battling it out for first place. We had an expert referee on hand to sort out any disputes over whether the ball was in or out and also to tally up the points scored by everyone playing; not the easiest of jobs to do, but he did it admirably.

Tim commentating on the tournament

We had some great joke-filled commentary from our centre director Mr Tim Gough and regular volunteer Mr James Edwards; and the music in the DJ booth was suppled by our administrator Mr Todd Warden-Owen.

Tim Goughs wife Kate receiving the Epic Fail Award.

Everyone who was not doing another job took part and at the end of event after 2 exhausting but fun rounds of 4 square we held our prize giving. We had 4 awards to give out; the prize for the overall winner of the tournament, an award for the best sportsmanship behaviour during the tournament, an award for the best trick shot played during the tournament; and an award for the most epic fail during the tournament (like the wooden spoon in other games).

Our fabulous 4 square tournament trophies

Tim had hand-crafted the trophies himself out of DC comics justice league figures glued to

wooden plinths and spray painted gold and silver respectively. They looked rather impressive, if I might say so myself. We also gave easter eggs to all award winners; and also everyone who had taken part in the tournament received a ‘cream egg’ as a mini prize.

 

It was a lot of fun, and everyone went home happy.

So as you can tell, this was a great success, and the young people are looking forward to more ‘4 Square tournaments‘ at Reverb.

This week we will be holding one of our infamous ‘Nerf Wars‘, but instead of it being Santa & his helpers v the elves; as we did at Christmas; this Thursday 6th April @ 3:15pm will see the ‘Disney Princesses v Pixar Sidekicks‘…who will emerge victorious?!? Come along and find out!

If you know of any young people aged 11-18 who might be interested in coming along to Reverb, let them know about this fantastic event; or if you yourself are 11-18 years old, come along a join in the fun.

Plus, with exams starting not long after the Easter holidays, we will having a ‘Revision room‘ set-up as part of every ‘Reverb Youth Space‘ night from the 11th May to the end of term.

Have a great week & be blessed!

66% still to go….

/0 Comments/in , /by

A month ago, I posted a blog about the fact that we had raised 16% of our target fundraising goal for Tim’s Big Jump in just 1 month. So since we launched the endeavour to raise money for the work we do at Llandudno Youth for Christ, by sponsoring Tim Gough as he undertakes an extreme feat of jumping into the air, connected by a bungee cord to a platform. Tim will travel 400ft in just over 5 seconds and reach the staggering speed of 90 miles per hour!

When everyone heard of this plan; the support was staggering! We raised £824.40 in just 1 month and reached 16% of our target.

Now 1 month later I felt I needed to update everyone on where we were at; and also to yet again say a massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored Tim’s jump so far.

Today (as I write this blog post); the 27th of March, we have raised so far £1,677.00; which amounts to 34% of our target amount of £5,000.

We have 4 months left to raise the remaining 66% towards our target goal. That’s 122 days to raise £3,323!

This might seem like a large amount at first glance; but as the angel Gabriel encouraged Mary; “For nothing will be impossible with God.” – Luke 1:37.

We believe in the mission God has given us here at Llandudno Youth for Christ; to relevantly share the gospel with young people in Llandudno and beyond. To ‘make disciples of all nations‘; and help turn a generation back to God. Tim believes so much in seeing young people come to a saving knowledge of and relationship with Jesus; that he is willing to jump over 400ft from a crane; attached only by an elasticated cord; all to raise awareness and much needed funds for the mission work that we do.

If you believe in what we are doing; and believe that God is calling you to partner with us in seeing many young lives transformed by God’s love; then please consider sponsoring Tim via our ‘Give.net‘ webpage; or the ‘Tim’s Big Jump’ webpage.

You can also encourage friends and family to consider sponsoring Tim’s jump; and if we all work together in this; like Nehemiah and the people in Jerusalem; we will see the job done – Together!

Also please consider faithfully supporting us in prayer. We have a regular prayer meeting on the last Sunday evening of the month; the next one being on Sunday 30th April at 7pm at Ty Llywelyn Community Centre.

Thank you and be blessed!

Have your cake and eat it?

/0 Comments/in , , /by

This Sunday the 26th of March is ‘Mothering Sunday‘, or more popularly known as ‘Mothers Day‘. On this day people around the world send cards and give gifts to their mothers, or people who have acted as mother figures in their lives. It is a great time of honouring our mothers and thanking God for them and their presence in our lives.

Originally however, ‘Mothering Sunday‘ was about people visiting the ‘mother church‘ of their region for a large joint celebration of worshipping God. This was common practice during the sixteenth century, where people would return to their ‘mother church‘, which would be either the main Parish church or Cathedral of the area or region. To do this, one was said to have gone ‘a-mothering‘. In later times, ‘Mothering Sunday‘ was the day upon which domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. Normally opportunities for families of those in domestic service, to spend time together in such a way would be impossible, due to the work demands of their position. So this day was a real blessing to them.

As part of the tradition of celebrating ‘Mothering Sunday‘ people often baked a ‘Simnel Cake‘ to eat on this day midway through Lent as part of the celebration of their time with their families. And for those of us who like myself, have special dietary needs, here is a recipe for a gluten free etc. ‘Simnel Cake‘. This was a treat to be had during the 40 day period of ‘fasting‘ that Lent is traditionally held to be. A Simnel Cake is a light fruit cake with two layers of marzipan, one in the middle and one on top, that is toasted, and eaten during the Easter period. Traditionally it also has 11 or 12 balls of marzipan on the top that represent the 12 disciples minus Judas, or the 12 disciples minus Judas with Jesus.

On this Mothering Sunday we will also be holding our regular Sunday Evening Bible Study – ‘Redfine‘ at 6pm to 8pm. We will also be holding our monthly prayer meeting for all of our supporters to come join us to pray for the work we do in Llandudno and beyond. If you want to come along and support the work that we do, then please join us on Sunday 26th March at 7pm in Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, Ffordd Yr orsedd, Llandudno, LL30 1LA. We hope you can make it.

Even if you can’t; let us celebrate Mothering Sunday this Sunday by thanking God for our mothers and spending time with our families. Let us also join together with our local church community and thank God for his goodness to us; and perhaps have a bit of cake too.

Be blessed!

Reverb Movie Night and other Springtime fun!

/0 Comments/in , /by

Eek! Yay! Whoop, whoop!

This Thursday the 23rd of March, we will be having our first ‘Movie Night‘ at Reverb Youth Space. We are soo excited about this. We even had a poll amongst all of the young people that come to our Thursday evening after-school drop-in youth club, to see what film they would like to see. The choice was between ‘Zootropolis‘, ‘Kung Fu Panda 3‘ & ‘The Angry Birds Movie‘. To find out which film won the poll, I guess you’ll just have to come down to Ty Llywelyn this Thursday and see for yourself (only under 18s allowed); 3:15pm to 5:15pm.

We are really looking forward to this Special event, we also have another couple of events coming up as we head into Easter. On Thursday 30th of March we will be holding a ‘4Square‘ Tournament. If you are not sure what that is, check out this. We regularly hold games of ‘4Square‘ as part of our after-school drop-in, but this will be on an epic scale!!!!!!

Then just before the Easter holidays, on Thursday the 6th April, we will be holding one of our infamous ‘Nerf Wars‘. Last Christmas we held a Nerf War between Santa and his elf helpers. It was a monumental amount of fun. This Spring we will be holding a Nerf War between the Disney Princesses and the Pixar Sidekicks, to see who will have a happily ever after! So be prepared for a lot of flying foam darts and fun.

All of these events are being held for high school age pupils; 11 to 18 years old at Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, Ffordd Yr Orsedd, Llandudno, LL30 1LA. So, if you are aged between 11 and 18, then why not come down to the ‘Reverb Youth Space‘ at 3:15pm in Ty Llywelyn on Thursdays during term time. Or if you know someone aged between 11 and 18 who you think might be interested, then please let them know.

Reverb redefineD

/0 Comments/in , , /by

This Thursday 16th of March we will be launching a new start time for our popular after-school’s drop-in youth club. Instead of starting at 4pm as we have been since the beginning of September, we will now be starting at 3:15pm and running till 5:15pm.

This change has come about after consultation with the young people that already attend the event. We asked them what we could do to help encourage more young people to attend the Reverb Youth Space; especially their friends. We had a lot of feedback from this, and something that did crop up was the fact that our nearest secondary school to the club, Ysgol John Bright, finishes for the day at 3:10pm and so many pupils head home before coming to Reverb, with some of them opting to stay at home instead of coming back out again.

With the change of time to 3:15pm we hope to be able to make it easier for more young people, especially pupils at Ysgol John Bright, to come to Reverb.

We also had a request from some of the young people at our events, including our Sunday evening Bible Study, for a more in-depth Bible Study, without any games, snacks, music etc. Just a 1 hours slot of time dedicated to getting to grips with God’s word.

This will be taking place as a follow on from Reverb from 5:15-6:15pm for those who are interested in this.

This is all very encouraging for us.

It is great to hear back from the young people and get their input into what we are doing. Equally, it is great to hear that so many of them are wanting to dig even deeper into God’s word and grow in their relationship with Him.

As we hold our first Reverb at the new time of 3:15pm and also hold our first post-Reverb Bible Study, please will you partner with us in praying that God will move in and through everything to touch hearts and change lives.

Also, on a side note, as I am talking about praying with us, don’t forget that our next joint prayer meeting for the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ will be on Sunday 26th March at Ty Llywelyn Community Centre. So please save the date and we hope to see you there.

Be blessed!