Soul Survivor here we come!

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In 12 days time Llandudno Youth for Christ will be taking a group of young people to Soul Survivor for the very last time. This has nothing to do with Llandudno Youth for Christ stopping attending a Summer Christian camp, but rather the sad fact that this is going to be the last Soul Survivor ever.

We have so many great memories from our many years of attending the Soul Survivor Conference. Lots of young people have come with us over the years and been impacted by God and His love for them in ways that have transformed them for life.

This year we have great expectations for God to move in the lives of the young people that we will be taking along with. Please do be praying for us during this time – Saturday 3rd August till Thursday 8th August. Pray for safety on the outbound and return journey. Pray for good interaction and fellowship between the young people and leaders that are going. Pray that everyone would hear from God and come back changed by having met with Jesus. Pray for fun, good food and good weather.

We also want to say thank you to everyone who has over the past several years volunteered and helped out with out Summer Soul Survivor trips. Know that your labour for God was not in vain and that you were used to make a difference for the Kingdom of God in the lives of many young people.

Thank you.

We will put up a blog post after the young people come back from Soul Survivor with news about what went on during this great event. But in the meantime, please do be supporting us in prayer.

Be blessed!

Ain’t no mountain high enough…

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Last week two of the young people who regularly attend our Sunday evening Bible Study group did a sponsored walk up the Glyders in the Snowdonia mountain range. This was all in aid of raising money for one of the young people who, come September, will be heading off to Youth for Christ‘s national office for a year’s internship. They will be working in the media department of Youth for Christ.

We are so pleased to see a young person that has been a faithful and regular member of the Llandudno Youth for Christ family going on to serve God and continue to grow in their relationship with Him.

I’ve not only mentioned mountains in the title because of the sponsored walk up the Glyders, but because last night at Redefine we continued our Bible Study on our identity, this time looking at what God thinks about us and how our identity is all wrapped up in His opinion of us.

We looked at Psalm 139 – “I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvellously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord! You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully shaping me from nothing to something. You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book.” and saw how God painstakingly made us, knit us together in our mother’s womb.

We also looked at the epistle to the Ephesians where the Apostle Paul writes “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” – Eph 2:10. Another translation says that we are God’s masterpiece. We discussed how God to time and care in making us. There was a lot of love involved in how He put us together.

On the back of this study we then wrote in permanent marker pens the words that we would use to describe who we are in God onto a T-shirt. It was a fun and profound exercise and the young people got really stuck in, putting down words such as ‘amazing‘, ‘loved‘, ‘worthwhile‘, ‘forgiven‘ and ‘chosen‘ amongst others.

The song lyric excerpt used in the title to this blog post is from a song by Marvin Gaye and it is a love song between and man and a woman where he is saying that many different obstacles, such as mountains and rivers will not keep him away from her. But in God’s love, we have something even more secure and powerful and there is nothing that can separate us from the love of the God who carefully created us. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Rom 8:38-39.

I hope this encourages you.

Be Blessed!

Worth more than many sparrows

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Last Sunday night at Redefine, we had a brilliant night of Bible Study. The young people really engaged with the text that we were looking at and the questions that it posed.

The passage we looked at was from the gospel of Matthew. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” – Matt 10:29-31. Here Jesus is encouraging His disciples and instructing them before sending them out to minister and share the good news in the towns in Israel. He warns them of the persecution they will face because they are followers of Jesus. They will even face death, but they are not to fear those who can deliver them over to death, but rather they are to revere God. It is within this context of persecution and of sharing the message of the kingdom that He tells them they are of more worth than sparrows.

Looking at this short passage we discussed at length the issue of identity. Who do we think we are, what is our identity, and where does it come from? There were lots of good questions asked and discussion points made.

‘Do we have a different identity depending upon our surroundings and circumstances?’ ‘Do we change our identity to conform with those around us?’ ‘Is our identity what we think about ourselves or is it what God thinks about us?’ These were the types of questions that were being posed.

This was an absolutely fantastic session and the young people really owned the discussion. When returning to what the Bible says, we closed the session with the point that God knows who we truly are and His opinion of us doesn’t change. He loves us and values us more than sparrows. Because of this our identity needs to be in what God thinks about us.

We closed out the evening with an excellent prayer led by one of the young people and a time of worshipping the God who thinks so highly about us and loves us so much.

It is such a privilege to see God at work in the hearts and minds of the young people that come to the different events that Llandudno Youth for Christ runs. It is brilliant to see them growing in their understanding of and relationship with God.

Please do continue to pray for the young people and the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ. Pray that the young people would truly find their identity and worth in Christ.

Be blessed!