Refresh 2019

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Well the Summer is almost over. Pretty soon school will start and we will be back into running our usual projects here at Llandudno Youth for Christ. ‘Redefine‘, our Sunday evening Bible Study group will meet back on Sunday 8th September. Before that on Thursday 5th September we will be holding ‘Recess‘, our two lunch-time Christian Unions in Ysgol John Bright and Ysgol Aberconwy and ‘Reverb‘ our after school Youth drop-in club will be will also be running on the same day.

Please be praying for us and the work that we do, especially as we go into a new school term.

Thank you for praying for us and all of the summer events we have been holding. They have gone extremely well and we really appreciate the prayers that you prayed for us.

We’ve had great night of ‘God, Games & Goats’ at Ty Llywelyn Community Centre on Sunday evenings during the Summer, and more recently we held our amazing and fun filled ‘Refresh’ mini conference in the grounds of St David’s College (hence the title of this blog post). It was a brilliant and well attended event.

We had lost of fun playing games, watching a movie, having a barbecue, making smores over a campfire, worshipping God and gathering together to study the Bible.

We looked at the life of the Apostle Peter and times when he failed and made mistakes. The first passage we looked at was Peter walking upon the water of the sea of Galilee with Jesus. Here he sank and had to call out to Jesus to save him. We learned that despite his fearfulness and failure to perfectly walk upon the waters Peter still walked out to Jesus. He did something that the other disciples didn’t. We learnt from this passage that Peter had the curiosity to ask: “‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water’.” – Matthew 14:28; the courage to act: “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came towards Jesus.” – Matthew 14:29 and finally a voice to call: “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” – Matthew 14:30.

We were encouraged by Peter’s example to have the curiosity to ask – to ask questions about faith, to ask questions of God. To have the courage to act on our faith and what God tells us and to have a voice to call – to call upon God not only when we need His help but to make prayer an essential and intrinsic part of our every day.

We then looked at the Transfiguration of Jesus and Peter’s clumsy response to that and finally Peter’s denial of Jesus around the campfire whilst Jesus was on trial.

All in all it was a great mini conference and the young people went home with great memories and a lot to think about.

We have 1 final God, Games & Goats this coming Sunday, which will round off our Summer events. Please be praying for us and the young people that come to this final event.

Thanks and be blessed!

“Fight the good fight with all thy might…”

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Last Sunday night we held our infamous “Robot Wars” night at God, Games & Goats. It was spectacular fun!

We hold a Robot War night 1 to 2 times a year. What one of these nights entails is putting the young people into teams that are then tasked with the design and construction of ‘Robots’ to fight against each other in an arena. The materials they have to use are cardboard, polystyrene, packing tape, strings, a set of wheels each and sharpie pens for decorating the finished robots.

This is great fun and it’s really interesting watching the creativity and team dynamics of all the young people.

Once the ‘Robots’ have been constructed they are named by their team and awarded points for the aesthetic appeal.

The second challenge of the night is for the ‘Robots’ to undertake a timed race around the Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, with the fastest gaining the most points.

The final challenge of the evening is what everyone had been waiting for. This was the Robot Wars themselves. Here the Robots undergo a series of rounds against each other and points are awarded for control, aggression & destruction: so how well the Robot is controlled by its creators, how aggressively they play the round and how much destruction is meted out to the other player. We also have 2 house Robots to add to the mix to increase the fun and destruction.

Last night was great fun, and the bots got seriously smashed up. The young people had a thoroughly good time and it was a great team building exercise.

Along with the theme of fighting and wars, it reminded me that there are times in the Christian life, where we have to contend for the faith, to fight the good fight as the hymns goes. “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” – 1 Tim 6:12 and “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” – 2 Tim 4:7-8 This is good news. Despite the obstacles we often have to overcome as Christians, despite the fights we have to fight, we are more than conquerors and are overcomers. That is good news.

Plus we are never alone in our fights, God is always with us. He is a warrior and fights for us.

We have more fun events for the rest of the Summer, a game of life size Cluedo in less than 7 days time, and this Friday we will be holding our annual ‘Mini-Conference’ – ‘Refresh’. Please be praying for all that we have going on during the summer. Pray that the young people have fun and most of all that they encounter God in a real and transformative way.

Be blessed!

I’ve started so I’ll finish…

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The infamous words from Magnus Magnusson and nowadays John Humphrys can be regularly heard during the running of the television programme ‘Mastermind’, which has been airing since 1972. The quiz master says this when he’s started to ask a question and been interrupted by the buzzer signalling the end of the round. Despite the buzzer’s protestations, the quiz master is in charge and he has the final say on when the round is over.

This is brilliant and makes for good television, but it popped into my head today and reminded me of 2 of my favourite pieces of Scripture: “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 1:4-6 and “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11.

When God sets about creating something, the work He does is good and He always finishes what He starts, just look at the Creation story to see that. He is a trustworthy and faithful Creator.

You can take that to the bank as they say.

Also circumstances and situations that happen to us do not have the final word in our lives. God does.

God doesn’t leave project unfinished or half-done. He completes what He starts. One day He will complete everything and bring everything to its completion in Christ.

Llandudno Youth for Christ is 10 years old this year. God began a good work in the lives of young people in Llandudno and beyond when Llandudno Youth for Christ was first set up. We are so grateful to God for all the many ways that we have seen Him start works of new life in many young people’s lives and we are looking forward to more than another 10 years still to come, to serve God in this area, being ambassadors for Christ and imploring people to be reconciled to God, as the apostle Paul puts it.

God is faithful and we trust and rely on Him to continue the good work He began in this ministry.

Part of the way He encourages us, is by stirring people’s hearts to support the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ, either by volunteering at one of our many projects, praying faithfully for the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ at our Monthly Prayer Gatherings, or giving financially to ensure that the work keeps on going. Keeps on impacting young lives for Jesus.

We pray that as you read this Blog Post that you will be encouraged that the work that God began in your life, He will faithfully complete and also that you’ll consider supporting the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ.

Be Blessed!

Read all a-bleat it! Baaaaa…..

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Well all of the young people that went away to Soul Survivor a few weeks ago are now back, safe and sound despite it being a very long return journey due to the mini-bus breaking down on them.

Now they are all ready & fired up for all of our amazing summer events; ‘God, Games & Goats‘ which runs on every Sunday evening during the month of August (plus 1 night in September) and the Refresh mini-conference towards the end of August (Friday 23rd August).

We have some really fun events in store during August. Last Sunday night we had a movie night with mountains of ice-cream!

This coming Sunday we are having our annual ‘Robot Wars‘ night. It is such a fun event. The young people get into teams and build a formidable robot out of cardboard and other craft materials. They then have to face off against each other in the arena to see which bot is the mightiest of them all.

The following week we have a ‘Human Cluedo‘ night, where the young people have to guess whodunnit!………….

And on the last Sunday night of the Summer holidays we are going to have an epic ‘Ultimate Loo Roll‘ Night.

Please do be praying for the young people that attend the events. Pray that they would come to realise how much God loves them and for some of them that this Summer would be the time when they say Yes to His invitation to follow Him.

Thank you for all of your support, we couldn’t do this without our faithful supporters.

Here’s to a great summer, and be blessed!