What is the true meeting of Easter… again?

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It feels strange to have gone through Easter this year without singing and celebrating together the way we usually would. Human presence and community are such essential parts of our experience as Christians.

Lockdown aside, we really wanted our young people to hear about the true meaning of Easter from real people who know and love Jesus. A week before Easter then, Tim took to messenger and found over a dozen people to share what they believe is the true meaning of Easter. He put it all into this video, and shared it with the young people of Llandudno. Watch the video for yourself and let us know what you think!

If you’d like to support us during this time to make great online content for young people, please consider giving here: https://www.give.net/20105661

 

Pressing on towards the goal!

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“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14

Here at Llandudno Youth for Christ, we are not resting on our laurels. We are imitating the apostle Paul. We are pressing on, even during this time of social isolation where we cannot physically meet with the young people as we normally would. We are still holding meetings online.

We are reaching out to young people with the good news of Jesus Christ in new and innovative ways, whether it be via ‘Zoom’, or Facebook, Instagram or our very own YouTube channel. We are continuing to share the love of God with young people in North Wales and beyond.

We couldn’t do this work without our faithful supporters who aid us in prayer, with their time and with their finances.

We want to say thank you. You are making a difference in the lives of young people. Even at this time of ‘lockdown’. so please don’t stop, but continue to pray for the young people that we are reaching out to. Continue to support us financially. And for our amazing volunteers, continue to support us with your precious time.

We also want to encourage everyone reading this blog to continue to press on and in to God. To seek His kingdom first in this time when everything is being shaken. For our God is a solid rock, a firm foundation and when we put our trust in Him we are rooting our lives on the unshakeable.

Have a great week and be blessed!

Resurrection power!

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He has risen indeed!

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” – 1 Corinthians 15:20-22.

I love this time of the year when the global church is celebrating the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It’s good to be reminded of the amazing truth that Jesus is alive, and because He is alive, we too have the promise of resurrection. As the apostle Paul tells the church in Corinth, if Christ is not raised then our faith is futile and in vain; but he emphatically states that Jesus was indeed raised from the dead. So, our faith is not in vain, but is alive because He is alive. Hallelujah!

And it is because of this good news, this gospel – “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.” – 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 – that we are so excited every week to be sharing the truth of Jesus with young people in Llandudno and beyond.

The world might be in lockdown due to Covid-19, but the gospel of Jesus certainly isn’t in lockdown.

So, last night we had another brilliant Redefine session online, meeting with young people via the wonders of modern technology. We continued to look at the gospel of Mark, specifically Mark 1:16-20. We looked at Jesus calling His first disciples; Peter, Andrew, James & John. As we studied this passage we asked ourselves the following questions – Who does this passage reveal Jesus to be? What did Jesus come to do? and What about Jesus, made these 4 young men leave everything immediately? (Read the passage yourself and answer the questions)

We also had a time for worship and prayer. It was great.

This isn’t the only event we are hosting for young people during the lockdown. We also have a Thursday night and Friday night Instagram event for young people, and our very own Vlog callled RE:TV.

So just as we serve a living Saviour, the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ is very much alive and kicking. If you want to and are able to support us in this vital outreach, we would be so grateful. One-off gifts are wonderful but monthly commitments help even more. Could you prayerfully consider partnering with us at this time. We are not being held back during this crisis and we’d love to move forward with you! Please go to https://www.give.net/20105661

You can also support us by praying for the young people that come to our events, that they would realise how much they are loved by God, and how much blessing they have in Jesus, our risen Saviour.

Be blessed!

Christian Barbecue Anyone?

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Last Easter Saturday we held a live event via our YouTube channel ‘RE:TV’. It was a Q & A session that we titled ‘Grill a Christian’.

Please see the whole event below:-

We hope you enjoyed this video. Please check out our YouTube channel for more content here.

Be blessed!

The true meaning of Easter?

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Happy Easter everyone!

I pray that despite the social distancing due to Covid-19 that you had a blessed Easter.

Here at Llandudno Youth for Christ we have, despite the restrictions in place, had a great Easter connecting with young people in Llandudno and beyond. One of the new and innovative ways we are connecting with young people is via our brand new YouTube channel ‘RE:TV’.

This is a great new resource and over Easter, our centre director, Mr Tim Gough asked other youth workers to send him their thoughts on what Easter meant to them. He compiled their responses into a great video that you can watch below:-

You can watch more of our ‘RE:TV’ content here.

Please do continue to support us in prayer and financially during this time in our nation, help us reach out to more and more young people with the life changing message of Jesus.

Hope you enjoyed the video and be blessed!

τελέω (teleō) – It is accomplished!

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Today is Good Friday. It is the time of the year when Christians around the world remember the death of Jesus for the sins of the world. “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.” – 1 Peters 2:23-24

It is both a sad and a joyful time. We grieve over the thought of what Jesus endured on the cross as He took upon himself the sins of the entire cosmos, but we also rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus won the victory on the cross and brought righteousness and reconciliation for all of us. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” – Colossians 2:13-15

Also, Jesus didn’t stay dead. Three days later he rose again, conquering death. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” – Hebrews 2:14-15

Jesus did it all for us. On the cross his last words were ‘it is finished’. He had done it. He took the sins of the world upon himself and triumphed over, sin, death and the devil. That is why Easter is such a great time of celebration. A time where righteousness defeated sin, where life conquered death and where our freedom and reconciliation was bought with the precious blood of Jesus. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

Have a great Easter and please be praying for the young people in you area, that they will have a deeper and richer understanding of all that Jesus did for them on the cross.

Be blessed!

Hosanna!

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“The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

‘Hosanna!’

‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’

‘Blessed is the king of Israel!’

Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written:

‘Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.’

At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realise that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.” – John 12:12:16

The above Bible excerpt described Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on the week leading up to the Passover and His impending crucifixion. Nowadays we remember and celebrate this event as Palm Sunday. It’s where we remember the truth that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords.

I wonder how you celebrated Palm Sunday during this time of social distancing and self isolation. I’m pretty sure that a lot of people celebrated via the internet, with online church services and social media gatherings.

We held another great online ‘Redefine‘ Sunday evening Bible Study group. We are currently working our way through the gospel of Mark and we looked together at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and the beginning of His public ministry. It was a really great evening as we discussed what the short passage we looked at revealed to us about Jesus. There was a lot of good discussion and revelation.

We are so grateful that we can still meet up with the young people in some shape or form during this time. We are also holding live instagram meetings for the young people on Thursday and Friday evenings at 7pm.

Going back to the Palm Sunday passage, something really stood out to me. It says that Jesus’ disciples didn’t fully understand what was going on during the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. It was unclear to them at the time everything that was going on. It was going to be even more devastating and confusing for them in a couple of days as Jesus was betrayed, put on trial and then crucified.

For us and the young people going through this global pandemic, it can feel at times confusing and anxious. We don’t know what is going on, but we need to trust in God through it all and believe that He was be bringing life and redemption in a world where there seems to be so much fear and death.

Perhaps like the disciples we will see, when this current global situation is resolved, the God’s hand at work in love bringing life and redemption to the world, just like Good Friday wasn’t the end of the story, but as we will be celebrating next Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead, defeating sin and death and bringing life, love and liberty.

Please do continue to pray for young people at this time of uncertainty. Pray that they would come to know Jesus and trust in Him.

Have a great holy week.

Be blessed!

Zoom around the room!

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Well we’re over a week into our self-isolation and I must say we have had really good weather here in North Wales. It’s stayed dry and sunny on most of the days. Which we are grateful to God for.

We are also very grateful for all of the wonderful technology that we have today. Technology that help us to stay connected with the young people that come to Llandudno Youth for Christ’s projects.

The title of the blog post is a nod to the software app that we use to keep connected. It’s called Zoom and it is a video conferencing software. It means that although we are self isolating at the moment, we can still hold ‘Redefine‘, our Sunday evening Bible Study, albeit joining each other via video conferencing from the comforts of our own homes.

This has really been a Godsend.

Last Sunday night we continued to study the book of Mark with the young people. It was really good, and because we were all connecting online, it meant that some former volunteers and young people that are now living in different parts of the world were able to connect with us.

This was simply great. It’s good to know that in this time of self isolation and social distancing that we are still able to share the gospel relevantly with the young people in Llandudno and well beyond.

We are also connecting with young people via Social Media such as Facebook and Instagram. Putting up content and live video feeds that help to encourage them at this time of potential anxiety and uncertainty.

It puts me in mind of the apostle Paul whilst he was under house arrest. He didn’t let it get in the way of him encouraging the churches he’d planted. He wrote to them some brilliant letters full of encouragement and instruction for walking out their faith in the world.

So at this time, let us continue to pray for the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ. Let’s pray that God would continue to guide and support us and that we’d be able via modern technology, to connect with young people in Llandudno and beyond and continue to share the good news of Jesus.

Be blessed!