A schools-driven ministry without schools

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Earlier this week I was cleaning up my old computer files and I found the plan for my first ever Recess lunchtime club. It was the 5th of May 2011, just three days after starting work for Youth for Christ.

The plan included some hang out time with doughnuts, a game, and a set of ‘get to know each other’ questions. These included ice-breaker questions like ‘would you rather live with a polar bear cub or a baby elephant’, school questions ‘who is your favourite teacher’, and Recess questions ‘what’s your best Recess memory?’ This was the first time Ysgol John Bright and I really got to know each other.

That was over nine years ago!

Ever since then Recess has gone through a few changes, but the format and the numbers have stayed roughly stayed the same. We’ve also added RE Conferences, regular assemblies, Easter drama projects, and lots of teaching. It’s been amazing to be a significant part of that school.

One of the most important changes Youth for Christ has been through over the last decade is moving away from the café model to a schools’ model. When I first began, we were a drop-in youth club style café with some schools’ work, now we’re almost the reverse; a schools-driven youth work with some youth clubs. This has been brilliant and really worked for this area.

School is where the action is, and it’s where the young people are. We love our other projects, but we wouldn’t give up our connection to schools for anything. It’s there where we get to build long-lasting and genuinely helpful relationships with young people. It’s there where we get to be a real support to teachers and staff. It would be so weird now if we weren’t there.

Wait – let me rephrase that: It is so weird now that we’re not there!

Most of our regular connection with young people has happened in school. It’s so sad not to be able to walk through those double doors each week, say ‘hi’ to the reception staff, and connect with young people on their own turf.

We want everyone to stay safe, but we also can’t wait to get back to school!

Over the next few weeks we’re going to be contacting the schools that we work with to see if there are any ways that we can be helpful as they start to contemplate slowly coming back to some kind of normal.

So do please pray for us as we send these emails. Pray for the teachers as they start looking again at their lesson plans. Pray for the administrative staff as they figure out all the complicated ‘hows’ and ‘whens’. Pray mostly though, for the young people as they eventually reconnect with such an important part of their lives.

Thanks folks!

 

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Prayer crosses social distancing like nothing else can.

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Usually at this time on a Monday morning the trustee board of Llandudno Youth for Christ meet at the office to pray. For thirty minutes, we begin each week by handing it over to God. That’s amazing right?

Do you know when else we pray?

Every Wednesday as an office team, every Thursday before and after Reverb and Recess, every Friday before and after Shuffle and Shake, and every Sunday before and after Redefine. We also have monthly prayer meetings, bi-annual prayer gatherings, and special prayer events. We include prayer in all of our projects and encourage all of our team members to ‘intercede’ as they walk around during sessions.

We love to pray!

The apostle Paul loved to pray too. His prayers always trusted that God was powerful enough to answer them (Phil. 1:19), were always saturated in thanksgiving and gratitude (Col. 3:15-17), and always pointed towards sharing the gospel of Jesus (Eph. 6:19-20).

Paul also saw prayer as a way of teaming up with other people to unite for one mission (Rom. 15:30). Prayer unites us under on goal – to see the world know God through Jesus.

One of the things that I’m missing most at the moment as the Centre Director is meeting with team and supporters to pray together. Knowing that nothing relies on my strength but on on God’s, petitioned through the help, support, and united prayers of so many faithful Christians is simply amazing.

I miss meeting with you all to pray – but that doesn’t mean our prayers don’t work the same way. When we pray, we are still united in one mission to see young people meet with Jesus. We still are seeking Jesus together to see Him known – so we are still doing this together.

This is a very long-winded way of saying just one thing:

Please keep praying!

We need your prayers right now, and the young people really do. Your prayers never fall on death ears, they always reach the creator of the universe, and He cares immensely for what we ask of Him.

So please keep praying for us. Not only will it bring us together in unity at this very separate time, it will keep the gospel flowing out and reaching young people.

All the best!

Tim

 

Photo by Jack Sharp on Unsplash

Merry Christmas! Wait… That’s not right.

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All youth workers have a quirk, something that they’re known for everywhere they go. For me it’s ‘Summer Christmas Karaoke’. Throughout most of my years as a youth worker, I have run a Christmas party at the end of the summer holidays.

This party includes all of the trimmings; tree, tinsel, mince pies, fairy lights, and Christmas songs. It’s fun, it’s festive, and it’s wonderfully ironic with the sun beating down hard outside.

So I imagine the question you’re all asking is ‘why?’ (Or perhaps more honestly you’re asking ‘what’s wrong with you, Tim?’) The answer of course, is ‘why not?’

At Christmas we focus on certain aspects of who Jesus is more than any other time of year. We think about Him being Emmanuel – God with us. We talk about his humility, His ultimate innocence, and the fact that He was born to save us. At Christmas we also celebrate community, drawing together around meals, fireplaces, and highly competitive games of Monopoly.

Tell me that Christmas doesn’t represent what we should be celebrating every single day? That’s a community of people gathered closely together around the person of Jesus.

Those two pillars might represent better than anything else what we build our work on at Llandudno Youth for Christ. That’s a genuine community, and a focus on Jesus. After all, we’re about seeing young people changed by Jesus!

Last night we had to cancel our Redefine online gathering because the technology failed us. The program Zoom had gone down pretty much worldwide, partially because of the amount of churches who all tried to meet at the same time. It’s good to think that church broke the Internet!

For us though it was gutting.

Whether it’s online or in person the Youth for Christ community love to gather together. The team and the young people have formed a genuine community that serve and support each other – and every time we gather we point to Jesus.

Over the last two years we’ve had some visits from national teams, speakers, and youth workers. Every single one of them have told us the same thing – they are blown away by how much everyone in our groups genuinely want to be there. That’s the gravity of our projects, a community of people who genuinely want to connect. I strongly believe that the glue for this is Jesus – God with us.

It’s interesting that some people think that you can’t teach young people about Jesus in youth groups, or that you’ve got to keep the ‘God slot’ really short and simple and just talk about teenage experiences with a bit of a God-bent on them. That’s just not been our experience. For us if you take the focus on Jesus away then the community doesn’t work anymore. Jesus is the heartbeat of the Youth for Christ community and we genuinely believe that He is the reason why what we do works.

So please keep standing with us, keep praying for us, keep supporting us financially so the focus can be where it needs to be, and do consider prayerfully whether God is calling you to be part of this community. If you love young people, love Jesus, and can leave your ego at the door to help everyone in the room connect, then maybe this is for you. Fill in the form below and let us know.

 

Almost a decade later!

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Hi folks – Tim here. 9 years and 18 days ago, my wife Katie and I left South London and moved here to Llandudno. 9 years and 12 days ago I started working for Youth for Christ.

What. A. Journey.

9 years. That’s 27 Christmas Parties, 360 Redefines, 360 Recesses, 540 Reverbs, 600+ one-to-ones, over 120 training sessions, 120 LiteBites with St. David’s, over 200 assemblies, 200 church visits, 54 God Games and Goats, 8 Refreshes, 8 National Conferences, 7 RE Conferences, 7 Soul Survivor trips, and literally – thousands – of young people. All together nearly 1500 individual events and projects.

That’s almost 1500 times we have spoken the gospel to young people. And this doesn’t include the projects or one-to-ones that now run completely without me like Recess at Ysgol Aberconwy, and Shuffle and Shake in Colwyn Bay.

1500 gospel opportunities. 1500 times we have told young people about Jesus.

We are always telling young people about Jesus. Constantly and consistently. Why? Because that’s why we exist! We’re about young people being changed by Jesus. That’s why we wake up in the morning, so more young people can meet with Jesus.

We believe there is nothing better in the world than knowing God through Jesus, and that there is no greater gift than helping a young person connect with Him for the first time. We love what we do – I certainly do!

So, thank you everybody!

Thank you so much for your support. It’s not always been an easy journey (we’ve had to move house 7 times!), but we’ve always felt welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for including us in your community and helping us feel at home.

More than anything though – thank you for helping me live out my calling every day, to tell young people about Jesus.

Thanks! 😀

 

Just one more is always worth it

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Hi folks – Tim here again. So yesterday I ended up in hospital for what turned out to be a badly sprained ankle. How did I do this? By trying to catch myself on camera ‘kickflipping’ a skateboard for our new YouTube channel. It didn’t work. (You can watch the video here).

This made me think of all the times throughout my youth work career where I have hurt or injured myself doing ridiculous things. I was slapped hard in the face once by a very drunk mum who tried to force herself into a youth club claiming we were selling drugs. Another time I was cream pied in the face at the end of a holiday club. That doesn’t sound too bad, however the teenagers on the team couldn’t quite decide who should do it… so logically they all did – hard – and I woke up in my office half an hour later.

I think the worst time was getting a concussion while raft building in a swimming pool. I was at camp, sitting precariously on a large barrel in the pool, when another leader jumped on top of me. The two of us – and the barrel – went right under the water, and the barrel shot back up catching me hard on the chin. There was quite a spectacular amount of blood! It wasn’t until after giving that night’s talk and driving myself to hospital that I found out that I was actually badly concussed. Who knows what I said during that message!

Why am I telling you all this? Well, as much as I genuinely enjoy sympathy, I do have a point. There is a cost to building healthy youth ministry.

As fun and silly as our projects sometimes look from the outside, youth workers do it all so young people can meet with God. Living your life trying to tell young people about Jesus – trying to point them towards Him in all that you do – is hard. Sometimes it looks like they’re getting it, and at other times it feels like they’re nowhere. You can spend hours pouring into a young person’s life – years even – only to have them walk away without a word.

Most Christian youth workers don’t last more than one contract period (2-3 years) and its easy to see why. One of the hardest things I experience as someone who’s been doing it quite a lot longer, is remembering all the young people who came and then went. I can still remember the faces, the names, and the conversations that I had with so many young people who I don’t know now. And sometimes that is a lot to bear.

Youth work comes with a cost, and that cost is putting in the hours, the sweat, the tears – and sometimes the injuries – for the strained hope that some of them will get it… however, many of them don’t. So is it worth it?

Last year one such young person who I had lost touch with sent me a message out of the blue from their final year of university. They told me that they had met with Jesus. They said that it was their time with us at Youth for Christ that put the pieces in order, so when the opportunity came, they were ready to connect with God. It was worth it for him.

Right now, a young woman who was one of our young people is in Israel on a gap year, making a significant difference in the lives of many families and children. She left school with amazing grades, but chose to do this rather than going straight to university. Her ministry is inspiring – and is inspired by her obvious love for Jesus. It was worth it for her.

A young person that I worked with years ago in London met with Jesus as a teenager, and went on to lead large justice missions in several third world countries in Jesus’ name. He tragically died just last month in a terrible car accident. I was heartbroken, but he went straight to be with Jesus, and he inspired hundreds of people to give it all for Him. It was worth it for him.

When I was at i61 Church a couple of years ago, the Pastor, Steve, had a saying: “just one more”. And he was right. All the effort is worth it for just one more young person to hear the gospel, and to know the God who loves them through Jesus who saves them. Just one more is always worth it.

I like to end these blogs with a ‘call to action’ and today that’s simple. Please pray.

Pray.

Pray.

Pray.

Pray for the work that we do. Pray for our incredible volunteers. Pray for our efforts. Pray for our protection.

More than anything though, pray for God to move in power and in permanence in the lives of these young people.

Please stand with us to pray.

Thank you.

A day in the life of a lockdown youth worker

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It’s an odd time for us all right now isn’t it? As a youth worker my time is usually spent going places, whether that’s going to schools to give assemblies, or coffeeshops for Bible studies, or just out to run our weekly projects.

There’s not so much ‘going’ at the moment though. So, what does a day in the life of a lockdown youth worker look like?

For me at the moment, my working day is made up of three main activities; admin, communication, and online delivery.

Admin includes everything from catching up on planning, editing videos, organising databases, researching grants and – especially at the moment – learning how to use technology in an efficient and effective way. If I don’t manage my time well – this can take all day!

Communication means answering emails, designing digital flyers, connecting with young people on social media, and of course, picking up the phone. People still exist, even in isolation, and we still want to reach out and connect up.

Online delivery is the space where our projects currently inhabit. This can be pre-recording videos, delivering live training, streaming thoughts, and leading video conference Bible studies. We are working hard to connect with people online at least three times a week using at least four different platforms.

Each working day is a varied mix of these three things – more than enough to keep a youth worker busy! There’s a little bit more on my plate than usual too as we’ve had to place our administrator on furlough.

I’m also trying to dig up the rubble from an old brick garage that’s buried in our garden – but that’s a whole other story!

It’s an odd time isn’t it?

That said, this time has made me so immensely grateful for all the hard-working team and volunteers that makes Youth for Christ really happen in Llandudno. Our board of trustees and council of reference are unmatched in their dedication to support this work; our front-line volunteers are an incredible mix of loving and committed examples of Jesus to young people; and all of our behind the scenes supporters – through running the Saturday Café, helping with admin, and helping get the word out to churches – are what makes anything I ever do just work!

This is definitely not a one-person operation!

Youth for Christ in Llandudno is the marshalling of about fifty people – all committed to seeing young people changed by Jesus.

When all this is over, we’re still going to be looking for more help. Do you feel the call of God on your life to help young people come to know Jesus? Can you speak to teenagers, pray faithfully, edit videos, manage databases, cook food, plan outings, drive safely, lick stamps, proofread resources, raise money? Can you move boxes, play games, listen actively, explain the Bible, and exercise a mix of fun and patience? Do you work well in a team and want to bring the best out of those around you? – Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you!

Use the form below, and we’ll get back to you asap!.

Youth for Christ have gone online!

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What are we doing?

If there’s one thing Youth for Christ are known for all over the world, it’s innovation. With the lockdown in full effect over the past month, Youth for Christ in Llandudno didn’t put on the breaks, instead we just changed lanes. We moved all of our physical projects into a digital space. So what does this look like?

Reverb Live

Every Thursday evening at 7pm, Tim livestreams a video to two different platforms (Facebook and Instagram). In the video Tim gives a fun illustration, maybe a game or a challenge, and ends with a short gospel message. Young people (mostly from Reverb and Recess) can comment and interact in real time with the message. After the live show, the video goes into an Instagram ‘Story’ for 24 hours, so those who missed it can still catch up, and the video is then saved to YouTube and Facebook.

Shuffle and Shake Live

On Friday evening Korey takes over. For a while he did the same thing above, so live-streamed a video onto Instagram featuring how to make a game at home, followed by a reflection. He then found a better way! Korey now plays a digital game with a group on Friday evenings for 45 minutes. He has more time to build those relationships and still ends with a good gospel thought. Fab!

Redefine Meetup

Every Sunday evening we gather team and young people on a digital conferencing platform called Zoom. We all have chance to share our news, play some online games, have Bible studies in small groups (breakout rooms), hear a short talk, and end with a time of prayer and worship. We meet together, sing together, talk together, and pray together – it’s the next best thing to actually meeting. This has been going really well! Last night twenty-three of us had a ‘Star Wars night’ – with costumes, and galactic-themed backgrounds at the ready – looking at who the Holy Spirit is.

YouTube Channel

To keep the fun going and message front and centre, we launched a new YouTube channel called RE:TV. This allows us a way of connecting with young people on the biggest internet platform that they engage with. So far we’ve posted a ‘vlog’ every week – sharing a fun challenge, a silly hook, and a gospel thought. Check out the latest one below! We’ve also put up some thoughts, and we live streamed a full-on ‘grill a Christian’ too. It’s been great!

 

Q&A with Tim

How did we do this so quickly?

We’ve actually been wanting to setup a proper ‘online wing’ for our projects for a while now. It’s been bubbling away in our planning meetings for a few years to be honest. This gave us the perfect chance to make it work. We had already been connecting very basically with these online platforms, so we just turned up the volume.

Isn’t there some safeguarding issues?

Absolutely! So the first thing we did was took professional advice and worked out a standard of rules and set of expectations. We’re able to kick people off who don’t meet these expectations, not let anyone in who looks like a risk, and limit exactly what can be done in those spaces. Because we started this with that step, we’ve had no issues like this at all, and everything is running smoothly.

Did this cost money?

Alas, yes. The online world is so over-saturated with content that we wanted to make sure we stood out, but also make sure that we had none of the common issues with picture and sound. We invested in some lights, a good microphone, some online games, and a pro Zoom account. If we’re honest, we’re still not there yet. We really need a much better camera and some serious computer storage. I’m sure you’ll agree though, the money has been well spent as we are still connecting with young people several times a week!

How much effort does this take?

In lots of ways it takes the same amount of effort as our usual projects. We still have to set things up, write messages, and plan activities. In other ways there is a little more. We’re still learning the technology and we’re making things to be saved on video. This comes with a little more pressure. It’s well worth it though, and gets a little easier each time.

Will you keep doing this after lockdown?

I imagine we’ll keep doing some of this. We might meet on Zoom less frequently, and not live stream as often, however the YouTube channel and live games give us opportunities that we don’t get anywhere else. We’ll try and keep at least some of that going. The YouTube channel will also be much better when we’ve got a few leaders in one room at one time.

How can we help?

Please pray! Pray for energy, for good content, for safety, and for good interactions. Also, please consider giving to specifically support this work. We’re purchasing a new tripod and very large hard drive this week, but still really need to think about replacing our camera.

Thanks so much for connecting with us on here. Stay safe everyone and see you soon!

 

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash