A schools-driven ministry without schools

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 5^th 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!

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash