We love our Bibles… that’s why they’re falling apart!

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This is our box of Bibles. They’re not all that old, only a few years, but they have been well used, as you can probably see! Most have been repaired, and several still have pages falling out.

Someone once told me that when they get to heaven they’d rather show Jesus a Bible that’s falling apart, than one which is pristine. The first one has obviously been read. I love that idea, so even though we mostly work with young people that have no connection to Christianity or churches whatsoever, we still get our Bibles out at every opportunity we can.

At the end of Luke’s gospel, in Chapter 24, we read about Jesus appearing to two disciples and sharing with them everything the scriptures said about himself (v.27). At the end of that story these two followers said:

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (v.34).

I love that! So we at Youth for Christ believe that there’s nothing wrong with the material. We don’t need to hide it until young people are ‘ready’ for it later. We’re charged to know it deeply, so we can teach it clearly, and bring young people’s hearts to life with it. Then God’s word will burn within them. We think that God’s word is living and active and every time we read it, something is made in us. So why wouldn’t we use it with young people – whether or not they’ve ever picked one up before?

The trick, however, is doing it well!

The more you know God’s voice, the more you can recognise it and help others to understand it. That’s what Eli did in 1 Sam. 3 right? He helped little Samuel hear God’s voice, recognise it for what it was, helped him respond to it – and then he got out of the way!

We don’t whack young people around the head with the Bible, we don’t hammer away with mega-dense theological language, and we don’t expect them to behave like if they already know anything about it – but we do teach it. We love to open our Bible’s with young people – and we read it with them. We ask lots of questions, we talk, we share, we discuss, and we facilitate a conversation between them and God using the Bible. Our job after-all is to encourage young people to grow their own relationship with God – we can’t have that relationship for them.

I’ve not heard a young person complain yet!

So sure, we love the games, the stories, the silly talks, the nerf battles, and the lock-ins. But we’re never, ever, going to be shy about sharing God’s word with them.

That’s why our Bibles are falling apart!

We’re recruiting new volunteer team members at the moment. If you love God, love young people, and display a teachable spirit with a good sense of fun, then you could fit right in. If you would like an obligation-free chat, please do email us at llandudnoyfc@gmail.com.

Thank you!

BIG NEWS: We are on the move!

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Check out the video:

So, what’s the story?

 

Yup. You read that right! We’re on the move. Over the last thirteen years we have had two centres of operation. The first was the amazing Reverb Youth Bar on Madoc St. It was an absolutely stellar venue! State of the art, bespoke, cosy, fun, and we built some amazing memories there and did some truly wonderful gospel ministry.

Since 2015 we’ve been using Ty Llywelyn Community Centre. This was also brilliant! Huge spaces, lots of opportunities for new types of projects, and really easy to get to from Ysgol John Bright.

Both of these venues were amazing, but both had their drawbacks too. Reverb was awesome, but it was on a difficult street for late night youth work (so many conversations with upset neighbours!), and it was just too small. Ty Llywelyn fixed both of these problems, but because it wasn’t ‘our’ space, we couldn’t customise it to our work. This meant it took far too long to set up for and pack away everything we did.

Imagine then – what if we could have a building in the middle of town, close to all the action, big enough for a variety of projects, and ‘ours enough’ to deck out exactly the way we want. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

So, with great trust and openness from Gloddaeth Church and the Presbyterian Church of Wales, we’re excited to announce that are going to move into the building adjacent to theirs known as ‘The Garage’.

This is a two-story building which we are planning to turn into a fully functional, high-quality Youth Centre – something completely unique in North Wales. It has a large downstairs room with a kitchen and toilets, and two smaller rooms upstairs for an office and small group space.

Not only is this an ideal building and great location, but it puts us closer to the Christian community in town. Our projects have always felt a little distant from churches, so being able to be so close is a huge boon for us! We want to dial up our work across churches. We want to make a big deal of this in the years to come and work more clos with the local church scene. Your pastors have already heard from us this year, and soon you’ll be getting a pamphlet on how Youth for Christ could serve you better.

So, what are we going to do with this new space? Well, quite a lot. We will be repainting, refurbishing, and refurnishing. Bringing in some quality technology and facilities and trying to create a space that truly serves communities of young people. I say communities, because rather than just running big drop-in sessions, instead we are going to try and focus on deeper relationships with smaller and more intentional groups of young people. I think that’s going to have a much longer lasting impact!

We’re excited about this – but also a little scared. We want to be good stewards of all that God has given us, so we don’t want to have bitten off more than we can chew. However we believe God has clearly laid this path out before us, so we’re going to walk it.

We really need you’re help for this! We need you to pray, but we also need practical help. There is a lot of moving, painting, tiling, trips to the tip, more painting, wiring, cleaning, and more painting to do! Could you help us?

Finally, this is a long-term project so we’re looking for long term support. I want to ask you quite boldly, could you give a little to us each month? We’ve had some truly incredible one-off financial gifts which are going to help us do the work on the building, but what we need now is regular support. We need to know what money is coming in each month so we can plan our projects with wisdom and security. We really need to raise another £500 per month. That’s 50 people giving £10 each month – or a cup of coffee a week. Please consider, could you be one of these supporters?

From free food to finding faith! – Lana’s Story

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I’m Lana, and I was thirteen when I first started coming to Redefine, the Christian youth group run by Llandudno Youth for Christ. I can say with full honesty that I only came because of the offer of free food, and I didn’t for one moment think I’d keep going. I was a very shy young person (to be honest I still am) and the thought of joining a group of people who already knew each other, and were learning to explore their faith, was very daunting.

Being blunt, the church that I grew up in was not the kind of place for a young person to find God. I was one of about four young people there, and the services were definitely not tailored towards keeping a child entertained. It was therefore eye opening when I discovered a group of young people who were all interested in knowing God, and weren’t all about sixty years old! Little did I know that I would find myself in Redefine until I was nearly twenty, becoming a young leader when I was sixteen, and being a full leader during my gap year before university. What stemmed from me finding a community of Christians in Youth for Christ, grew to me having a family of people I could rely on and find comfort in.

Currently in my life I’m living in Cardiff, in my second year of my degree in English Literature and Journalism. I’ve always loved reading and whilst doing my a-levels in school, I discovered a passion for English. I love learning about why writers write, and I’m fascinated about how a book has the ability to tell you a lot about the world that we live in, giving us an insight into the culture that is hidden through hundreds of years of writing. Pairing English with Journalism, I get to learn all about how we perceive the world, and how the world is shown to us through the eye of the media. This can actually be a little overwhelming if you think too much into it, but it’s very interesting on the whole, and very eye opening.

What will I do with my degree once I’m done though? Well, I don’t know the answer to that. I get asked the question “what do you plan on doing with your degree” very often (at least once a week) and I can honestly say that I have no idea what my plan is.

I had a lot of solid visions of what I wanted to grow up to be when I was younger; from the ages of about seven to nine I wanted to be a singer, a short-lived dream when I discovered I could barely hold a tune. Then for most of my early secondary school years I thought I wanted to be a vet, a dream that grew from a love of animals but that fell short when I realised I absolutely could not handle the blood and guts of such a career. What I’m getting at is that I used to have such a clear picture of how I wanted my life to pan out, and yet now my picture of the future couldn’t be blurrier.

However, one thing I do know is that God has a plan for me and that knowing him I can trust that somehow, somewhere, I will find my footing in this world. I can honestly say that I don’t think I would still be a Christian if I hadn’t had Youth for Christ, who gave me a loving and supportive group of Christians around me during the years I needed it.

I may not know what my future holds, but I do know God will be with me every step of the way, and that’s all I need to know right now.

Leaving Llandudno with a camera and an idea – Sophie’s story

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Today we have a ‘full-circle story’ from Sophie Spree. As with all of our full-circle stories, it follows a journey of a young person we have worked with – who grew up! We miss Sophie to bits here in Llandudno but are blown away by what God’s been doing with her. Read it in her own words…

My name is Sophie, I started being part of Llandudno Youth for Christ when I was about eleven years old, and somehow that is already ten years ago!

These days I live and work in the West Midlands. I have two part time jobs, both of which are semi-technical, so I’ll try and explain them simply. Three days a week I work for my church as a communications and logistics worker which includes ensuring necessary communications happen, assisting in the running of the building, and overseeing our digital media volunteers from Youth for Christ. On my other two days a week I am a videographer at Youth for Christ’s national office in Halesowen and this means contributing to their media output which supports all areas of the mission. I’m working within the communications department but serving all the team at Youth for Christ across the departments.

The story of how these came about is quite amazing, and that’s what I’d like to tell you about now.

As a teenager I developed an interest in film and that area of media but I didn’t really want to study it full time like most people in that industry do. However, I did do a part time Essential Technical Film Skills course at college. Not long after I had finished the course I remember Tim having a chat with me at youth one night and asking if I’d considered doing any Christian gap years in media as he knew of two that existed. At this point I went away and did some research into them both. Once I had started this process I got quite excited about the idea of leaving my job in retail and going elsewhere to learn more about working with cameras and filming in Christian environments, and so I also started thinking about people I knew at different charities where I might be able to volunteer on a short term basis if neither of the gap years worked out.

Turns out you don’t need to start making plans B and C when God has a plan A! I had an interview for each gap year and afterwards I remember telling God He needed to make it really clear to me what He wanted me to do next because I had no idea which gap year I preferred over the other. And make it clear He certainly did, as one offered me a place and the other said they didn’t think I was right for their programme that year.

At this point I might as well drop the name in in case you hadn’t already guessed. I started a gap year in media and youthwork with Youth for Christ in September 2019. Due to covid gaining speed across the world our placements came to an end in March 2020 and we were all sent back to our original homes. This was hard to deal with at the time. In hindsight if that hadn’t happened then I would be very unlikely to have applied to do a second year. The story continues that that is what happened and in July 2021 I finished my second year in digital media with Youth for Christ and my church.

During this time I started to wonder what would be next, it felt like whatever it was would have to be in the Llandudno/North Wales area or around the West Midlands as I didn’t feel ready to start over again somewhere new.

To tell it briefly, I applied for a job that I didn’t get due to not being passionate enough for it, and then I got offered two other jobs instead; one from my church and one from Youth for Christ. This was amazing because both of these places have sown a lot into me during my two gap years.

I can fairly confidently say that none of this would have happened if it hadn’t been for the time I spent as a young person at Llandudno Youth for Christ and for the investment I received from the team there. I am a different person to who I was ten years ago when I first got involved, I am even different to who I was starting out on The Year Out two years ago. I am so grateful for everything I have gained from my time at Youth for Christ, both in Llandudno and at National.

If you want to keep up with some of what I’m doing you can sign up to my email newsletters here https://www.yfc.co.uk/sophiespree

 

A whole new season for Llandudno Youth for Christ

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It was 10am on the 17th March 2020. I had just shared a video with our parents and young people explaining that we were going to add hygiene stations to our projects, but that we wouldn’t close down our groups until the local schools did. Just two hours later we discovered that not one, but two of our young people were showing symptoms of COVID-19. At 1pm, we issued another statement saying we would be closing all our in-person projects effective immediately.

That was eighteen months ago.

I’ve been a youth worker my whole adult life, but in the space of three hours that world collapsed. All our work across five weekly projects that we had built up over ten years of hard graft suddenly stopped. It wasn’t dramatic. There was no fanfare, no thank you speech, and no bouquet of flowers. There was just a sudden eerie silence. I remember sitting on my purple couch, staring at the wall, without any idea what was going to happen next.

I was the director of a youth organisation without anything organised for the youth, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

Do you remember where you were when the call was made? Can you remember that comforting, familiar rug being pulled out from under your feet? You will know, the same as me then, that that wasn’t the end of the story.

Since then, we dodged and weaved! We’ve innovated and we’ve adapted. We’ve run a truly bonkers amount of online work, we’ve run campfires and events outside, and very careful socially distanced groups inside. Phew! What a year!

However, also in the space of a year, many of our young people have moved on. They’ve grown up (how dare they!), gotten jobs, and left for university. Some of our team have moved on too, to new opportunities and different parts of the UK.

At some point you realise, ‘it’s just not going to be the same anymore.’ And that’s sad. We’ve done great work and grown a wonderful community for over a decade. Many young people have met with Jesus and are still going with Him. And we’ve had the privilege to be part of that!

But now is not the time to wallow in what was… We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, look forward and say to God, ‘ok, so what’s next?’

And here we are!

Llandudno Youth for Christ is about to enter a whole new season.

We’re looking at building for the future, and we’re going to try a whole whack of neat ideas. We’ve got some irons in the fire (super big, amazing announcements coming soon!), and God has – as always – got some immerse plans up His sleeve too.

Please keep walking with us on this journey. We’ve never needed your support more, and we have so many exciting opportunities ahead.

This is a great chance to get involved in what we do. Watch this space, as more info is coming your way!

If you’re feeling inspired though – to give, to pray, or to volunteer – get in touch.

 

Photo by Abhishek Pawar on Unsplash

AGM & Showcase – Coming soon online!

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It’s that time again! We’re hosting an online AGM and Showcase for Llandudno Youth for Christ on Wed. 23rd June, 7.30 – 9pm.
 
We’re going to keep it simple, informative, and engaging – focusing on all the ways God has challenged us and provided for us this year, and how we drive on into the future with Him.
 
We’re about seeing young people’s lives changed by Jesus. Come along and find out how we’ve been doing that throughout lockdown – and how we’ll keep on doing that in the coming year.
 
Please join us on zoom. Wed. 23rd June, 7.30 – 9pm. Link below.
 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88949734731
Meeting ID: 889 4973 4731
 
Hope to see you there!

Tim and Katie are going “Miles From Home!”

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Big announcement – huge – mahoosive! Tim and Katie are joining the team going Miles From Home in the Lake District this summer to raise money for both Llandudno and National Youth for Christ.

This part of the adventure is called Miles Across, where a small group rom all over the UK will attempt the Lake’s ’24 Peak Challenge.’ What’s that, you say? We’ll it’s hiking 24 mountains, in 24 hours!

Yup – you heard it. 28 miles across 24 mountains in 24 hours. This is serious trekking with professional guides across the highest and most rugged peaks the Lakes has to offer. This includes all the big ‘uns like Scafell Pike and Hellveyn, and everything imaginable in-between. If you stacked them all up one on top of the other, you’d get to 50,000 ft – Thats almost two Mt. Everests!

In reality it’ll be like hiking Mt. Snowdon five times in two days. Sounds like fun? Yea we thought so – but it’s also going to be hard. Very hard. Stupidly hard.

So we’re doing this stupidly hard thing so we can keep raising money for all the projects we run in Llandudno and to support all the many resources we benefit from from National Youth for Christ too.

This trip, of course, replaces the ‘Tim’s Big Trek’ we planned for last year that was canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions. But the upside is both Tim and Katie get to do this together, and looking at the milage, they’re going to need each others support to get to the end!

Do watch and share the announcement video below.

Will you support Tim and Katie to tackle the challenge? Click here and find out how. THANK YOU!!

 

 

 

10 years today!

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It was ten years ago today, on the 2nd May 2011, that I first started working for Llandudno Youth for Christ.

I remember arriving with my wife, Katie, a few days earlier and being met by quite a few people at the doors to our new flat – just a stone’s throw from the old Reverb café – to help us move in. Many boxes (and three flights of stairs) later, and we were settled.

I think if I was really honest with myself, I didn’t think at the time that we would stay long term. We’d had quite a stressful time working in London and were looking forward to a slower pace for a couple of years. I think we always thought that we would move back to London. Little did I know that God had other plans.

In the last ten years we’ve moved house seven times. We’ve lived in Craig Y Don, the middle of town, up on the Orme, West Shore, and on the outskirts in Llanrhos (where we are now). We’ve made friends, started hobbies, and crashed cars. We’ve found favourite coffee shops, secret walks, and we’ve lamented the closure of Superbowl and HMV.

This might be the longest time Katie and I have lived anywhere – before or after we were married – but I think it’s fair to say that we’ve settled now.

Most importantly we’ve worked with many, many young people. With a fantastic – always evolving – team; and with committed supporters, prayer warriors, and trustees, we have shared the gospel with literally thousands of young people.

We’ve run RE conferences, camps, trips, and events; we’ve developed long term projects like Reverb, Recess, and Redefine, and short term groups like reXamin, and Revive. We’ve partnered with churches, we’ve done things with the council, and we’ve built deep relationships with local schools.

One of the joys of being here a decade is seeing the young people we met at school around town, grown up with kids of their own, who still remember the time they spent in these groups. I love bumping into old faces in the street, chatting with them, going to their weddings, hearing about their lives, and seeing the spark of Jesus still in them.

Two years ago, I had one such experience when a young lad who used to come to Reverb sent me a message from University to tell me he had just accepted Jesus and was so grateful for us sewing those seeds when he was back in Secondary School.

Then there’s sadness too. There are young people who left, and we never saw again. This is always hard, and can be especially heavy on the heart after you spent a few years trying your best to support them.

I’m so grateful for all the time we have spent here. We’ve been made to feel at home, we’ve been accepted as part of the community, and we’ve been resourced and supported to reach young people.

I just wanted to drop a note to say thank you. Thank you for the last ten years!

We’d love to keep going and keep growing, so if you’d like to support us – please do get in touch.

All the best!

 

Tim

Centre Director

Llandudno Youth for Christ

It’s so good to be back… ish

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Over the last few months we’ve been running all of our projects online. Redefine, Shuffle and Shake, Show Up and Write, Den Fest, and MORE have all been digital-driven, zoom projects. And that’s been great – they’ve been fun, engaging, and supportive. But young people have also been in school online, seeing family online, meeting friends online. This ‘digital generation’ is – quite frankly – onlined-out!

It was so good, then to finally meet in person this last Sunday. We have to meet outside at the moment, but as organised young people’s activities are authorised for outdoors only now, we just had to jump at that chance. We took every care to make an outdoor event safe, and got to work.

Twenty three of us met for a campfire at The Lighthouse Community Church on West Shore. It was quite a cold campfire as so many of us distancing in a ring means you don’t really get too close to the fire, but it was still brilliant! Seeing people’s faces again, and providing them the opportunity to see each other was gold! We talked, shared, played games, told stories, and had hot chocolate. It felt just like old times.

We’re hoping to keep doing things like this for the time being, so please keep supporting and keep praying for us as we move forward.

We’ve also gotten to that place where we are going to start to need to recruit new team members too. So if you’re interested in volunteering and helping young people’s lives be changed by Jesus, then email us at llandudnoyfc@gmail.com

All the best everyone.

Stay safe – love Jesus – pray for young people

Tim

So long, farewell and thanks.

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Hello everyone. Todd Warden-Owen here, the administrator at Llandudno Youth for Christ.

This will be my last Blog post for Llandudno Youth for Christ I’m sad to say. This is also going to be my last day working for Llandudno Youth for Christ. On Monday 1st March I start a new job with a soap manufacturing company.

I am sad to leave and I have so many fond memories to take with me of my time working for Llandudno Youth for Christ, but I trust that this is the next step for me in God’s plan for my life.

I’ve had so many amazing experiences and times working here. It’s been great being part of a family that really cares for each other and the young people that they serve. A family that wants to see young people reached with the life changing message of the gospel.

I’ve taken part in ridiculous games. I’ve acted in wacky versions of the Nativity story. I cooked food for many young people. Helped set up events that have changed young people’s lives as they’ve engaged with God. Helped out in school lunch time clubs and after-school drop in youth clubs. I’ve taught from the Bible during our Sunday night Bible Study group and led worship at various different events. It truly has been a blast and a privilege to serve God in such an amazing ministry that is continually looking for new ways to share the good news of Jesus with you people relevantly in Llandudno and beyond.

Talking of the good news, recently God has really been highlighting the following verse from the Bible to me, “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” – Colossians 1:27. God has been teaching me that He is so close that in fact He is in me. The same goes for you. As a believer, Christ is in you. You are never alone. You are never forsaken. He is with you and He is in you.

Wow!

That is so encouraging. The gospel is really good news, and it’s great to know that long after I’m gone, the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ will carry on and they’ll see many more young lives changed by Jesus.

This work is so worthwhile, please do be praying for it and supporting it financially, for it really does make a difference to so many young people.

Thank you for listening and supporting us. Ciao for now and be blessed!