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