A whole new season for Llandudno Youth for Christ

It was 10am on the 17^th 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