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

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