Pressing on towards the goal!

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“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:13-14

Here at Llandudno Youth for Christ, we are not resting on our laurels. We are imitating the apostle Paul. We are pressing on, even during this time of social isolation where we cannot physically meet with the young people as we normally would. We are still holding meetings online.

We are reaching out to young people with the good news of Jesus Christ in new and innovative ways, whether it be via ‘Zoom’, or Facebook, Instagram or our very own YouTube channel. We are continuing to share the love of God with young people in North Wales and beyond.

We couldn’t do this work without our faithful supporters who aid us in prayer, with their time and with their finances.

We want to say thank you. You are making a difference in the lives of young people. Even at this time of ‘lockdown’. so please don’t stop, but continue to pray for the young people that we are reaching out to. Continue to support us financially. And for our amazing volunteers, continue to support us with your precious time.

We also want to encourage everyone reading this blog to continue to press on and in to God. To seek His kingdom first in this time when everything is being shaken. For our God is a solid rock, a firm foundation and when we put our trust in Him we are rooting our lives on the unshakeable.

Have a great week and be blessed!

The true meaning of Easter?

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Happy Easter everyone!

I pray that despite the social distancing due to Covid-19 that you had a blessed Easter.

Here at Llandudno Youth for Christ we have, despite the restrictions in place, had a great Easter connecting with young people in Llandudno and beyond. One of the new and innovative ways we are connecting with young people is via our brand new YouTube channel ‘RE:TV’.

This is a great new resource and over Easter, our centre director, Mr Tim Gough asked other youth workers to send him their thoughts on what Easter meant to them. He compiled their responses into a great video that you can watch below:-

You can watch more of our ‘RE:TV’ content here.

Please do continue to support us in prayer and financially during this time in our nation, help us reach out to more and more young people with the life changing message of Jesus.

Hope you enjoyed the video and be blessed!

τελέω (teleō) – It is accomplished!

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Today is Good Friday. It is the time of the year when Christians around the world remember the death of Jesus for the sins of the world. “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.” – 1 Peters 2:23-24

It is both a sad and a joyful time. We grieve over the thought of what Jesus endured on the cross as He took upon himself the sins of the entire cosmos, but we also rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus won the victory on the cross and brought righteousness and reconciliation for all of us. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” – Colossians 2:13-15

Also, Jesus didn’t stay dead. Three days later he rose again, conquering death. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” – Hebrews 2:14-15

Jesus did it all for us. On the cross his last words were ‘it is finished’. He had done it. He took the sins of the world upon himself and triumphed over, sin, death and the devil. That is why Easter is such a great time of celebration. A time where righteousness defeated sin, where life conquered death and where our freedom and reconciliation was bought with the precious blood of Jesus. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

Have a great Easter and please be praying for the young people in you area, that they will have a deeper and richer understanding of all that Jesus did for them on the cross.

Be blessed!

Hosanna!

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“The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

‘Hosanna!’

‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’

‘Blessed is the king of Israel!’

Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written:

‘Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.’

At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realise that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.” – John 12:12:16

The above Bible excerpt described Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on the week leading up to the Passover and His impending crucifixion. Nowadays we remember and celebrate this event as Palm Sunday. It’s where we remember the truth that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords.

I wonder how you celebrated Palm Sunday during this time of social distancing and self isolation. I’m pretty sure that a lot of people celebrated via the internet, with online church services and social media gatherings.

We held another great online ‘Redefine‘ Sunday evening Bible Study group. We are currently working our way through the gospel of Mark and we looked together at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and the beginning of His public ministry. It was a really great evening as we discussed what the short passage we looked at revealed to us about Jesus. There was a lot of good discussion and revelation.

We are so grateful that we can still meet up with the young people in some shape or form during this time. We are also holding live instagram meetings for the young people on Thursday and Friday evenings at 7pm.

Going back to the Palm Sunday passage, something really stood out to me. It says that Jesus’ disciples didn’t fully understand what was going on during the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem. It was unclear to them at the time everything that was going on. It was going to be even more devastating and confusing for them in a couple of days as Jesus was betrayed, put on trial and then crucified.

For us and the young people going through this global pandemic, it can feel at times confusing and anxious. We don’t know what is going on, but we need to trust in God through it all and believe that He was be bringing life and redemption in a world where there seems to be so much fear and death.

Perhaps like the disciples we will see, when this current global situation is resolved, the God’s hand at work in love bringing life and redemption to the world, just like Good Friday wasn’t the end of the story, but as we will be celebrating next Sunday, Jesus rose from the dead, defeating sin and death and bringing life, love and liberty.

Please do continue to pray for young people at this time of uncertainty. Pray that they would come to know Jesus and trust in Him.

Have a great holy week.

Be blessed!

Zoom around the room!

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Well we’re over a week into our self-isolation and I must say we have had really good weather here in North Wales. It’s stayed dry and sunny on most of the days. Which we are grateful to God for.

We are also very grateful for all of the wonderful technology that we have today. Technology that help us to stay connected with the young people that come to Llandudno Youth for Christ’s projects.

The title of the blog post is a nod to the software app that we use to keep connected. It’s called Zoom and it is a video conferencing software. It means that although we are self isolating at the moment, we can still hold ‘Redefine‘, our Sunday evening Bible Study, albeit joining each other via video conferencing from the comforts of our own homes.

This has really been a Godsend.

Last Sunday night we continued to study the book of Mark with the young people. It was really good, and because we were all connecting online, it meant that some former volunteers and young people that are now living in different parts of the world were able to connect with us.

This was simply great. It’s good to know that in this time of self isolation and social distancing that we are still able to share the gospel relevantly with the young people in Llandudno and well beyond.

We are also connecting with young people via Social Media such as Facebook and Instagram. Putting up content and live video feeds that help to encourage them at this time of potential anxiety and uncertainty.

It puts me in mind of the apostle Paul whilst he was under house arrest. He didn’t let it get in the way of him encouraging the churches he’d planted. He wrote to them some brilliant letters full of encouragement and instruction for walking out their faith in the world.

So at this time, let us continue to pray for the work of Llandudno Youth for Christ. Let’s pray that God would continue to guide and support us and that we’d be able via modern technology, to connect with young people in Llandudno and beyond and continue to share the good news of Jesus.

Be blessed!

 

Waymaker

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“Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness. That is who you are.” So goes the chorus to the worship song ‘Waymaker’. It is a fabulous declaration of our amazing God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

In this time of so much uncertainty and doubt it is great to be certain of the goodness of God and have faith in the faithfulness of our great God.

Wow!

At this time where we are uncertain of how long the nations of the world will be in lock-down due to the Corona pandemic, where we are uncertain of what the long-term effects of this unprecedented time in history will be upon our society. How will things change. What will be the political and economic fallout?

All this uncertainty reminds me of the children of Israel as the entered their long sojourn in the desert. Following God’s direction as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. (Read about this in the book of Exodus) This was all new territory to them. Despite the harsh conditions and slavery, their lives in Egypt was all that they had know. It was familiar. They knew where they stood, even if it was at the bottom of the societal ladder. So to step out into the unknown and follow God’s leading was something new to them.

They were journeying into the unknown following God.

At this time it may seem like we are journeying into the unknown, but we are not alone in this. Jesus has promised to be with us always. “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” – Deuteronomy 31:7

We have the example of Israel in the wilderness to encourage us. God provided manna for them and water from a rock. God has provided Jesus. He is the bread from heaven, the manna. He is the refreshing water from the rock that was struck. So at this time of change, look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Follow His leading and direction, trusting Him to lead us through this time.

He is our waymaker.

Be blessed!

Grace amidst lamentations

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We are living in unprecedented times, with the outbreak of the Corona virus affecting all nations around the world. In the UK we have seen all large & small social gatherings being cancelled, and now places like hotels, cafes, bars & sports centres are also closed.

We are now practicing social isolation and distancing to try and slow down the infection rate of Covid-19.

This has had an effect on the work we do at Llandudno Youth for Christ in the way that we share the good news of Jesus with young people, but it has in no ways stopped us from continuing with our mandate to reach out to young people with God’s love.

For example, last night, where we would normally have our Sunday evening Bible Study for young people in the Ty Llywelyn Community Centre, we instead held and online meeting using a multi-user video conferencing software called Zoom. The meeting went really well and there were no major technical teething problems.

We are going to continue to find more and more creative ways to meet up with and input into the lives of young people in an online format, and of course we will continue to pray for the young people and for our nation during this time of so much social change.

Thinking of the ways in which the outbreak has forced people to stay at home, makes me think of the book of Lamentations, where the writer, Jeremiah laments the dire situation the nation of Israel has fallen into.

“How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave.” – Lamentations 1:1.

The streets are quite deserted now, with people in self-isolation, but in this time of upheaval and change, just like Jeremiah, let us not forget that God is the God of redemption, restoration, mercy & love.

“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” – Lamentations 3:19-23

So like the write of Lamentations, we will continue to pray and wait for the Lord, for our hope is in Him. Our young people’s hope is in Him too. Let’s continue to trust in the goodness of God at this time. Let’s continue to be salt & light in our communities.

Thank you and be blessed!

Take it to the Lord in prayer

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Last Sunday night at ‘Redefine‘ we looked at the topic of prayer. This was as part of the follow up course we are doing from the brilliant Higher tour North Wales. It was an excellent night.

We’d set the room we were using up like an indoor campfire; with fairy lights in the place of an actual fire; and had comfy pillows and bean bags set in a circle around the fairy lights ‘campfire‘.

After a fun start playing some group games, we watched the Higher tour video about prayer and had a great teaching time looking at prayer.

It was really great seeing the young people discuss and think about prayer; how they can talk with God whenever and wherever knowing that He listens to them. “You will answer me, God; I know you always will,
like you always do as you listen with love to my every prayer.” – Psalm 17:6

It was also great that at the same time the young people were learning about prayer, we were holding our monthly ‘Prayer Gathering‘ in another room. This was well attended and we shared about the Higher Tour and some of the needs that we are facing at Llandudno Youth for Christ. We also sang some songs of worship to God and prayed for the young people in our area.

We are so grateful for the amazing group of people that regularly come to our prayer gatherings and support us in prayer. Thank you for lifting us and our needs up to God in prayer.

Talking of needs, one of the areas where we have a need is that of volunteers at some of our projects and also at our Saturday Cafe that runs on the second and fourth Saturday of each month. We need people to help out in the kitchen with the cooking and also with other areas of the Reverb Saturday Cafe, such as waiting on and making drinks. We also are looking for more volunteers for ‘Recess‘ our Thursday Christian Union meetings in Ysgol John Bright and Ysgol Aberconwy and our new project, ‘Shuffle & Shake‘ on Friday nights in Colwyn Bay.

If you feel that you want to help us in one of these areas, then please do not hesitate to email us on llandudnoyfc@gmail.com or telephone the office on 07517 429 763 (office opening hours are 9am to 5pm on Mondays and Wednesdays and 9am to 12pm on Fridays)

Thank you and keep on praying.

 

For Yours is the Kingdom…

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We have just 1 week left at Redefine of our series focussing on the Lord’s Prayer. Last Sunday night we looked at ‘Give us our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’.

This coming Sunday we will be looking at ‘For Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory, for ever and ever, Amen.’ I love how the prayer starts and finishes with us focussing on God.

We are trusting in Him, our Father, to answer our prayers; so it’s great knowing that the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory are His. All that we do is in Him, through Him and for Him.

Please be praying for the young people as we finish off looking at the Lord’s Prayer, that they would see how truly amazing God is and that their faith in Him would grow and become more firmly established.

Also this week all over the North Wales coast, from Holyhead to Prestatyn, the Higher Tour is taking place. This is a great outreach event that we are praying will produce much fruit as young people hear the gospel presented to them in relevant and meaningful ways.

We’re really excited and expectant over what God is going to do in the lives of young people in North Wales this week. This is a great opportunity. Please be praying for the week’s events.

Thank you and Be blessed!

 

Give us this day…

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This is the 3rd Blog post in our ‘Lord’s Prayer’ series.

This coming Sunday we will be looking at the part of the prayer that goes ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ – Matthew 6:11

I love how it is put in the Passion Translation – “We acknowledge you as our Provider of all we need each day”

This is such a great truth to learn. To know that God is our provider, that the one who clothes the lilies of the field and who provides food for the birds is the loving Father who provides all we need each day.

As a charity, we at Llandudno Youth for Christ know this to be so true. Many times we have seen the provision of God come through for the work we do in reaching out to the young people in this area and beyond with the good news of Jesus.

So feel encouraged that God knows your situation and He loves you and wants to meet all your needs with the provision of heaven.

Also, please be praying for the work that we do, that we would see more of the provision of God in 2020 as we aim to reach further and higher, to see more young people come to know Jesus. Also please be praying for Tim’s Big Trek, that we would raise a phenomenal amount of money for this sponsored event, and that our director Tim Gough would be upheld and protected by God as he trains for and then takes on the challenge of climbing from Snowdon to Everest.

Have a great week and be blessed!