Born to die

/0 Comments/in , /by

“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:20-21

From all of us here at Llandudno Youth for Christ, we wish you a very merry Christmas and a blessed and prosperous New Year.

I love Christmas, it is a time of great joy and celebration. A time of awe and reverence. The Creator of the entire cosmos, the one for, in and through whom everything was made and the who sustains everything by the power of His word stooped down and became incarnate as a baby. A weak baby, born inconspicuously in Bethlehem without any earthly pomp and circumstance (excepting of course the wondrous angelic fanfare that the shepherds saw).

God is simply astounding in the lengths He has gone to, to save and redeem mankind.

For this baby Jesus was born for a purpose, to save His people from their sins. The way He would do this was by dying on the cross, taking the worst we could throw at our Creator, our utter rejection of Him, and forgiving it and redeeming it to such an extent that the cross is no-longer viewed as a torture device, but for those of us that call Jesus Lord, it is a symbol of redeeming love and radical forgiveness.

This baby was born to die as one of us, for all of us.

So this Christmas let us worship Jesus who was born, lived, died, rose again, ascended and is coming back again.

Please also continue to pray for the young people in our area, that they would find the hope and life that can only be found in Jesus.

Have a blessed Christmas.

Light has dawned that ever shall blaze!

/1 Comment/in , /by

“Those who walked in darkness
have seen a radiant light shining upon them.
They once lived in the shadows of death,
but now a glorious light has dawned!” – Isaiah 9:2

I’m writing this post on Monday 21st December 2020: The darkest and shortest day of the year. As of tomorrow the days will be getting lighter and brighter heading all the way up to midsummer when we have the longest day.

Thinking about this made me think of the above scripture taken from the prophet Isaiah. In context it is talking about the coming of the Messiah, the Christ into the world to save and deliver His people. I love the imagery of light and dark that it uses.

I love the fact that the God that we serves is not scared of the darkness in our world and in our lives, but He willingly takes on a human nature to enter our darkness and bring us Himself, which is the Light of the world. Jesus is our light in the darkness. Hallelujah!

His light is greater than any darkness that we bring to the table. “In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:4-5. I love how the Passion Translation puts it: “Life came into being because of him (Jesus), for his life is light for all humanity. And this Living Expression is the Light that bursts through gloom — the Light that darkness could not diminish!” His light bursts through gloom, nothing can stop Jesus’ inescapable light. Darkness is nothing when His light shines in our hearts and lives.

During these dark days of December, when we are going through yet another lockdown, it’s heartening to remember that Jesus came to bring us light and life and love in abundance. And his light and life and love are eternal and cannot be diminished or overcome.

So this Christmas as we celebrate the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, let’s be encouraged and with the wise men and shepherds worship together the King of all kings.

Please do be praying for the young people in our area, that they too would, this Christmas, discover Jesus as their light and life.

Be blessed and see you in 2021.

Treasuring all the good things of God!

/0 Comments/in , /by

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” – Luke 2:15-20

We held the last of our Redefine Sunday evening Bible study groups last night. It was so much fun. Everyone had been given a fancy dress challenge for the night: they had to come dressed up as a Christmas ‘thing’ and not a Christmas character. Not an easy challenge but the young people rose to the occasion. We had two Christmas trees, one of which had dyed her hair green and put baubles and fairy lights in her hair for effect; a Christmas Pudding; A Christmas Garland; A Christmas present; and Advent Calendar; A Blanket of snow; the Star of Bethlehem; A Yorkshire Santa and a Christmas carrot! As you can tell at Llandudno Youth for Christ we don’t do things by half measures, we fully commit to all our endeavours.

We had a very festive evening.

We played a game using remote controlled cars, where 1 car was the police car and it had to chase down 4 other car with criminals in it and whoever had the fastest time in catching all of the run away thieves won. This was really great fun, with many times the cars narrowly missing each other or getting stuck on the course and thereby eliminating themselves.

We gave out Christmas cards and gifts to all of the young people and we also had a sparsely decorated Christmas Tree upon which various prizes were festooned and everyone had an opportunity to select a prize ranging from a Christmas Gherkin Bauble to a Festival Mug.

We finished the night with a short talk about Jesus being the light of the world. This has been our theme during the lead up to Christmas, focussing on how Jesus is the light of the world for us and how we as God’s image bearers and followers of Jesus are also called to be light in the darkness of the world.

I wrote the title to this blog post for my prayer is that nights such as last Sunday will be things that the young people will treasure up in their hearts and will remember all the fun and friendship that they had, and also the truths that they have been told, namely how great Jesus is and that by following Him in their lives they will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.

Please do be praying for the young people over the Christmas period. Pray that they would be able to celebrate Christmas with thankful hearts knowing all that God has accomplished for them by sending His Son into the world to be our Saviour.

Thank you for your support and have a blessed Christmas yourselves remembering all the good times of 2020 and looking forward to a better 2021!

Emmanuel our God is with us.

/0 Comments/in , /by

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).” – Matthew 1:22-23

At this time of the year we look forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus. With a year like we have just had with the Covid-19 pandemic, it is so good to be able to redshift our focus onto the God who came to live amongst us as one of us – Jesus our Emmanuel.

Isn’t that so encouraging.

We serve and love and trust in a God who is not distant, but as it puts it in the Message translation of the Bible “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” – John 1:14

God moved into our neighbourhood to be with us. To dispel all the darkness in our hearts and lives and show us who He truly is.

Wow!

He wants to be with us. He loves us and is with us, always.

Even during the darkest days of this year God has been with us. Upholding us and guiding us and above all loving us.

This is good news. Such good news! And good news is all that Llandudno Youth for Christ is all about. This year we’ve spoken to many young people both face to face and online through Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and Zoom. We’ve used our resources well to see young people’s lives changed by Jesus, and we will continue to do so throughout December and the Advent season and well into the new year and beyond.

Please do continue to support us in the good work we are doing to share the good news of our Emmanuel – Jesus. Please be praying for us – praying that we’d have plenty of opportunities to share the gospel and disciple young people. Praying that we’d make the most of those opportunities. Praying that we’d continue to get guidance from our ever present God and Saviour.

Continue to support us financially. We can’t do this work without the faithful financial support of our amazing supporters. We love and appreciate you. Continue to support us by volunteering your gifts, abilities and time to the various projects that we run.

Thank you.

And please do remember again that Jesus is with you always wherever you go and whatever you are going through.

Be blessed!

Camp-Not-Camp is over – but what a ride!

/0 Comments/in , /by

It’s been a great two days – thanks for praying for us. Check out the last two videos. The first to supporters and the second to young people.

 

Camp-not-camp day 1 is over – what a blast!

/0 Comments/in , /by

It’s 8pm, and the first day of ‘camp-not-camp’ is over. Today was all kinds of fun!

We began with a breakfast for new year 7s and heard from a couple of leaders who have recently left school who shared their best advice for starting as a year 7. It was great to see new faces and to have time to just hang out, share stories, play games, and connect up together.

Fast forward to the afternoon and we had our first ever digital cookery lesson! We made frying pan pizzas (or cheat pizzas!) together. Fresh dough, proper home made sauce, and a whole range of toppings. We had great fun, made lots of mess, and even came up with some tasty food.

This evening, to top the day off, we ended with a weird-and-wonderful ‘hot chocolate quiz night’. Far from the usual style of traditional quizzes, we had rounds like the ‘celebrity forehead’ round, and the ‘will it float’. Great fun, with something for everyone – and of course, hot chocolate!

In the meantime, we’ve been getting ready to camp. So some of us have set tents up in the garden (check out the videos below of mine!), and others have made dens in their house. Brilliant fun.

What a great day! It’s a shame that we can’t really be together in the traditional sense at the moment, but doing a innovative camp like this still creates great memories, draws people together, and helps us stay possitive and have fun at this odd time.

Please keep praying for us tonight as we sleep outside (most of us!), and for tomorrow. We kick the day off with breakfast together, and end the day with a movie. Camp-not-camp is being brilliant, do pray that God brings the best from it, and people take another step together towards Jesus.

All the best!

Tim

 

 

Camp-not-camp – Starting today!

/2 Comments/in , /by

Usually at this time of year we’d be cleaning off the tents, packing the minibus, and heading off to a big field somewhere for a week of smelly camping. Odd enough, that’s not happening this year. That’s a blow for us – but it’s not game over! We love to innovate and try new things out, and that’s exactly what we’re doing, starting today.

Today is the first day of ‘Camp-Not-Camp’. This is a camping trip, without the ‘trip’ bit. Tonight, young people from all over Llandudno and Colwyn Bay will be camping in their gardens, living rooms, dining rooms – wherever they can fit a tent – all at the same time. Mass camping, in our own safe spaces!

Around that we are having five different online events. We have two breakfasts, the first this morning will be just for brand new year 7s. We have a cooking lesson (taught by me!) this afternoon, where we’ll make ‘Frying Pan Pizza’ together – which will either be totally amazing, or a total disaster. Either way it will be a blast. This evening we’re running a ‘Hot Chocolate Quiz’ and tomorrow evening we’ll be watch-partying a movie together.

This presents us a great opportunity to connect with our young people right at the beginning of summer, and give them some really fun memories. It also creates a way for us to provide options for young people who might love the idea of cooking, but really not be up for a quiz. Do you remember those ‘choose your own adventure’ books? This is a little bit like a choose your own camp. They can do as much or as little as they would like.

As usual there will be times to share from our lives, talk about Jesus, answer questions, and share the gospel. What an opportunity right?

So please be praying for us today as we start Camp-Not-Camp, online with our young people. Pray for fun, for good connections, for memories made, for safety, for good weather, for young people to feel safe and loved, and for them to hear and understand the story of Jesus.

Thanks folks!

Tim

 

If you’re a young person or parent – here are all your details. Just remember that meetings are for team and young people only – anyone else will be removed from the meeting. This is just to make sure everyone feels safe and recognise who the registered adults are. The only exception is the year 7’s breakfast this morning, where any new year 7 is welcome to bring a parent or older brother or sister. Thanks! 😀

Wed 5th
10am – Year 7 breakfast – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82024902979 (Meeting ID: 820 2490 2979)
2pm – Cooking lesson – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89871097470 (Meeting ID: 898 7109 7470)
6pm – Quiz night – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81691325961 (Meeting ID: 816 9132 5961)

Overnight camping in gardens in their homes if they want

Thu 6th
10am – Breakfast for everyone – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86364090822 (Meeting ID: 863 6409 0822)
6pm – Movie night – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85698363550 (Meeting ID: 856 9836 3550)

 

Where were you this time last year?

/0 Comments/in , /by

I was just getting on a plane to speak at Vineyard in Sweden, but more interestingly was the week after that.

The beginning of summer for us usually means summer plans and projects. Last year that was five days away at Soul Survivor, the Golden Spoon Awards, Ice Cream Movie Night, Robot Wars Night, Human Cluedo, Refresh Camp, and (if you can imagine it now) an ‘Ultimate Loo Roll Fight.’

This year? Well we still don’t know.

With the dust around the new social distancing rules still settling, and the continued uncertainty, it’s very hard to plan for summer. For me this will be the first year in 14 that I haven’t taken a group away on camp. I’m not sure what Summer even looks like without camp!

This year the plans will evolve along with the social climate. That said, one thing is absolutely for certain, we will still be telling young people about Jesus.

Whether that’s online through Zoom meetings, or on YouTube, or in very careful gatherings, or just standing on top of Town Hall and yelling. Whatever it takes our job is to tell young people about Jesus as frequently and fully as possible.

The mission doesn’t stop, even if it changes shape.

Please keep praying for us as we discuss options for the summer and do all that we can do to safely serve young people while tell faithfully telling them about Jesus.

All the best!

Tim

 

Photo by Simon Rae on Unsplash

Merry Christmas! Wait… That’s not right.

/2 Comments/in , , /by

All youth workers have a quirk, something that they’re known for everywhere they go. For me it’s ‘Summer Christmas Karaoke’. Throughout most of my years as a youth worker, I have run a Christmas party at the end of the summer holidays.

This party includes all of the trimmings; tree, tinsel, mince pies, fairy lights, and Christmas songs. It’s fun, it’s festive, and it’s wonderfully ironic with the sun beating down hard outside.

So I imagine the question you’re all asking is ‘why?’ (Or perhaps more honestly you’re asking ‘what’s wrong with you, Tim?’) The answer of course, is ‘why not?’

At Christmas we focus on certain aspects of who Jesus is more than any other time of year. We think about Him being Emmanuel – God with us. We talk about his humility, His ultimate innocence, and the fact that He was born to save us. At Christmas we also celebrate community, drawing together around meals, fireplaces, and highly competitive games of Monopoly.

Tell me that Christmas doesn’t represent what we should be celebrating every single day? That’s a community of people gathered closely together around the person of Jesus.

Those two pillars might represent better than anything else what we build our work on at Llandudno Youth for Christ. That’s a genuine community, and a focus on Jesus. After all, we’re about seeing young people changed by Jesus!

Last night we had to cancel our Redefine online gathering because the technology failed us. The program Zoom had gone down pretty much worldwide, partially because of the amount of churches who all tried to meet at the same time. It’s good to think that church broke the Internet!

For us though it was gutting.

Whether it’s online or in person the Youth for Christ community love to gather together. The team and the young people have formed a genuine community that serve and support each other – and every time we gather we point to Jesus.

Over the last two years we’ve had some visits from national teams, speakers, and youth workers. Every single one of them have told us the same thing – they are blown away by how much everyone in our groups genuinely want to be there. That’s the gravity of our projects, a community of people who genuinely want to connect. I strongly believe that the glue for this is Jesus – God with us.

It’s interesting that some people think that you can’t teach young people about Jesus in youth groups, or that you’ve got to keep the ‘God slot’ really short and simple and just talk about teenage experiences with a bit of a God-bent on them. That’s just not been our experience. For us if you take the focus on Jesus away then the community doesn’t work anymore. Jesus is the heartbeat of the Youth for Christ community and we genuinely believe that He is the reason why what we do works.

So please keep standing with us, keep praying for us, keep supporting us financially so the focus can be where it needs to be, and do consider prayerfully whether God is calling you to be part of this community. If you love young people, love Jesus, and can leave your ego at the door to help everyone in the room connect, then maybe this is for you. Fill in the form below and let us know.

 

What is the true meeting of Easter… again?

/0 Comments/in , /by

It feels strange to have gone through Easter this year without singing and celebrating together the way we usually would. Human presence and community are such essential parts of our experience as Christians.

Lockdown aside, we really wanted our young people to hear about the true meaning of Easter from real people who know and love Jesus. A week before Easter then, Tim took to messenger and found over a dozen people to share what they believe is the true meaning of Easter. He put it all into this video, and shared it with the young people of Llandudno. Watch the video for yourself and let us know what you think!

If you’d like to support us during this time to make great online content for young people, please consider giving here: https://www.give.net/20105661