Hello!

Apparently summer is nearly here. Not entirely convinced by the weather

we’ve seen over the last few weeks, but hey, I’m happy to be proved

wrong!

Last term seemed to go by in a bit of a blur, with a lot of focus on future

plans and events—Holiday Club is fast approaching, as is the new look

‘Hill End’ (more on that inside). Also we are planning a trip to Soul

Survivor this summer which looks amazing!

Read on, and as always, let me know what you think!

Nick Francis

Youth Minister

SUMMER TERM 2012

Last Term

As I said on the front page, last term was a bit of a blur. Looking

back through the diary I can’t see many significant memorable

events. Possibly something to do with sleep depravation affecting

the memory….

Second Sunday

One thing that has been good has been the start of Second

Sunday. This is an ecumenical youth event happening when the

Parish & Well Street have joint evening services. So far the

response has been great with about 20 young people made up of

both churches meeting and mixing. We’re exploring the topic of

Jonah together and getting the older youth to help run and lead

parts of the evening as well.

Plans are afoot for further ecumenical work. Details to follow

soon,

Hill End

There is info on the back page about the new site for Hill End but

I thought I’d put a small bit about our theme. We want to

challenge the young people and ask them “How real is their

faith?”, how much does their faith translate beyond Sundays and

into their every day lives. Jesus tells his disciples they have to

enter the kingdom through the narrow gate. Christianity was

never meant to be easy, and if

we’re finding it easy or boring

it’s because we’re not taking

the massive challenges that

Jesus presents to his followers

seriously. So we’re going to

spend the weekend looking at

some of those challenges,

seeing what it really means to

enter through the gate that is

narrow and hard to find.

NEWS...

COMING UP...

Holiday Club

Holiday Club will be running from

6th—10th August this year. This

is during the Olympics but we

had very little space in the

summer when to run it.

Venue 2 will be held at the

Buckingham School due to

building works at the RLS.

The theme this year is “The

Way” - exploring Christianity

through the eyes of the disciples

and their encounters with Jesus.

Soul Survivor

In the summer we will be

organising a week away to Soul

Survivor—from 12th to 16th

August.

For those who don’t know, Soul

Survivor is a Christian youth

organisation based in Watford

who run a week away in Shepton

Mallet. Over 10,000 young

people camp for a week,

encounter God, receive fantastic

teaching, experience amazing

worship and it’s a great group

experience.

If you want more info on that you

can download a letter from the

youth website, or see me!

Opportunities for

Involvement

I think that it’s really important that

our young people feel part of the

church; that they don’t feel side-lined

or kept to one side until old enough

to participate.

I am looking at ways in which we can

help our young people be involved in

the life of the church, some ways are

already presenting themselves—

helping with Heroes, or Second

Sunday. If you have any ideas, or

opportunities, please let me know.

What are we learning? A brief paragraph on what groups are studying this term:

React are getting to know some of

the characters in the Bible.

Chill’n’Chat and React are both

exploring the gifts of the spirit. The

aim is to do more than just read, but

also act and get creative with what

we are studying.

Proteens are spending the term

studying the book of Acts.

Housegroups are exploring the book

of James, alongside a wide variety of

topics such as rejection, fear, prayer

& meditation & internet awareness.

HILL END As was briefly mentioned in the last newsletter, and has been discussed at various times in the church, changes are afoot for our annual September residential to Hill End. For various reasons the old site was becoming too difficult to manage, so we set about finding a new venue—somewhere slightly more suited to our needs, maybe with activities on site and hopefully a little bit closer. We managed to get two out of the three sorted! We are moving Hill End to the Frontier Centre in Irthlingborough, near Northampton. Travelling time is about the same as to Hill End but what the site offers us is so much more! Frontier Centre is a Christian youth activity centre. So from the start we’re off to a good start. The accommodation is lovely, there are working heaters, many showers, carpeted floors, a great conference room for our gatherings, and that’s just the start of it. As it’s an activity centre we will of course be taking part in some activities—mountain biking, raft building, high ropes & archery. We also have access to their assault course, frisbee golf, and other facilities on site. All of this, and, we’ve managed to keep the price the same as last year—what more can you ask for! Keep your eyes peeled for promotional material coming your way soon. We’re excited, we hope you are too!

For more information on the details of

the youth work please look at the web-

site, or see the notice board in the Low-

er Hall. If you would like to contact Nick

you can do so via e-mail or phone. His

details are below.

This newsletter can also be viewed on-

line – go to:

www.wellstreetchurch.org.uk/youth

and click on the Newsletter link.

Mobile: 07735 427811

E-mail: youth@wellstreetchurch.org.uk

How Can You Help? There are always opportunities to

get involved with the youth work.

For more information or details

please speak to Nick.

Calendar Dates It can be tricky to try to keep track

of all the dates. To make life easier

there is a calendar on the website

which has all the youth events on.

To find it just go to:

http://www.wellstreetchurch.org.uk/

youth/calendar.php

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/GROUPS/WSYOUTH

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