Has your church signed up to the Swindon Churches Youth Work Charter yet? We’re already hearing some great stories of how the promises in the charter are

being outworked in churches right across the town. Lots of churches have told us about the impact serving hot chocolate after Sunday services has made to the young people in their church! Another church decided to appoint a young champion to make sure they fulfilled the promises and hold the church to account. They also plan on doing a survey with the young people to see how well they are doing in each of the 7 promise areas.

Check out www.swindonchurchesyouthworkcharter.info for full details about the charter and information on how your church can get involved in this exciting project.

New Rock Solid club launched On January 16th 2012 with great excitement and lots of donughts we launched a brand new after school Rock Solid club. The club is based at Queens Drive Methodist Church just outside Churchfields School and we’re really grateful to the church for providing the club with a place to meet and a ‘club room’ as a base for the young people.

We’ve already had a fantastic group of young people come

to the club, burn off steam after a long day at school with games of dodgeball and indoor football and begin to explore Christianity with us.

On the second week of the club we asked the young people what questions they might have about God, life, Jesus or the Christian faith. We got them to write them down and promised that over the coming weeks

we would try to answer them together. Questions asked included “Who created God”, “Will I go to heaven?” and “Whats the Bible about?”. We’ve had great fun seeking answers together and seeing God work in the lives of the young people through these sessions.

Recently at Churchfields lunchtime club Chris spotted one young person reading a Manga Japanese style comic and began to talk to him about it. Chris mentioned that there was a version of the bible called the Manga Bible and offered to lend it to him. A few weeks later at the Rock Solid Club Chris caught up with the young person and asked him if he had read any of it. He took it out of his bag, said that he had read the first 55 pages, hugged it to his chest, smiled and said “this is the greatest book in the world”! “Yes, yes it is” Chris replied!

Please pray for this new group as it grows and develops and shares good news with the students of Churchfields School.

We would also like to thank The Evangelization Society (TES) for financially supporting this new Rock Solid ministry.

“Its something cool to do after school”

SwindonRegistered Charity no. 274402

Swindon Youth for Christ, P. O. BOX 2352, SWINDON SN2 1WE (01793) 829795 office@syfc.org.uk www.syfc.org.uk

Spring 2012Taking Good News to young people in Swindon for over 60 years

Directors NotesSome notes from our director Rev. Chris Priddy:

Speaking in his annual BBC New Year message, the Archbishop of Canterbury reflected on the importance that Christianity bestows on young people. He challenged the nation to actively support its local youth facilities and opportunities which, he quite rightly argued, play a crucial part in a healthy society. He also urged us not to give up on young people. So many of the young people that we meet and work with each week feel like they’ve been let down by the adults in their lives and feel that if those around them are giving up on them then why shouldn’t they just give up on themselves. This leads to falling aspirations and a complete loss of hope. How devastating it is to see the effects firsthand of a society that has given up on the next generation and lost sight of the need to inspire, support and empower the young.

Here at Swindon Youth for Christ we are committed to not giving up on the young people of our town. Through a wide range of projects, programmes and support services, as well as simply making ourselves available to young people and meeting them where they are, we share hope and love with individuals. We invite them to dream dreams for their future, we show them how these dreams can become reality, we share God’s dreams for their future with them. We help them to recognise and make the most of the life that God has given to them, showing them how valuable, important and precious they are.

Supporting SYFC. Were you aware that in Feb and March you don’t pay council tax? How nice of the council to give us all 2 months off paying this bill! Could you consider giving some of the money you have not given to the council to SYFC to help us to continue our work taking Good News to young people in Swindon and in this way join with us in ‘not giving up on young people’.

Thank you and God Bless

youthforchristnews

“Rock Solid is fun; there’s nothing to do at home!”

If you live in East Swindon hopefully you will have heard about the significant impact of the work of in:School, headed up by Abi Corry over the past 4 years. in:School works with churches and volunteers to reach out to and work with Primary school children delivering a range of creative and exciting projects such as; School Assemblies, Transition Support Work, the Living Church, Easter Cracked Open, Christmas Unwrapped and after school clubs.

2012 marks the beginning of a new, exciting chapter for in:School as the project looks to the future with a fresh vision for branching out beyond the East area of Swindon to see all that has been accomplished there built up in other areas too.

The vision of in:School is to empower, equip, resource and support Christians in Swindon to serve their local community primary schools in a variety of creative and practical ways. Their heart is to see the children of Swindon given the opportunity to explore their spirituality and the Christian faith within the context of their primary school, local church and the wider community.

Swindon Youth for Christ is really excited that in:School has decided to partner both with SYFC and Scripture Union to help them expand the reach of the project and see their vision realised. This new focus for in:School will launch in January 2013 when Abi returns from maternity leave. In the meantime please continue to pray for the projects Management and Advisory Groups as they make preparations for this exciting new chapter in the life of in:School.

If you would like to receive regular email updates specifically about the work of in:School then please email office@syfc.org.uk and we will add you to that designated mailing list.

Pinehurst Chaplaincy

Christmas is a busy time for everyone and for those involved in the Pinehurst chaplaincy it was no different. Several big events happened over this period such as the community centre opening ceremony and the Shine Christmas carol service held later that day. The long awaited opening of the Pinetrees community centre was attended by over 400 people bringing a brilliant community feel to it. The opening ceremony was hosted by Simon Halls and included a performance from a local street dance troop. A lot of fun was had by all the family, many visited Santa in his very own grotto, rode the rodeo Rudolf or tried their hands at a number of other activities including graffiti art and DJing. Following the community centre opening, Shine Pinehurst hosted a carol service which was attended by around 80 people, with mince pies, mulled wine, games and a Christmas message.In the last couple of weeks of the school term Laura and Simon taught all of the year 7’s in the Academy about the Christmas story. Half of the lesson was based in the classroom and half of it in the faith room. This was a great opportunity to continue building up our relationships with the members of staff but also with the young people. The use of the faith room during the lesson was also a great way to get the young people to think about the Christmas story, and how it can apply to them today. We took several of the characters out of the Christmas story and based simple reflections around each one. For example, for Joseph we

asked them what message they thought God would give to them today, to which some of the replies were, “take more care of the planet”, “not let people get me angry” and “always persevere”. Since Christmas the use of the Faith Room at lunchtime has continued to grow, and at our busiest we have had up to 50 young people come through the door.One of the biggest highlights of the Christmas period was to take a

group of 8 young people to London for the day, many of whom had never been to the capital before. We spent the day walking round the many sights of London including The Houses of Parliament, Downing Street, Horse Guards Parade, Trafalgar Square and we also squeezed in a browse round Hamleys to the delight of many of the teenagers! One young person’s highlight was the street entertainer in Covent Garden who rode a 12 foot unicycle whilst juggling! We all returned exhausted and ready to sleep after the amount of walking Simon had us do!!!

The ChatRoom and LUSHThis term in our weekly school lunchclubs we are focussing on the theme of ‘Wisdom through the proverbs’. Each week we have been looking at a different proverb and exploring how the young people can use this wisdom in their everyday lives. The Book of Proverbs provides both really helpful advice and wisdom as well as some weird and wonderful

analogies and ideas. Through the proverbs we have looked at how important friendship is, why we should value and respect our parents and what we should learn from the ant about working hard! It is great to be able to use the Bible in such a practical way in our lunch clubs and the young people are really engaging with the topics we have been covering.

As we mentioned in the previous newsletter, Luella and Chris have been busy rewriting and developing the LUSH programme. It was and still is our hope that this fantastic relationships education programme will be delivered in every secondary school in Swindon. We recently had a great opportunity to deliver LUSH to every year 9 student in Dorcan Academy over a period of three weeks working alongside the PE/PSHE department in the school and to all year 10 students during a schools dedicated ‘Progression Day’.

The sessions explore a range of issues and questions such as ingredients in a relationship, a relationships time line, values of a relationship and positive long term commitment. The programme was well received by the staff and students and as Dorcan is a new school for us this academic year, it was a fantastic opportunity to work with two whole year groups within the school.

We have also been invited to deliver LUSH in Greendown School this term so please pray for the team and the students participating in these sessions.

Stuff for Youth LeadersThe Breathe Network exists to support the Christian volunteer Youth Leaders in Swindon. Join the network at www.syfc.org.uk/breatheYFC ResourcesYouth for Christ have a range of resources avaliable to support your youth work. Whether you are looking for a session for a Sunday morning group or an activity for an outreach youth club we have something that could be useful for you. See www.syfc.org.uk/resources for information or give the office a call for a free sample pack.

The Key Training CourseThe Key is a short introduction to youth work course developed by the Diocese of Bristol which SYFC can come and deliver for your youth work team. In February we delivered it to the Stratton Methodist youth work team and the feedback was fantastic. It can be completed over 3 evening sessions, a Sunday afternoon or short Saturday. Interested? Contact Chris Priddy or see : syfc.org.uk/thekey

New QUEST GroupJust before Christmas we launched a group called ‘Quest’, after school in Swindon Academy. This is a group which enables the young people to explore the basics of Christianity in a safe space through games and conversation.

The week we started the group, a year 9 student came into the faith room at lunchtime, we started talking about what the faith room is and about what our beliefs are. He told us that he was a pagan and then saw the posters for Quest and asked what it was all about. He said he couldn’t come as he was working in the library after school each Wednesday and then left. 10 minutes later he returned excitedly to the faith room telling us that he had swapped his library duties for another day so he could come. Another young person came along announcing that he “hated God”, a few weeks later he was part of a discussion about the loving characteristics of Jesus.

Please join us in praying for those attending this group, that they would see and understand Jesus’ love for them and that we can continue to build good positive relationships with these young people.

Supporting SYFCDid you know you can support SYFC by:

Texting ‘SYFC00 £amount’ to 70070. The text is free & SYFC receive 100% of your donation!

Donating online through our website. By using paypal.com and your debit/credit card.

Giving us your old car using giveacar.com Cars will be collected from you and sold or scrapped and the money sent direct to SYFC.

Selling unwanted items on Ebay and automatically donating the profits to SYFC.

Shopping online using easyfundraising.org.ukOnce registered, when you shop online at a huge range of stores SYFC will receive a donation.

Or simply send a cheque, payable to ‘SYFC’ to SYFCFreepost SCE 15917, Swindon, SN2 1BR

Meeting The Real NeedAt the start of the academic year we went, as a team, to the ‘Imagine Conference’ at which we explored different aspects of schools work and heard from a number of different speakers. During our time there we were asked to think of our desire for our work over the coming year and I had a sense that God was saying ‘Meet the real need’. The question was, what did this mean for BIOS and the work it was undertaking?

The detached work that we do is one thing that meets a real need, young people hanging out in the parks we go to are looking for things to do and BIOS provides this for them on a weekly basis. The fact is that if BIOS wasn’t there the young people would either not be there or would be creating their own activities in the park – something which often gets them into trouble. The targeted work that we undertake in school is a chance for us to meet specific need and work with those young people who the school identify as having specific needs. Through our group and 1-1 sessions BIOS seeks to target the real needs of the young people we have been asked to work with. We have just begun this term to work in Stratton and Riverside Education Centres, BIOS is now working with young people who are currently in very real need of additional and immediate support. The young people in these schools have struggled in mainstream education and require specific targeted support, which BIOS is able to provide.

The reality in all of this is that until we can develop a professional relationship that is open and honest, where we are trusted by the young people we come into contact with; we may never discover their real need. Until they feel unconditionally loved and accepted for who they are, or they know that someone has total belief in their worth we may only ever be dealing with the many symptoms of their real need.

Amy CoxHi, I’m Amy, I’m 19 and am in my second year of Uni, doing a degree in youth and community work and practical theology with Bristol Centre for Youth Ministry. This means that I spend Monday and Tuesday in a classroom at Uni and Wednesday – Friday I work with SYFC.

One group that I lead is the weekly Rock Solid club at Nova Hreod School. Over the last few weeks we have been getting anywhere between 12-18 young people attending and have explored topics such as suffering, encouragement, relationships and ambitions. Please continue to pray for this group as we approach Easter and look at that the real meaning of Easter is and how it applies to us all today.

Just last week a boy who attends Rock Solid was asking loads of questions about what we as Christians believe; this was really fantastic as he kept mentioning things that I had said in previous weeks. It is great to know that young people are listening to what I say, remembering it, thinking about it and coming back with more questions.

Something else that I do every month is lead the assembly programme at Crowdys Hill School. Swindon YFC have been involved in the school for many years now and each month we look at a different topic and share what our faith teaches us about things like love, friendship, change, bullying and resolutions. Recently I have been leading some all by myself and have really enjoyed these and the positive feedback from both students and staff.

One thing that I’m really looking forward to is the Olympics. I am currently developing ideas as to how SYFC can reach out to young people in Swindon using the Olympics as a focus. I am also putting together plans for Olympic themed sessions which churches could run as part of a youth café or at their existing youth group. If you would like to know more about this opportunity them please email amy@syfc.org.uk

Thank you so much for praying for me and supporting me through my course so far and please continue to pray for me as I enter the second half of my degree – exciting but challenging times!

Each WeekEach week Swindon Youth for Christ works with around 400 young people in schools, communities, youth clubs and churches.We often get asked what an average week looks like for us, so to dispel the myth that we spend all week eating cake in coffee shops here’s our current weekly timetable:

MondayDetached work with year 7 at Dorcan Academy

Detached work at Kingsdown School

Rock Solid at Queens Drive Methodist Church

TuesdaySupport work at Swindon Academy with XL & ASDAN

BIOS mentoring and group work at Swindon Academy

Churchfields ‘Chatroom’ Lunchtime club

Faith Room Drop In at Swindon Academy

Evening Detached work at Meadowcroft Park

WednesdayCommonweal ‘Chatroom’ Lunchtime club

Faith Room Drop In at Swindon Academy

Quest Group at Swindon Academy

Youth Club at Pinetrees Commuity Centre, Pinehurst

ThursdayTeam Meeting

BIOS mentoring and group work at Kingsdown School

Nova Hreod ‘Chatroom’ Lunchtime club

Kingsdown School ‘Chatroom’ Lunchtime club

Faith Room Drop In at Swindon Academy

Nova Hreod Rock Solid

BIOS at oZone Youth Club

FridaySupport work at Swindon Academy with XL & ASDAN

Detached work at Nova Hreod

Advice Cafe at Kingsdown School

Warneford Lunchtime club

Not Forgetting...School Assemblies and RE Lessons.

LUSH Relationships Education Lessons.

IMPACT Youth Worship Event, Residentials and trips.

Supporting local youth workers/volunteers/churches.

Since the last newsletter we have had 2 IMPACT events. In November it was fantastic to have Michael Secker from Christian Aid with us. He spoke about the importance of young people having a passion for their local community and for the world beyond.

In February we were joined by “punk monk” Andy Freeman from 24-7 prayer as our focus for the evening was Passion for Prayer. Andy reminded the young people that prayer isn’t just about asking God for stuff, but it is about listening to him and seeking his will for our lives. Andy also led the young people in a crowd surfing prayer activity where we quite literally held each other up in prayer! After the talk the young people used the prayer stations which had been set out around the room to help them speak to God in a variety of creative ways. These prayer stations focused on praying for friends to know God, prayers for

forgiveness of sin, praying for areas of the world, giving God thanks and praise and lighting candles to lift our cares, worries and concerns to God.

Back in September at the beginning of our series on PASSION we launched a viral Bible (See BibleFresh.com). The young people highlighted their favourite Bible verse in a bible before uploading that

verse to the internet. The Bible was then passed on to other people to highlight their verses and share them online. At the last check the IMPACT

Swindon Viral Bible had made its way to Dubai and beyond.

Please continue to pray for IMPACT, the team and the young people who attend as we seek God together,

Re-Introducing David Howell !Jill and I moved to Swindon in 1980 as a direct result of a call to be the Assistant Minister at Gorse Hill Baptist Church and Director of Swindon Youth for Christ. My first week of work was an intense week of assemblies, lessons and events in Moredon School, which is now part of Nova Hreod Academy ~ a ‘baptism’ by fire!After four years of working half time for the church and half time for SYfC, I was actually working 75% of my time for the Church and 75% of my time for YfC and we knew that we had to think carefully about our future. Following a period of prayer and conversations (and a half-night of prayer with the YfC Executive) we decided to go full-time with YfC and across the next twelve years we saw the work grow to the point, when I left, where we had a full-time second worker (Dave Alderson) a part-time administrator (Lynne Mills) and several local gap year volunteers. Plus we were on our second double-decker bus. For the last four years of my time in Swindon, I also served on the national leadership team of British Youth for Christ, representing local Centres, and was responsible for editing and writing a number of theological papers in order that we could understand our work better and biblically. During our time with YfC we also had five children: Lizzie, who is now married to Mark and head of music at a secondary school just outside of Southampton, Marianne, who introduced us to the complex world of Special Needs, the twins – Nicholas and Paul, and John who is in his last year studying History & International Politics at Aberystwyth and who has served as a volunteer with SYFC. The twins died shortly after birth in 1988 and Marianne died in May 2010.In October 1996 I went to be the full-time Director of the Centre for Youth Ministry, creating and developing accredited courses for Christian Youth Work across the UK. In the summer of 2009 I was made redundant and went freelance, as a consultant in the areas of Further Education, Higher Education and Christian Youth Work. I now represent those across the UK involved in Youth Ministry at various national events.My wife, Jill, died suddenly in November 2010. Within my struggle to find a new reality, I am still involved in youth work, serving as a leader at the amazing Croft Camp in the summer and working all year with a brilliant bunch of young people at Kainos Christian Fellowship. I am grateful to the Christian communities at Kainos and at Christ Church who are supporting me through life, grief and questions, and with whom I declare that Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.We are delighted that David has agreed to join our Council of Reference and blessed by the experience and wisdom he brings.

The work of SYFC is only made possible by the amazing generosity of individuals and churches like yourselves. Could you consider investing in the future ministry of SYFC?

Perhaps you could consider becoming a monthly financial partner or send a special one-off gift now, to help us develop the work over the coming months.

All you need to do is ask us for a Standing Order Form and return it to our freepost address and if you are a tax payer we can claim 20% of the sum donated back from HMRC.

COULD YOU SPONSOR SOMETHING? £25 per month enables us to run 1 School Lunchclub or 1 RE or LUSH lesson or 1 set of Assemblies or 1 Rock Solid Club or 1 support session with a young person in crisis. Why not choose a specific event to sponsor and pray for?

Or Do Something Simple for SYFC and commit to sending us just £5 or £10 a month. This may be simple but has significant impact on our work.

Visit www.syfc.org.uk or call 01793 829795 for a standing order form.BECO

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PART

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KEEP IN TOUCHYes I would like to be kept informed about all the fantastic work of SYFC, please send me Newsletters, Updates and Emails. Alternatively you can sign up online at www.syfc.org.ukName : _______________________________________________________________

Address : _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________ Postcode : ________________________________________

Email Address : ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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PLEASE SEND YOUR COMPLETED FORM TO: SYFC, FREEPOST SCE 15917, SWINDON SN2 1BR. THANKYOU.

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“The prayer stations were my favourite part of Impact, I felt really

connected to God”