HelloNew Centre Director ArrivesOur previous director SImon Halls left in July to take up the new post of Youth and Community Chaplain to the Pinehurst Estate and on the 1st January 2011 we were very pleased to welcome Rev. Chris Priddy to the team as our new director. Chris was previously the Youth and Children’s minister at Upper Stratton Baptist Church so already had a good knowledge of the town and work of SYFC when he arrived.

Chris writes: “It is with great excitement and anticipation that I take up my new role here at SYFC. I have been working as a SYFC partner for the past 3 years developing their work in Kingsdown School and have also been a part of the IMPACT core team. I have been so impressed by the work that SYFC does and how passionate they are about seeing young people not just supported, loved and cared for, but coming to a real faith in Jesus Christ. It is a real privilege to have been called to take up this role and to work with the incredible team at SYFC to see the Kingdom of God grow amongst young people!

I have been involved in youth ministry since I was 15 years old having become a Christian aged 11. After doing some youth work Gap Years (2) I studied Youth Work and Theology

at the Oasis College in London. Having felt Gods call on my life I was ordained as a Baptist Youth Minister and moved to Swindon in 2008.

As we enter this new chapter in the life of SYFC our vision, purpose and mission remains the same as it did 60 years ago, to take the Good News relevantly to every young person in Swindon. My passion as we move forward into this new era is that we would hold firmly to this vision and continue to prayerfully seek what God’s plans for us are, what he wants us to do and what opportunities he wants to present us with.

I believe that God has great plans for SYFC and will provide us with many more opportunities through which we can share the gospel with young people and be a part of what he is already doing in this town bringing hope to a lost generation.

I am enthused by the stories of all that God has done through our work over the past 60 years, amazed by the stories of transformed lives and excited by all that God has for us in the coming days.

Thank you for your support throughout the past 60 years. Please do continue to partner with us in our mission to young people by praying for us, telling others about our work and continuing to financially support us.”

We are really glad to have Chris in post and excited about how God is going to use him to lead us forward in our mission to relevantly take the Good News of Jesus Christ to the young people of our town.

The 60th Anniversary Celebration on the 29th March at 7:30pm (details inside) will also serve as a commissioning event for Chris, we do hope you will come and join with us in praying for him as he leads us into a new chapter in the life of SYFC.

BIOS is a new project of SYFC, fully funded by the Peanuts Trust, which seeks to provide pastoral care where it’s most needed and over the past few months we have seen the work grow and develop in many new areas. We have now secured work in both the Academy and Greendown, where we run therapeutic group, and 1-1 mentoring sessions. These sessions are helping to support some of those most at risk of failing educationally or becoming socially disaffected.

BIOS aims to link school, community and church together to enable and empower young people to make positive life choices. Since November we have been working alongside the youth service, Upper Stratton Baptist Church, Kingsdown School and the police community support officers to provide support services in the locality. This has included detached and centre based youth work, school based mentoring and family support. Working in conjunction with other service providers we have been able to develop positive relationships with young people in the community and then offer support through the school and develop links with the families to provide wrap-round pastoral care for those in need.

BIOS is working in some of the most challenging environments in Swindon seeking to support and enable young people to make the transition to adulthood with the skills and self worth needed to be positive and active members of their communities. With much positive feedback from the work already, we will soon be at capacity and are looking for further funding and volunteers to

continue to grow the project and ensure that all the young people who need the support of the BIOS project are able to receive it.

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 2011Taking Good News to young people in Swindon for over 60 years

Visit our new website www.syfc.org.uk

youthforchristnews

MY GAP YEAR EXPERIENCE!It has been such an amazing opportunity and privilege to work with Swindon YFC for the last six months. Thrown right in at the deep end of face to face youth work, you have to be on your toes and ready for anything!

I have been doing such a range of things that I’ve always been busy, enjoying the ride as it flies by. In my first few weeks I was speaking at assemblies with over 200 young people staring up at me, but with the backing of an amazing team, my confidence has increased and I have started to relax and enjoy the parts of the role that may have been daunting at first.

Youth work isn’t always easy and as I have said you always need to be on the ball as you never know what could happen! This has been emphasised in a few things I’ve had the opportunity to do over my time here. I have come across some of the most challenging young people I think I will ever encounter, but in working through these challenges and really trying hard to reach them where they are, it has highlighted just how beneficial this work is to the young people as individuals and also myself and my confidence.

I have had such a worthwhile time here, making some amazing bonds with young people and work colleagues alike, making Swindon YFC a great place to be and a perfect place to experience diverse and engaging youth work on a personal and presentational level. - Luke Maundrell YFCone

Hi my name is Brendan, I am 18 yrs old and come from a small rural village about 3 hours north of Melbourne, Australia. I heard about YFCOne when a YFC worker from the UK came across to spend 4 months in Australia, I looked up the YFC website and the next thing I knew it was December 30th and I was landing in the UK! I have come to a new country, a new job and basically a new life (for 6 months)! My first introduction to the UK was spending a week in a cold Welsh castle at national YFC

conference. It was a bit nerve wracking being 10,000 miles from home and not knowing anybody, however everyone was very accepting and lovely and I met some pretty awesome people. I was encouraged by the message spoken at the conference, which left me feeling invigorated and ready to get to work in Swindon.

I have settled in to my host home and I’ve been working in a number of different schools. I go into Kingsdown for detached and a lunch club, this is always a challenging lunch club because of the large number of young people who attend and I felt a little intimidated at first. I do lunchtime drop-in in the Academy which is always fun and interesting. At first it was difficult to relate to them but now I have spent some time with them and they are all quite nice kids. In Greendown I do lunch club where some great discussions about the bible have taken place. The kids there are all very friendly and I immediately felt relaxed and welcomed. Afterwards I help at a Gym PE class, this has allowed me to build up relationships in a relaxed setting and afterschool continuing on with the active theme I help out with Rugby club for yr 7-9’s where I am teaching them Aussie Rules Football!. The gym and Rugby are great sessions it’s easy to talk to the young people.

I’m also involved in 3 youth clubs each week across the town. These are all very different in their geographical placement and demographic. It can be challenging some nights because of the young people’s attitudes but I have met some quite nice people and made some good friends.

I am thoroughly enjoying my time with SYFC and am excited by all that God is going to teach me this year.

Thinking of doing a Gap Year or have just a few hours a week which you could give to SYFC? Why not get in touch with us.

You’ll be surprised by the range of different ways in which you can work with and support us.

60th Anniversary CelebrationsSwindon Youth for Christ is the longest continually running YFC centre in the country and in 2010 we turned 60 years old.

To celebrate we have invited Rev. Gavin Calver, the National Director of YFC to join us and help us to not only celebrate all that God has done over the past 60 years but also to inspire us as we look to the future and all that God has planned for us.

Tuesday 29th March12:30-2:00pm Church Leaders Lunch. At the Bible Society. Please rsvp to office@syfc.org.uk7:30 - 9:30pm Evening Celebration EVERYONE welcome. At Gateway Church, Swindon.

The evening event will also serve as a commissioning service for our new Centre Director Rev. Chris Priddy.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come and join us to help us give thanks to God for how he has used SYFC to transform lives over the past 60 years and to pray for the future.

We continue to work in partnership with Positive Futures, SBC, the Clivey and the Pinehurst Chaplaincy to run the Bus Project in Pinehurst. Every Wednesday a double decker Youth Club Bus rocks up, opens its doors and provides somewhere for young people to hang out, have fun, be cared for and experience the Good News in action. We have seen a steady flow of young people engage with this innovative project throughout the winter, making use of the on board game consoles, computers, art and crafts activities and free hot chocolate. Please continue to pray for the bus and the young people who attend.

the BUS

SYFC Youth Forum

As an organisation which is committed to working with and reaching out to young people we know that it is really important that we listen to, get feedback from and are led by the inspiration and input of young people themselves. This is why the SYFC youth forum exists. The group consists of seven young people (only 3 picutred!) from a variety of schools and churches who meet with us on a bi-monthly basis to discuss the work that SYFC does.

One of the amazingly creative ideas that they have come up with recently is the £5 challenge. The £5 challenge is a way in which they and other young people could raise money for SYFC. Their idea is for SYFC to give away £5 notes to young people in church youth groups, and challenge that group to use the £5 to raise more money. It was suggested that young people could buy ingredients, make cakes and sell them, buy a sponge and wash cars or sell some unwanted items on ebay. It will be great to see what ideas youth groups come up with and how much money they raise.

SYFC Supporting Local ChurchesOne of the things we are passionate about at SYFC is supporting the local churches of our town in their outreach to young people. We share the Good News with the young people of Swindon so that they can hear about Jesus, choose to follow him and be welcomed in to a local church family where they can be discipled in their faith. The local church is integral to all that we do and it is on your behalf that we do what we do. We believe that together we can change the face of this town and see God do amazing, life changing, transformational things in the lives of the young people. We would love to come and speak to your church or church group about our work and to inspire you to join us in our vital and exciting mission. We are also available to run training courses for youth work volunteers, provide resources and materials to help your youth ministry or to advise your church on how they can be involved in developing or supporting a ministry to the young people in your local area. Contact us for more information.We are also currently developing a Swindon Church Youth Work Charter, a set of promises which every local church can commit to, to help them to reach out to the the young people in their community and be ready to welcome them into their church community. So WATCH THIS SPACE.

tZimbabwe Youth for ChristSwindon Youth for Christ are proud to announce that we are now twinned with YfCZimbabwe

The YFC mission to take the Good News relevantly to every young person is not limited to those here in Swindon, or even those in the UK, this is an international mission. The Good News of the Gospel is for the whole world (Matt 28:19-20). We have therefore partnered with YFC in Zimbabwe and are exploring ways in which we as a centre can support their incredible work with children in Zimbabwe. We are already praying for YfCZ and hope you will join us in this, we are also

looking to financially support their work and maybe one day take a mission team out to Zimbabwe to help the work of the Children’s Refuge Village which they run. We have been blown away, humbled and inspired by the work of YfCZ. Please visit www.yfczimbabwe.org and join us is praying for and supporting the incredible work of YfC Zimbabwe.

Schoolswork UpdateOver the past few months we have yet again been really busy continuing our ongoing work in schools. We have seen over 95 young people through our lunch clubs and after school club, where we have been looking at topics such as popularity, individuality, dreams, Justice and relationships.

We have had great opportunities to deliver assemblies in Swindon Academy, Commonweal and Crowdy’s as well as some RE lessons with Year 10 classes in Churchfields.

The team have been delivering LUSH (Our Relationship Education programme) lessons with Year 11 and recently with Year 9 classes in Greendown School. We are also supporting and facilitating two classes within Swindon Academy through alternative education sessions, trying to engage young people in learning in different ways.

We have started running lunchtime detached work at Kingsdown School to compliment the Lunchtime Club we run there. Every week so far at least one group of young people have approached us and asked us to pray with them. We have eagerly agreed and they have all instinctively bowed their heads!! We have prayed giving thanks for the good things in our lives, prayed that we would have a greater ability to trust people and prayed for one of their mum’s who was having an operation at the time. We are blown away that young people actually want to pray in the playground and excited by what they want to pray about.

Lush @ Swindon CollegeWe recently had the amazing opportunity to take some of our Lush material into Swindon College for their ‘Relationships week’ We delivered 2 tutorial sessions looking at what is cool and not cool in relationships, what are the important elements in any relationship and explored where marriage stands in our society today. We also had an interactive stand where young people could come and chat with us about any relationship issues they were facing or engage in some activities about building strong relationships. We had a great few days with the students at the college, and it was an exciting opportunity to work with older young people and make links in the college.

Please continue to pray for all the opportunities we have to work with young people in the schools and colleges of our town. Please also pray for the team

as they review and redesign the LUSH programme this term and explore opportunities to deliver the lessons in more schools across the town.

hhhisinsainsians SYFC are joining once again with other local Christian schools workers from across the town to put on a

Pray for Schools eventMonday 23rd May, 7.30pm-9.30pm

Upper Stratton Baptist Church We hope the evening will give Christians not directly involved in schools a flavour of what is going on and a real insight into some of the struggles that young people and staff in schools are facing at this time. We want this evening to encourage, inspire and equip Christians to pray strategically and effectively for their local school(s) and if appropriate get involved, this could be by helping in the class room, listening to children read, becoming a school governor, taking assemblies or running after school activities. We want

to encourage people to start up prayer support groups for their local schools as part of this national initiative. Please join us on the 23rd May if you can. Why not also sign up to receive our SYFC prayer diary?

We have a challenge for you:Do Something Simple for SYFC or Sponsor Something!

The SYFC Youth Forum have created the idea of taking £5 and using it to raise financial support for SYFC and we want you to get involved too by doing something simple. Upper Stratton Baptist Church recently held a sale where everything cost 20p to mark the VAT increase to 20%. They sold over 1000 items and raised £240. Another partner has been selling Cupcakes to raise money for SYFC. What could you do? - Host a film night for your friends. Sell homemade goodies every friday in your office. Go on a sponsored hop-a-thon. The possibilities of simple things you can do to help support our work are endless! We invite you to please take on our challenge and send us your stories too as we’d love to publish some in future editions of the SYFC Newsletter

Our second challenge is to ask you to Sponser Something. It costs SYFC about £25 to run ‘something’. This might be a lunchtime club, an afterschool club, an assembly week, a mentoring session, a youth club night or any of the other amazing things that we do. Our challenge to you is to sponser something. Sign up to send us £25 a month, choose what you would like to sponser and then pray for it and look out for the updates about the event you sponser to see how God is using your gift to transform the lives of yong people in Swindon.

Already a financial partner of SYFC? Why not encourage a friend to support us as well!

JUSTICEWe recently completed a series of assemblies exploring the theme of justice. Through the assembly we challenged the young people to think about the freedoms that are denied to many in our world illustrated by a live escape from a straight jacket! We followed this up by inviting the students to get involved by taking part in some creative activities within the school which got them to speak out for those who are voiceless. We shared with them God’s heart for justice which is clearly seen throughout the bible. The students responded really well and we were encouraged by their passion to see justice triumph in our world.

I have now experienced three IMPACT events since I have been in Swindon, and they have been all been really different but amazing in their individual ways. The Saturday after I arrived I was

thrown into the first IMPACT of the year, with the focus being on New Beginnings. It was an amazing first taste of Youth work in Swindon, with over 100 people turning up to hear about a new way of approaching a beginning to the term and to worship God. Experiencing this event as a new guy was amazing, to be able to gauge the fresh attitude of the team and the passion that they have for the young people of Swindon.

At the November and February events I had the opportunity to lead the young people in sung worship. This was an exciting time for me and a real privilege to be so involved within the set-up and the vision of the event. These events have been on the theme of New Wisdom, where we focused on how with God’s

strength and guidance we can achieve anything, and New Love. The atmosphere and feel that was created especially around the theme of New

Love was so electric and positive, and throughout the worship and Luella’s talk, which was interesting, insightful and relevant there was a strong sense of God’s imprint and work touching the young people who attended.

Brendan writes “Impact was great, I’ve been to events like this before but it was my first time up the front helping lead worship. It was a slightly nerve wracking experience but definitely fun. Being in the middle of the music was great and being able to contribute was a privilege”.

Overall, IMPACT is such a positive event for the young people who attend, and the youth workers alike. There is such a build up of excitement when IMPACT comes along and such an expectant vibe that it’s going to be a night to remember, and when it all comes together it is such an experience. - Luke Maundrell YFCone

The next IMPACT events take place on April 2nd and June 11th. Please tell everyone you know all about it and bring your whole youth group with you to these fantastic events.

Check out www.impactswindon.com or email us for some flyers

ICHTHUSThe Greek word for ‘fish’ is ‘Ichthus’, the early Christians used it as an acronym for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. It was also a symbol people used to identify themselves as Christ followers and to indicate safe meeting places for Christians.

Brendan (YFCone) has a fish tattooed on his arm. After explaining to a group of young people in a school lunchcub that he used it to show the world that he believed in Jesus, a whole group of 10 of them wanted their own fish tattoos. We drew them on in marker pen and for the rest of that day they

went around the school and evening youth club excitedly showing off their fish tattoos to everyone explaining that it meant they believed in Jesus!

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 sending a special one-off gift now, to help us develop the work over the coming months

All you need to do is complete the form below and return it to the freepost address and if you are a tax payer we can claim 20% of the sum donated back.

SPONSER 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 sponser and pray for?

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

BECO

ME

A

PART

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R e s p o n s e f o r mYes I would like to help impact the young people of Swindon by giving a monthly gift of: £5 £16 £25 Other amount £__________ Please send me a standing order form and a FREE SYFC fridge magnet gift!

Yes I would like to make a ‘one-off’ gift to help suport the work of SYFC. I enclose a cheque for £__________

(please make all cheques payable to ‘Swindon Youth for Christ’)GIFT AID DECLARATION Please treat this gift and all gifts I make/have made to Swindon Youth for Christ since ____________ as Gift aid donations.

Signature__________________________________________ Date_______________ (Please note you must have paid sufficient UK Income

Tax of Capital Gains Tax for us to reclaim the tax on your gifts. If your tax situation should change, you must contact us accordingly).

Name:_____________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________

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

Introducing Anna & Rich!Once upon a time there was a girl called Anna who moved to Swindon as a youth work student placed at SYFC. At the same time there was a boy called Rich who was volunteering with SYFC. As in any classic story, they met, fell madly in love and got married.

As the years went by, Anna (who graduated and became a youth worker with Swindon Borough Council) and Rich (a software developer) found themselves unable to continue in their previous SYFC roles. However, they still had a passion for supporting young people and the hardworking team at SYFC. Because they weren’t really able to express this to young people as SYFC volunteer youth workers, they decided to join the exec as a way of showing their ongoing support and using their skills, gifts and abilities in a new way.

Anna and Rich both really enjoy being members of the exec and are hoping that more people will be encouraged to find out about joining the exec team; to be part of aiding the work of SYFC and ultimately sharing the love of God with young people across Swindon.

We are currently looking for new people to join our exec team. If you are interested in exploring how you can use your gifts, skills and abilities to support the work of SYFC, whether through being a part of the exec or in another capacity then please contact Chris Priddy at the SYFC office.

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