Hello Church!
As I write this, we’re two weeks into January, and it’s a brilliant opportunity to be able to share with you all what’s been going on in SBC Youth, and everything that is to come too! I’ve now started going into Archbishop Tenison’s every other Monday morning to lead the year 8 assembly. These assemblies have a Christian context so it is such an amazing opportunity to share God’s word with a whole year group at one time! The theme of these assemblies varies each time I go. So far we’ve had one on Christmas and one most recently on 2024 being a fresh clean slate, and how they can use this as an opportunity to make positive choices. Each week I share a Bible verse that goes with the theme and explain why/how it relates.
I also continue to go into Quest Academy on Thursday mornings for their mentoring programme. I have been and continue to work with two girls, on a one-to-one basis. It’s really great to be able to build a rapport with these students, and the school as a whole. Even though we’re unable to speak about faith in these sessions, I really feel that the Lord uses this time in the best possible ways.
In Rooted, we have recently started our new series on Jesus’ Parables. This series will take us up until just before Easter. Each week, we explore a different Parable (so far we have done the Parable of the Yeast, and The Prodigal Son), with the aims being for the young people to have a better understanding of some of Jesus’ teaching, and thinking about how they can apply that to their own lives. We have had some really good conversations about all that we can learn from these stories, and it’s wonderful to see the group growing in confidence as they share with each other.
SBC Youth have recently come up with a ‘Verse of the year’. So the 2024 SBC Youth verse of the year is Philippians 4:6 ‘Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.’ We wanted to have a verse as a group that the young people can be reminded of every day – something that may encourage them.
We are just a few days away of starting our brand-new youth group, Open house. This is an 8-week cookery course that will be happening at SBC on Thursday evenings (term time). Each week the young people will be cooking a meal and as we eat around a table together, we have conversations about building their relationship with God, and each other. Each week has a different theme, so week 1 is all about communication, and we go onto talk about other topics such as trust, forgiveness, and self-awareness.
Hot chocolate will continue to happen until the Spring (when the weather warms up a little!) where we stand on Selsdon high street and offer free hot chocolate to young people as they journey home from school. We’ve had some good conversations with those we’ve met which is really valuable as we begin to build relation#ships with the local community.
I think that’s it from me for now! As always, thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support for all things SBC Youth.
God bless you all Katie