We have been very busy over the past month, finishing off our bid with Tadcaster Rural CIC for Manor Farm, preparing papers for the Annual meeting and getting ready to advertise for our new Youth and Children’s worker. These things are all behind us now and we are looking forward to Holiday Club – Jungle Jamboree which is running the first week of August. If you would like your child/children to be involved they need to be 4-11 then please sign them up on the website. We are thinking that it is going to be so much fun. Teenagers will be able to come as young leaders, and there is an application form for them on the website too.
This last weekend we had the joy of doing something which we had longed to do for a while – we took 14 year 7’s and 8’s away to Yorkshire Camps in the Dales. It was a great weekend of fun, games, relationship building and good news about God’s love. We are so grateful to Yorkshire Camps for working so hard to make it such a memorable weekend. The leaders are a bit tired this week, there were some late nights!
We are really struck at the moment about the need to love unconditionally. Some of the children who we work with do not experience much unconditional love in their lives and seldom know peace or harmony. It is not always easy for them to accept the love that we have to offer and they kick against it, trying to see if it really is unconditional. We are not perfect, but by God’s grace working in us we keep loving them and we sometimes get glimpses of things beginning to change. Eight young people from the Friday night club “Axis’ are now coming to our discipling Monday night youth group ‘Space’. We are doing Youth Alpha with the group and giving them a chance to hear the gospel, make a decision for Christ and be discipled. It is exciting work.
If you pray, do please pray for us as we short list, 27th June, and interview, 5th July, for our new full time worker. This is an exciting opportunity for someone and we are praying that God will send us the person who really fits this space. We’ll let you know the outcome as soon we can.
I’ll leave you with the message version of 1 Corinthians 13:
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
It puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.