This week I would like to talk to you about ‘Furnace’. This is our Wednesday evening group for 11-14 year-olds. I would first of all like to say a big thank you to our helpers. Sadly Jez has left us since helping for about five years; the others helping at the moment are Lois, and our two Moorlands students, Dan and Tom. Thank you so much – without your help and support we could not run the group.
Over the past month or so we have been getting new people joining us each week, which has been really encouraging. Most of the new young people are not Christians either, so this is a great opportunity, not just for the leaders but also for the young people who are Christians to teach about God and the love he has for us, as well as showing that love in our actions.
Our sessions generally consist of free time, a Bible study with games and activities, and then dodgeball. It has been great to see the group get to know each other so well over the past year. They are a very welcoming bunch and we pray that continues. During our Bible studies we try to make our young people think about the way we act in life and how this can be taken out to their schools. We recently looked at the Good Samaritan and had them think about whether there are some young people in schools who are avoided by most people and to reach out to them. We have also looked at loving our neighbour. We first of all got them thinking about Donald Trump (there were some strong opinions on him). We then looked at the passage and asked who is your neighbour? They realised that everyone was. We then looked at how we should treat our neighbour the way we would like to be treated, so even if we feel like someone doesn’t deserve to be treated kindly, etc., if we would like to be treated that way then it is up to us to do as we would like to be done to us.
I would also like to mention that after half term we are starting a Youth Alpha course. This is for young people who are thinking about confirmation, or just interested in finding out more about Christianity and want to develop a faith or a deeper one than they already have. The sessions will include a video, discussions, time for questions, and food. The food will most likely be pizza. Starting on Wednesday 28 February, the course will be running on Wednesdays 5.45-6.45pm in the upstairs hall for 10 weeks. Please feel free to ask me for more details.
Nathan Bendell, Youth Minister
