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Evangelism
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Evangelism
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Here is the Autumn 2003 e-Bulletin.
| Once again we are pleased to tell you about new staff members joining the team, but sad to say goodbye to one long-standing team member - Full Story |
| Paul has some thoughts, and a challenge from the financial situation - Full Story |
| The Fridays band have a busy term, with a trip to support churches in France, and a CD produced to raise funds - Full Story |
| NYFC runs on it's volunteers, so we thought we would share a couple of different perspectives on NYFC volunteers - Full Story |
| And finally, the 'Virtual Back Page' contains an interesting miscellany of things - Full Story |
In the next e-Bulletin, look out for reports on Got 2 B Tru 2003, Spark, the Fridays Band in France, Fridays and F2, as well as a heap of other articles.
We hope you enjoy our new format e-Bulletin. As ever, we want this to be a useful piece of information for you to stay in touch with what's going on in NYFC, and we would really appreciate your feedback on the new format, good or bad. So please, let us know your thoughts by emailing bulletin@norwichyfc.co.uk
Two in and one out!
We are really pleased to welcome Ellen and Rob to Norwich Youth for Christ.
Ellen will be working with Karen in the office and please pray for her on
this next one, trying to help Paul work out whether he is coming or going!
Before joining us Ellen was at Norwich School of Art and Design and in her spare time plans to develop a portfolio of book illustration work.
Rob is our first Fusion worker. He is working with Acle Churches Together and the churches in Poringland. He'll also be spending a few hours a week with us developing our Church Resource work.
Rob's role includes running drop in youth clubs as well as identifying ways the project can develop.
If you want to contact Rob or Ellen their e mails are e.anderson@norwichyfc.co.uk and r.forder@norwichyfc.co.uk
We are currently recruiting for our second Fusion worker to be based on the Heartsease estate working with St Francis Anglican church and Witard Rd Baptist church. If you would like more details and would like to apply, please see our website or contact Matt at the office.
Do pray for us at this time. It is exciting to see Fusion developing the way it is. Pray for Matt in his conversations with churches as he explores other opportunities.
Given that we anticipate a rolling recruitment programme for Fusion we have decided to replace our Annual Thanksgiving Meeting usually held in November with regular commissioning services. This will be an opportunity to help new churches and supporters access Norwich Youth for Christ as well as to give more opportunities for you, our supporters to meet the team and hear about our work.
Our first commissioning service will be on 6th Dec at Acle Methodist Church from 7:30 pm. You are all warmly invited. Please contact the office for more information.
Tracey has now left us to go to Nottingham University to Study for an MA in Social Work. Tracey will be missed but we are confident of God's timing and wish her all the very best.
We were hoping to have a variety of comments from people she has worked with but due to printing deadlines these were not available, and will hopefully follow in a subsequent bulletin. One comment we did get though was that Tracey was a 'sex goddess' which is an interesting and unusual way of describing NYFC workers!
We are recruiting for a new club worker and interviews are in mid October. Do pray for Paul and the trustees as they manage this process.
At the start of each Autumn term we go away as a team for a couple of days. The purpose of this retreat is to spend time deliberately with God, to review the previous and anticipate the coming year and develop team relationships; especially so this year with three staff on their first annual retreat!
One of the passages that spoke to us was Mt 14:22-36, the story of Jesus walking on the water. Two things struck us in this amazing story. Firstly, this story stems from Jesus going up the mountainside to pray. We felt as a team challenged to spend more time praying and encouraging others to pray for us.
We have included a brief questionnaire about praying for NYFC that we would like you to complete. The idea behind it is to help us judge how much prayer goes on for us and how we can increase it! We would be grateful if you could complete what is only a few questions, attach a stamp and post it back to us.
We have also decided to continue with our evenings of prayer, future dates are at the back of the bulletin. In addition we want to enable you, our friends and supporters, to pray intelligently for our work and so we have compiled a 'typical' week for you to pray through.
The second thing that particularly challenged us was the need to get out of the boat. We feel called to a year of innovation and excellence. Certainly with one new fusion worker, recruiting a second, changes at Fridays and Tracey leaving we already start the year with change as a way of life and we aim to continue stepping out.
On a more personal note I am pleased to say that Rhianna Grace was born on the 2nd July. Thank you for your prayers and support. Mum and daughter are both doing well and extremely bonny!
Part of stepping out is 'living by faith' something all Christians are called to, not just NYFC workers, and part of that is using our resources wisely. In the last bulletin we shared how the summer is often dry and asked people to consider helping us with one off gifts to help us bounce into this exciting new year. Unfortunately this did not happen, and early September is continuing in a similar fashion.
This is very disappointing. Firstly because as of yet we have not increased our predictable income enough to avoid dry periods (E.G. through monthly standing orders) and secondly that despite cutting our cloth extremely thinly we have to ask ourselves the question of whether our cloth is too big. Fusion as a project has been built on the foundation that it is self funding but other areas eg the schools and clubwork, Fridays and the internet for example rely on your donations. These areas of our work are nevertheless pioneering, unique and effective in changing the lives of young people.
The number of churches and individuals who support us is actually quite small.
In fact about 10% of the people who receive this bulletin support us financially and only 35 churches have supported us over the last year to varying amounts, many from the outer reaches of the county.
I am conscious that we may often come across as writing begging letters in each bulletin but the issue is simple. We are told our work is important and necessary yet those who support it remain few. That to me is a credibility gap between promise and delivery. I was speaking to someone recently who said that the church was now as apathetic as non Christians and at times I find it hard to disagree. This is then unfair on the young people. A church that says they are important but does not support agencies or events that work with them is unfortunately open to the charge of hypocrisy.
Paul and the Trustees
You will remember from the last bulletin the exciting opportunity for the Fridays band to go to France. This trip has come about through our Rock Solid co-ordinator Ang Fox and will be great experience for the young people who volunteer to be part of the band.
The Fridays Band have been invited to visit some churches in Brittany to lead worship and share some of our thoughts and experience with their young (and not so young) people. The Band are all looking forward to the trip, and for some it will be their first trip abroad. More than that though we are looking forward to the chance to get to know and encourage the young people we meet there, for whom being a Christian is a somewhat different experience.
Obviously running such a trip is not without a cost, but we are very grateful to two organisations in particular that have supported us so far. Firstly the Norfolk Council for Voluntary Youth Services have given a grant towards the trip. Secondly, First Self Drive of Norwich have done us a very good deal on hiring a brand new Renault Espace which will be one of the vehicles used for the trip.
Thinking of ways to raise funds for the Fridays Band trip to France generated a variety of ideas, from the interesting to the ridiculous. One of the ideas with some merit though was the production of a Fridays CD featuring live worship from Fridays with a selection of old favourites, new songs, and even some songs written by the band themselves (hopefully)! The CD's have been produced from the archive recordings made over the last year, and capture the feel of worship at Fridays, 'warts and all'.
You can hear a sample on-line by clicking here!
The CD's are complete, and are very reasonably priced at only £8 (plus postage & packing where applicable). If you would like to help support NYFC, and own one of these exciting, strictly limited edition (a maximum of two hundred and fifty of the CD's will be produced) then look out for them at NYFC events, or order your copy from the office using this order form (PDF format).
One of Matt's volunteers shares their story: -
"I first met the NYFC team last August when they came with the bus (on it's final mission) to do some outreach work and detached youthwork training. They were with us for a week and in that time I got to know a few workers and volunteers. I noticed a number of things about them. Firstly I noticed the professional attitude towards youthwork, secondly NYFC's desire to care holistically for workers and the young people they work with, and finally the desire of each worker to serve God and share more about knowing Christ.
It was a breath of fresh air and something I knew I needed to be part of in the future. I kept in touch with NYFC, saw a few of them at Soul Survivor and spent some time with them there talking about youthwork. They have given
me advice over the last year, advice that has helped me to serve God more in my home church and in the rapidly growing field of youthwork. Volunteering for NYFC is helping me to gain more experience and be part of an
organisation that seems to have it's head screwed on and focused on reaching young people for Christ (they didn't pay me to say that!!" - Pete
Andrew Tyler, Parish Priest of St Mary Magdalene, Norwich, has had a particularly positive experience of NYFC volunteers.
"We entered into a really productive evangelistic partnership with NYFC in which one of their workers helped to research and then set up a Youth Drop In, Ronnie's, one evening a week in the former church workshop to be followed up by other work."
The challenge from my church's point of view was to find enough people to staff Ronnie's. What was so good about NYFC was that they were able to provide expertise in working with young people as well as a number of personable volunteers who were just the right kind of people to be around - Both to supervise and talk with those who came to Ronnie's. Each volunteer came with different God-given gifts including, for some, the ability to be a quiet presence - just being there for the young people and for God.
A couple of people have even been travelling all the way from Lowestoft to Norwich to assist which is a good witness to the importance of this venture, to what God might be requiring my own people to do, and a reminder of our mutual dependence as Christians in Norfolk. It also reminds us that Jesus' sending out continues today. Without NYFC's volunteers the project could not have begun and as a result more than 50 young people now have something worthwhile, relevant and as a result a positive experience of the church."
Evenings Of PrayerAfter a successful event last term we are continuing! Hear the latest news & needs. Here are the dates for the coming year: - 15th Jan, 25th Mar and 10 June from 7:30-8:30 at Holy Trinity Church Hall, Cambridge Street. We will be finishing promptly so if you need to leave you can, if not
it's then a great chance to meet some of the team. Gift AidIf you give to NYFC, either regularly or occasionally, and you pay income tax, then you could make your donation go further by filling out a Gift Aid form. You only have to complete the form once for us, and then on every donation you make we can claim around 28% extra from the government! You can find a Gift Aid form in PDF format here. If you haven't already got it, you will need to install Abode Acrobat Reader on your computer to print the form, Acrobat Reader is available for free download at www.adode.comIf you have already completed a Gift Aid form for us, thankyou very much, and you don't need to do it again! Pray For Us!If you are interested in praying for specific requests and/or would like more regular prayer updates please contact the office.
Be assured of our prayers for you, we pray regularly for our volunteers
and supporters as a team. AssembliesAssemblies are great fun to do sometimes, but doing them by yourself
often means they are not as good, or as fun as they could be. If you
feel like working with Bex on Tuesday lunchtimes at a middle school
please let her know. You can contact her on email
or at the office. |
DatesOct 3rd FridaysOct 16th Prayer Evening Oct 17th F2 Oct 19th Gage Rd Deputation Nov 7th Fridays Dec 5th Fridays Office VolunteerOver the last year we have had a volunteer in the office for 3-4 hours a week. This summer she moves on to a gap year, would you be able to help? We are looking for someone who has fairly good PC skills but does not
mind spending their time photocopying when the need arises. The work
is based in Contacting UsIf you want to email us our addresses are: office@norwichyfc.co.uk If you prefer the more traditional approach, then our postal address is: Norwich Youth For Christ, 3 Brigg Street, Norwich, NR2 1QN Our telephone number is 01603 620678
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Any Questions?Q. Who are
you people? Q. Why have
you sent me this? Q. This is
a great piece of communication, but why do I get this as well as a paper
copy? Q. I don't
want anymore of these sent to me? Q. Actually
I've changed my mind, I don't want to stop receiving this, in fact I
want all my friends to get it! How do I do this? If you prefer the more traditional approach, then our postal address is: Norwich Youth For Christ, 3 Brigg Street, Norwich, NR2 1QN Our telephone number is 01603 620678 Check out our website – www.norwichyfc.co.uk, including our brand new feature, the forum, your chance to interact with NYFC staff and volunteers. |
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