Sundays will continue with Cell after the morning meeting. Evenings will continue with 13+ fellowship on the 2nd Sunday of the month and 18+ fellowship on the 4th Sunday of the month. Here are some Cell/Invasion ground rules.

Youff Update.

Hope for a New Generation 2016.

Firstly apologies for leaving it such a long time since our last update. It s been a busy 5 months for Chatham Youff and I m just catching up with myself.

January – saw us getting back into the swing of things. Having survived panto season and with Dr Who s help Aladdin triumphed over Darth Vader, life was always going to be a bit boring.,, but this is Chatham Youff – so not too boring.

We managed to fit in some ice skating and general resumption of Friday Club, whilst on Sunday we commenced our new Cell material. We had spoken as last year ended about cell involving more bible study as well as looking at World and Personal Issues. And having received some UCB material took the theme of Hope for our year ahead. The material looked at major issues facing the world as well as those facing the youth of today and gives a scriptural basis for our discussions. We all took a small jar to fill with positive things that have happened during the year. These jars are our jars of hope and we can look at the positives that have happened when our days are hard and remember there are greater better things that happen to us – we all have hope. Our Scripture Theme for the Year is Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future .

As well as Youff activities restarting, so did the Divisional Youth Sections, and with a number of Youffie s in the Divisional Youth Band and Divisional Youth Chorus this has made for a busy and somewhat frenetic juggling of dates, but being young adults all things are achievable .

February – the first Divisional engagement for the youth band was at Maidstone at the beginning of February and it was good to have so many supporters there… we realise you might not all have come to see us… after all we were supported by the Fellowship band … but we ll take whatever support we can get.

Also in February the Territorial Youth Band/Chorus week took place, and with a few people in that it was also great to be able to go down to Poole and support them in concert.

March – Was busy but not as busy as some in recent years, as we decided to stay at home for Easter this year. However before that took place we were able to take over 20 youffies to the Territorial Big Day Out at Alton Towers. It was a fantastic day for meeting up with friends across the country as well as having fun on all the rides… not sure who was brave enough for the smiler but we left with a lot of smiles. An overnight stop with our friends in Macclesfield meant that we didn t have to leave early and were able to travel home on the Sunday.

As mentioned we didn t go away for Easter this year but were thrilled to be asked to participate in the Good Friday worship at home. There are already pictures on the Corps website showing the drama we used to share the impact of Easter from the view of Pontius Pilate and we were pleased and humbled by the positive comments and impact we received both in the hall and in the High Street.

April – was a little quieter Easter holidays were spaced out between schools this year making our break a little odd but when we returned our Friday club continued to work well and we saw new faces joining us. On Sundays in cell after a break to consider Easter – the Hope for the World – we used Sundays to prepare a weekend of Hope in Histon and Willingham. People were starting to revise for exams but even so we managed   on our away day to pull a good number together to put together a full weekends programme in Histon and Willingham. This took place May Bank Holiday Weekend.

Our programme started on the Saturday with an evening of fun and fellowship. We used some musical items (taken from the panto) to break the ice and adapted an idea from the Maundy Thursday events at Chatham to prepare table games for those joining with us at Histon. We had a really good turnout and made many friends as well as learning about each other and the ministries across our two corps. There was a lot of laughter but a message of hope throughout all our live events was received clearly. We ended the evening tired but happy and everyone settled quite quickly once we arrived at our accommodation – something that hardly ever happens on Youff trips.

On the Sunday we had Morning Worship and Sunday School at Histon. The youff members put together a time of worship including dance; drama; song all brought together under our overall scripture theme of Hope. We gave everyone a jar of hope and gave them the same challenge we have for the year. Then we stopped for lunch and a little revision before conducting the Evening Worship at Willingham. A different smaller community we were able to meet each member there and hear their stories as they heard ours. We gave them a large jar filled with bible verses of hope and challenged them to fill the jar together with all their hope for the future. They were lovely and as we said goodbye we were glad to have shared God’s Hope once again.

May – Well it started in Histon and Willingham but quickly moved forward. We didn t have much Sunday time to prepare for leading worship at Strood on the 22 May. So we took the Sunday Cell time to decide what we would do. We talked about the fact that we are one family and that Chatham with Strood meant working in partnership, so we decided our worship should also be one that was interactive and involved everyone working together for a new Hope. We decided to take a new jar of hope for Strood, one for them to fill with their Hopes for the year ahead. We organised activities (much like Messy Church) that the young people at Strood with those at Chatham could work on, songs that both knew, and picked a few of our favourite items from the activities at Histon and Willingham and incorporated them too. We had a great time at Strood and felt as one family working together in ministry for Medway and we prayed and continue to pray that this will be true going forward.

In addition to Sunday s we managed to fit in the I ll Fight Day Challenge on the 14 May. This year Chatham Youff helped the community in Wainscott to clear the rubbish backing on to Liberty Park. With help from Medway Council we filled up 3 dumper vans full of rubbish and were told it equated to 1 tonne of rubbish. The community really appreciated it and were amazed that young people were helping them out instead of causing the mess. It was a good event for everyone involved and has really made a difference to the community.

And now we re in June… so what s to come… well we re having a bit of a breather whilst exam season takes hold… we have University Exams; A Levels; AS Levels; GCSE s all being taken and would ask for your prayerful support.

We still have a few events taking place. The Divisional Youth Band and Chorus have some events coming up and if you re around Tunbridge Wells on the 12 June or Bedford on 3 July we would be delighted to see you.

On Fridays we have some trips to Parks and the Seaside. We also have a 13-16 year old sleep over at the hall and trip to Thorpe Park in July planned. With a final BBQ at Ruth s. All before we break up for the Summer, and Divisional Summer School/Territorial Music School beckon.

We do appreciate your support and prayers. We hope to be leading worship on the 25 September at Chatham so hope you ll put it in your diaries to come and not stay away. Our Hope is in Jesus and we Hope yours is too.

God Bless,

Ruth

Email : ruthnjackson@hotmail.co.uk

Tel : 07795 694644

 Ruth