Dear Friends at All Saints,
In the strangest of times and the uncertainty we currently live in, I know two things for definite! God’s love is steadfast and the young people at All Saints are incredible. These past few terms have seen so many things change and the way forward still feels a bit muddled as we look into the future and hope to see restrictions ease.
Our youth are still meeting every week online. For some of our youth, I get the joy of seeing them three or four times a week as they come to Youth sessions and B-it Theatre online. We have been running social events online and aiming to create a community of young people who love and support each other across all areas of their lives.
Our recent ‘no talent talent show’ was a chance to have a great laugh, not take ourselves too seriously and spend some time seeing some wacky ‘talents’. Some of our young people have also been taking part in our weekly lockdown challenges and producing portraits out of kitchen items and filming their big surprises. It has been great to see them have fun and be creative.
Rising Generation have adapted, overcome and found new creative outlets for the things they are passionate about. Josie, who leads Rising Gen, says “They have been trailblazers and they have taught me much more this year than I have taught them. They are the highlight of my week because they bring so much joy and laughter in these rubbish times.”
We have also been privileged to witness some honest and vulnerable conversations about faith, life and lockdown. These young people have such wisdom, knowledge and love to share and each week it is inspiring to see and hear what they are thinking and doing. We continue to try and find creative and engaging ways of teaching using debate, videos and visual aids to help.
We have also seen that for some of our youth, getting online and being engaged is hard work. For those that spend every weekday doing live classes online sometimes jumping back on Zoom is too much. We continue to look for ways to help engage with these young people and encourage those to get involved even if it is in a ‘no camera, no mic’ type of way.
In times that are a challenge, we have seen young people being resilient in hardship, bold in their faith and watched them love and care deeply for those around them (even if sharing a screen with your sibling is sometimes too much!)
One thing I would love to do, and I am sure you would love to get involved, is encourage our young people. You can do this by:
Positive Postcards:
- Pick your favourite Bible verse, quote or message of encouragement.
- If you would like to, you could draw, print off a picture or do something creative on the front of your postcard or leave it blank.
- Post it to All Saints Church Centre addressed to Emma Smith.
- I will then send them out to our young people to encourage them!
Your support and continued prayers are so appreciated, and it has been lovely to welcome on board some new volunteers at our youth sessions over the last half term.
Thanks Emma