Ez Lucas

Youth Pastor

 

 

  Dominic Read

Youth Worker

 

Youth Group

We are blessed with a thriving Youth Group led by Dominic, Ez and some enthusiastic volunteers. We value the teenagers in our church and aim to nurture them in their relationships with Jesus.

Revd Ez Lucas is our youth pastor, focusing on outreach and new projects. Read Ez's latest letter at the bottom of this page.

In Aug 09 Dominic Read joined us a trainee youth worker. We look forward to having Dom working with our young people for the next 4 years.

Every Wednesday in term time we have Focus – a youth house group which attracts 10-20 older teenagers for Bible study, prayer, and a time to hang out together. In the last few months we have tackled questions like 'Why do Christians go through difficult times?' (A study of Deuteronomy 8) and 'Why does God sometimes ask us to stay where we are?' (A study of Luke 8:26-39).

At the end of March 09 we began our New Mid-Week Group for 10-13yrs called V.I.P. We are really excited about this group, and there has been a lot of interest. The first term has been a great success with games, Bible study, prayer times and trip to Chessington theme park. Contact Ez for more details.

We attend youth events organised by The Farside. Some of our young people are involved with the Farside prayer team and some are involved some are involved in leading worship and preaching at Farside celebrations.

We have a regular youth club night at the Beacon Centre (a community centre on Canford Heath). This is a time to have fun and make friends. The surplus money from youth club evenings are used to sponsor a child in Kenya through Operation Imprezza.

Always popular is our annual week at Soul Survivor festival. This summer some of our older young people went on team: Rachel and Cathi were in Mr Boogies Nightclub, whilst Josh and Steve were filming the meetings in the big top. We had a great week and Peter (one of our youth leaders) learnt that it is not wise to start water-fights whilst others are eating custard... (he deserved it!)

Socials in the past 12 months have included bowling, quasar, cinema, meals out and a beach BBQ. We also took a large group of young people on the church weekend away.

Last autumn we built and lived in a simulation slum to learn about life in the world's poorest countries as past of Slum Survivor. Our young people have also participated in various projects on Canford Heath helping less fortunate people.

We operate within the Baptist Union’s ‘Safe to Grow’ policy to ensure a safe and responsible environment for our young people. We seek to nurture and encourage our young people in their faith.

Contact CHBCyouthpastor@hotmail.co.uk

Ez's Latest Letter

The (not so) Secret Diary of a Youth Minister (Age 30 and 7 months) June 2009

I always find this time of year a strange one in youth work. On one hand it is incredibly busy as the term draws to a close before the summer holidays so I aim to get everything done and any loose ends tied up. On the other hand the children and young people are winding down (or should that be winding up) as the term comes to the end, so sometimes we are on very different levels.

This has been a fairly long summer term, but because of all the activities they have towards the end of term with sports days, changeover days, parties, etc. many of the groups finish earlier than anticipated.

JAFFA at Haymoor has now finished for the year. It was a sad day as we had our last session which we didn't realise would be our last until we looked at the next few weeks worth of activities, and the year 7s were on a trip to France, so we didn't get to say goodbye to those moving on to their new schools. However, we look forward to new children starting in September with a new programme.

JAM club at Canford Heath Middle School has been a little quiet this term. They are having a school production of Bugsy Malone and the rehearsals are at the same time, so unfortunately we have missed seeing them as much. However, we still have a core group who come and learn more about God, and we have been looking at the miracles of Jesus this term, with lots of drama involved. The plan is to get back into assemblies at the beginning of the next academic year and remind the children of the group and what we have planned for the new term. Becky Bolland has started to come along to the group to be part of the team with myself and Helen Ashwell, so it has been brilliant to have the three of us there to work together with the children.

The new (well, not so new now) home group for 9-13s now has a name - yippee! They have decided to call themselves V.I.P. We were very Baptist about the whole process and came up with a few names that they liked and had a vote to choose. We have had a good first term with the group, covering all sorts of topics such as church, the Bible and prayer to name a few. For the first time a few weeks ago we had a really brilliant moment with the group where we asked if anyone would like to pray (something we hadn't tried before) and three young people led an open prayer time. It was really amazing and Mark and I were so pleased they felt they could do that in the group as sometimes it is very difficult to have the confidence to pray in front of people, especially peers. We went to Chessington for our end of year trip and the group had a brilliant time together and the weather was great. There were a few pale faces after some of the rides, but it was a really brilliant day.

We have had one Beacon centre session since I last wrote and we had sports, mug decorating for father's day, table football, and pool. We were hoping to increase the session to once a week but the facilities are not available, so we would really appreciate your prayers as try to make this happen. I am currently exploring some possible options, and it would be great if these possible options became a reality. We have had a good team of people who have come forward to help in leading the group, which is amazing as this is usually the hardest part, so now we need the premises to do it.

Sunday Club has had a trip out for all the ages last month. We went to Upton Country Park and played games, did a treasure hunt and had a picnic followed by ice creams. We linked in with King's Cru for the day and it was really good to come together and have a really good day out. A big thank you goes to Trish Foote, Pat Clifton and Rosie Samways for all their hard work in organising the day.

When I next write it will be the end of term, parents will probably be tearing their hair out, children will be bored and there will be a lot of children and young people looking to the next step. There are several things I think we need to pray for as the term draws to a close:

Thanks for a wonderful 2008/09 and here's to 2009/10.

Love Ez x

Page last modified 9 Oct 2009.