Over the years, the travelling YFC cage football

team, Nomad, have visited Cheltenham to work

alongside of us. In June, the team visited once

more but it was slightly different as this year’s team

has two old friends in it. James Girling, who did a

gap year with us last year is now the Nomad Team

Leader and Ed Plant, a young person from

Cheltenham is doing his YFC One gap year with

Nomad.

The week with Nomad was primarily split between

St. James Primary and St. Mark’s Junior Schools.

Over four days, we had a lesson with each of the

600 students in the schools. The lessons were

based around values that related to the individual

schools such as perseverance, team work and

friendship. In addition, we ran an assembly in each

school around the theme of generosity. Both

schools gave excellent feedback about the lessons

and the experience of having the cage. It is always

nice when we leave a school and they are already

talking about our next visit.

The time at St. Mark’s was especially significant for

Ed as it was the junior school he attended. He was

involved in taking an assembly in front of teachers

who taught him in the very hall where he sat

listening to assemblies eight years ago.

Besides the time in the schools, we also took the

cage to the Wednesday club in Hesters Way where

it received many puzzled looks from drivers as the

drove past. The cage also went to two church

youth groups, C3 Cheltenham and Holy Apostles.

Finishing the week at Holy Apostles saw Ed leading

the cage in the very place he first experienced it as

a young person on one of it’s previous visits to

Cheltenham.

The wanderers return

Update July 2015

New Baby

Congratulations to our youth

worker Jon and his wife Ruth on

the safe arrival of their second

child. Their second son was

born on Monday 13th July.

Please pray for them all as they

adapt to being a family of four.

YFC Gloucestershire

We are still waiting on the Charity

Commission concerning our

application for YFC

Gloucestershire. In recent years

the Charity Commission have

faced significant cuts in staff and

an increased workload and this

often delays applications.

Acting up

Do you know a young person

who loves drama? We are

looking to set up a small drama

group for young people who love

to act or direct. It will be an

opportunity for young people to

express their faith through their

creative talents. We hope the

drama group will be able to

appear in churches around the

area. If anyone is interested,

please get in touch via email

office@cheltenhamyfc.co.uk Left: One of the smallest venues we have ever setup the cage, at the squash court in C3. Right:

The cage in action at St. Mark’s

Paul’s thoughts

The end of July seems like an end

of year for us. Its at this time that

our YFC One volunteers depart

and head off to pastures new.

Over the year they have had an

opportunity to invest in the lives of

the young people we work with.

As they serve, God speaks into

their lives and changes them.

Whilst this process seems

accelerated during a gap year, as

we engage with God’s work he

engages with us. I see this in my

own life and in the lives of all our

volunteers. Charlie, one of our

local volunteers has served for a

couple of days a week throughout

the year. In June I had the

privilege of baptising him as he

gave testimony to all that God had

done in his life. Last month he

helped us lead the youth work for

the Holy Trinity Tewkesbury

weekend away. This gave him an

opportunity to impact the young

people and encourage them to

chase after God themselves.

When we volunteer we are

stepping out using our God given

skills and gifts. Sometimes we

learn those skills and gifts through

the process of stepping out and

volunteering. This can be through

face to face youth work or behind

the scenes. Over the years we

have seen people volunteer in the

office who through their

volunteering saw God do great

things in their lives. Could you

volunteer and see what plans God

has for you? Do you have skills

and gifts that you could volunteer

to support our ministry? If you do

we would love to hear from you

and look forward to what God will

do in your life.

Emmy

This year has been one of the

most challenging but best years of

my life. You hear people say all the

time that their gap year had a life

changing impact but this year truly

has had an impact on my life. I

have learnt many valuable lessons

this year, about myself, the work

we do and most importantly my

relationship with God. I have

grown so much closer to God this

year, I’ve learnt to rely on Him and

trust in Him when I feel lost and

unsure. God has really worked in

me this year. He’s helped me

move forward from my past and

He’s taught me so many things this

year with Youth for Christ that I

didn’t think I needed to be taught.

I’ve grown as a person, in my

leadership, confidence and my

faith. I am so thankful to have

been blessed with the people God

has brought into my life this year.

I’ve made some lifelong

friendships. God has been so

good to me this year and I’m

excited for my future. I am taking

a second gap year with YFC where

I will be based in Greenwich. It

has been such a pleasure working

with Cheltenham YFC these past

11 months and it’s so exciting the

journey that they are on as a

centre and I’m lucky to have been

part of it.

Miriam

Spending a year working with

young people in Cheltenham was

a privilege for me. I loved getting

to know teenagers from six

different schools and being able to

tell them about Jesus and sharing

parts of my own life as a Christian.

It was encouraging to see changes

in their lives and also in my own

life.

For me it was a year where I learnt

a lot about God and discovered

things about myself that I never

knew I was able to do. When I

think about my Gap Year, I will

always remember lots of funny

moments and nice days, but I will

also remember challenging days

and weeks, where I had to work on

my patience and endurance. In the

end though I know that the easy as

well as the difficult times during

this year shaped my character and

helped me to develop and rely on

God in every situation.

I feel much more equipped for

doing youth work after this year.

When I think about how I used to

prepare sessions before this year

and how I would do it now, there is

a huge difference. Taking all these

practical, personal and spiritual

developments with me, I am now

looking forward to starting

university back in Germany to

become a teacher!

I want to thank the Cheltenham

YFC Team and all of you who

supported and prayed for me

throughout the year. I feel so

blessed to have so many people

praying for me.

A huge thank you to you all!

Michael

What a year it has been. I've

journeyed with some amazing

people, taken part in some

fantastic work in Cheltenham and

Tewkesbury and learnt just a little

bit about myself in the process.

I started in September with high

hopes of being able to work with

some familiar faces in Paul and

Jon, which did not disappoint. It's

been a joy to both reminisce with

these men, but also to work in the

present and dream about the

future. I have a lot to thank them

both for, being great mentors and

imparting their wisdom on me

when I needed it most this year.

The other two volunteers alongside

me, Emmy and Miriam, have been

fantastic. Their work ethic, their

desire to bring hope to young

people’s lives and their enthusiasm

for all of this is unwavering and

has been a encouragement to me

as the year has gone on.

My co-workers in Tewkesbury,

Ruth West most notably, have

been outstanding. When I didn't

quite know what to do, they were

patient with me helping me to grow

and learn.

It's been wonderful to be able to go

into a lot of the schools around

Cheltenham and Tewkesbury,

creating fond memories I will never

forget. God has been so good to

me this year, and I do feel truly

blessed but now I am finishing this

gap year with a heavy heart.

Thank you to each and every one

of you for supporting the work that

will continue to go on in

Cheltenham and the surrounding

areas!

End of the Gap Year

Praise for

Emmy, Miriam and Michael as

they finish their gap year.

The many opportunities we have

to work with young people.

The events where we have been

able to support churches.

The Nomad week.

The Faith club at the National

Star College.

Prayer for

Our application to the Charity

Commission for YFC

Gloucestershire that it will go

smoothly.

For the increased income we

need to enable us to develop

our work.

Our new volunteers as they

arrive in September

Neil O’Boyle as he takes on the

role of National Director.

Jon and Ruth following the birth

of their second child.

The start of the autumn term as

we restart schools’ work.

Young people who want to get

involved in a drama project.

More local volunteers to help us

grow and develop our work.

On the 1st August our new National

Director, Neil O’Boyle takes up his

post.

Neil became a Christian through

the ministry of YFC and did a YFC

internship year before going on to

launch Greenwich YFC.

Later he went on to

work for YFC in the

Middle East and Asia-

Pacific regions of YFC

International. For the

last two years he has

been based in Denver

with YFCI. He returns

to UK shores to lead the

work of British YFC. In

an interview with

Youthwork magazine he recently

said “YFC in Britain is doing a

phenomenal job. I’ve no desire to

start messing with that – we’ve got

a great team in place. What I hope I

can bring to the table is looking at

what it means to expand and

develop more ministries and

explore what it means to explore

diverse ministries into minority

groups. I want to

ensure that as an

organisation we’re

really keeping the

main thing as the

main thing, and

that’s youth

evangelism. Gavin

was excellent at that.

My sense of what’s

happening in the UK

is that there is a

chance that we’re moving away

from the fundamentals. I don’t want

to see that happen with YFC. “

Latest News: Come to the auction on 9th November for a great night of fun. Free entry.

On 11th July, the churches in

Warden Hill and Cheltenham

Network Church ran a family fun

day. They asked if we could help

by running some sports.

The idea was to

provide fun,

positive activities

for the community

at no cost. The

local churches

staffed various

stalls including

jewellery making,

face painting, a

BBQ, badge making, a prayer zone

and many more besides. We ran

sports for the afternoon with Trivolle

and football.

700 people attended the afternoon,

which was a great success. During

the afternoon, we played football

and chatted to a large number of

young people, including a good

number who

remembered

us from cage

football

lessons with

Nomad

earlier in the

term.

Supporting

the local

church in their mission is something

we are passionate about and it was

great to be able to help support this

initiative.

Family fun day

National Director From this term we have started

giving our youth work resources for

churches away for free. We are

looking to support the youth work

of churches and couldn’t think of a

better way of doing it than giving

away our resources.

Any church that supports our work

financially will be offered the

opportunity to receive one or more

of our resources via

www.yfcresources.co.uk

dependent upon the level of

financial support they give us. The

resources will remain free of

charge dependant upon the

continued support of the church.

Adam Legge, the Youth Worker at

C3 Cheltenham says “We believe

in the vision of YFC and having

their resources for free as a

partner church helps us to provide

good youth work without having to

create our own resources, giving

us more time to invest in our young

people.” We are glad to be able to

support the youth ministry of our

supporting churches. With a

constantly renewed curriculum the

YFC resources provide an

excellent resource that volunteers

and paid youth workers can benefit

from.

If you would like to find out if you

are eligible to receive the free

resources (worth up to £25 a

month) or would like to discuss

how your church can support our

work please email Paul using

paul@cheltenhamyfc.co.uk

Free Resources

With A Level results around the

corner, it is a stressful time for

many young people. It is also a

time where some young people

need to take more time out as

they consider their future. If you

know a young person who is

looking to take a year out to

serve God and have the chance

to be changed like Emmy,

Miriam and Michael then contact

paul@cheltenhamyfc.co.uk

Need a gap year?

Neil O’Boyle takes up the post of National Director

on 1st August 2015.

The Flat, The Pavilion, Hatherley Lane, Cheltenham. GL51 6PN office@cheltenhamyfc.co.uk 01242 524408 Charity Number 1059805

Ways to give

To make a one-off or regular donation to our ministry you can give via our Virgin Money Giving page. You

can also set up a fundraising page if you wish to do a sponsored event. Visit www.tinyurl.com/give2cyfc

cheltenhamyfc.blogspot.com facebook.com/cheltenhamyfc @cheltenhamyfc

The term finished with an assembly at Greatfield Park

Primary School. The school prayer group were giving the

Year 6 students an “It’s your move” book about moving on

to secondary school. We were asked to lead the school

assembly on the theme of change. This was our first

contact with the school and it is fair to say that we made an

impact! After a very noisy quick change dressing up game

we talked about change and how it can be challenging but

exciting. After school a member of staff said to a parent,

“That church group were great”.

Next year we are looking to do regular assemblies in a few

primary schools.

Greatfield Park

Upcoming Events

Weekly

9am Thursday Mornings

CYFC prayer meeting. All are

welcome to join the team to pray

for our work.

September

15th New YFC One

volunteers arrive

25th-27th Gorsley Chapel Church

Weekend

October

3rd YFC Commissioning

service Birmingham

City Church

5th Prayer For Schools

Network at Charlton

Kings Baptist Church

November

Auction date and venue to be

confirmed

Last term two of our trustees stepped down from their

roles. Sarah Stone has been a trustee for six years and

was our Secretary before becoming our Chair of Trustees.

Kath Warner was a trustee for two years but has decided

to step down due to a change of circumstances. We would

like to thank them for their service and contribution over

the years. The existing trustees have been joined by

Rachel Welch, who is our new chair and Kevin Rawson.

We are looking to add a few more trustees over the coming

months.

St. Catharine’s

At the end of June we were

supporting St. Catharine’s

Church Gloucester with the

centenary celebrations. They

put on an event for young

people, Uprising, at which we

helped and the also brought in

Happi, a YFC rapper based in

London, who performed to the

young people. It was wonderful

to support the church in their

celebration of 100 years of

mission as they looked forward

to another 100 years when they

hope to see a new generation

rise and make Jesus known to

their community.

lead it. It’s one of those prayers that God must have

heard because the young people that came blew away any

expectations I had. Each week one of them came with a

subject of thought that they wanted to discuss. In the first

session we talked a little about what faith is and what it

means to them. I showed the dictionary definition of faith

and it sparked debate from a young lad who would stretch

my personal faith each week he was there. This guy could

not move his body and was wheeled in each week. He

communicated through a computer that monitored his eye

movement for him to form sentences

and in turn processed these

movements into speech - ironically in

a very posh accent, which always

made me smile.

To hear their stories and perspective

on life certainly challenge

stereotypes. Together we raised our

expectations of what God can do

and I’ll admit my attitude has

changed because of the club. I feel

an appreciation for God, for the

young people at faith club that worshiped with all their

hearts and for Alice and Rachel that gave up their time to

serve and facilitate Faith Club.

Faith Club by Jon Bul l

Trustees leaving

Over the past four years, I’ve had the pleasure to work in a

number of schools running clubs and meeting some

interesting characters but I couldn’t have predicted the

impact that Faith Club at the National Star College would

have on me.

When I was asked to help run a faith club up at the college

I wasn’t sure if it was for me. It meant doing a club after

5pm and I have a family that I wanted to spend time with,

but if I’m honest, the thought of working with people with

disabilities made me feel uncomfortable. I had little

experience and knowledge of what it

would involve and I had questions

like ‘what happens if…’ and ‘how do

you communicate with someone that

can’t speak’ and ‘how will it work?’

After some prayer and talking it

through with my wife we agreed it

was the right thing to get involved

with and that it might be tough but

something that would stretch me.

My worries were taken away when I

met Alice (left) and Rachel (right)

from the National Star College who were also running the

club. We prayed together and discussed what our hopes

were for the club and how we wanted the young people to

The National Star College Faith Club team. Alice (Left), Jon and Rachel (right)