My YFC One Gap Year

Hello! To keep you all posted about my YFC One gap year, here is a blog that I will try to fill with photos, videos, links and what’s going on at Trafford Youth for Christ! Here’s a bit about what I’m doing: ~ A gap year with Youth for Christ, placed at a YFC centre about 30 minutes south-west of Manchester city centre ~ Delivering RE lessons in local schools ~ Receiving and responding to training in discipleship, theology, worship and youthwork ~ I also get opportunities to serve at my local church - People’s Church Partington - through some of their youthwork (community clubs, detached streetwork & school lunchtime groups) I'm totally excited about how the Lord is going to use this year so please stay in touch so you can see how it plays out with me! Thank you for your support & happy blogging, Hannah : ) TYFC website: http://traffordyfc.co.uk/ People’s Church website: http://www.peopleschurch.co.uk/

[thejoyfulblogger]

Happy Monday morning to you all! Last week for me was such a great example of how exciting God's kingdom is! I plan on updating you soon about it all when I have a chance, however this week is looking to be a crazy busy one; with church, I'm organising a session for a group of new Christian girls (woop woop!!) and then a lunch club group (the first where I'm going to be the only leader there). With TYFC, I'm helping deliver RE lessons from Weds to Fri and then running our 10K fundraiser on Sunday. And this is on top of all my usual meetings, youth groups, detached streetwork sessions, office admin etc. This may sound like loads or a little to you, but for me it feels a bit daunting & so I would love to be supported by your prayers this week. Thank you, lovely people, and I hope this week brings you much joy, challenge & hope. Hannah x PS: if you haven't received an email from me in the past week about my spring newsletter and you would like one, please email me at [email protected].

[thejoyfulblogger]

So on Friday - after our school lunchclub - a member of staff stopped us in the middle of the corridor to praise us on our “amazing” photo badge selfies that she had seen on the sign-in screen at reception! Matt and I couldn’t stop laughing - we felt like local celebrities!!

[thejoyfulblogger]

Today I spent my afternoon being interviewed about what YFC One has been like for me...at the lovely Costa...in the beautiful sun! What a great day! Topped off with a positive night doing detached work; bring on tomorrow!!

[thejoyfulblogger]

Beautiful blossom, clouds that are each wondrous works of art & the light, graceful chirping of birds; Partington is stunning tonight - I love it! (I do not love, however, my huge lack of blog posts in the past 3 months... I will wholeheartedly aim to keep you updated here on in!) Joyful blogging x

[thejoyfulblogger]

So here’s an update of my past couple of weeks:

Returning back to Trafford after the holidays/YFC conf has been so smooth - a much better start compared to September in terms of stress! I’m so glad that YFC conference didn’t just excite me but God truly used it to refresh, re-focus and impassion me. Around this time last year I would have been returning to school, wrought with nerves and fear over ensuring I performed the best academically possible in my mock exams and filled with dread about the next 5 months of gruelling self-pressure. I’m stunned a year later that the Spirit has transformed me and blessed me with work I cannot wait to get back to. Work that satisfies, challenges, stuns and encourages me. I haven’t felt this confident and joyful about my future before - I’m so thankful to the Lord right now!! (I’m also very thankful for the snow we had in Partington last week - it was so pretty and FUN!)

On another good note: I sent off my UCAS university application well in advance of the deadline and I’m at complete peace about it all. For those who don’t know: I’ve applied to university to do theology & religion (yes, I changed my degree choice from biology!) so that I have the option of going, but I’m holding out for God to show me where He wants me next year, whether that’s a second gap year, university or something completely different!

The picture of Big Ben above is from when Roberto & I joined the southern YFC One hub training session in London last Tuesday. (We are normally in the northern hub in Birmingham.) I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with the group, plus a day in my fave city is always a day well spent! It also has to be said that our first class experience on the Virgin fast train into London was incredible - free breakfast, unlimited hot beverages and leg room a-plenty to name a few highlights.

In terms of actual youthwork, in Partington we are starting several new activities for the young people. Therefore, I would totally appreciate your prayers for our teenage girl home group (called Girls’ Night In), year 8 girls’ session (called 3:15) and Saturday morning coffee shop chat group, which have all been started after Christmas. As for my work with TYFC, I’m really eager to get back into local schoolswork and planning the big events we have coming up. Again, please pray into these - we have a quiz night & auction fundraiser (Sat 6th Feb) and a youth trip to Alton Towers (Sat 19th March).

Finally, I’ve just today returned from this terms YFC One worship residential. This is my second one so far and they have definitely been among the most significant experiences during my gap year. I love learning with this group of leaders, pursuing God & His kingdom and enjoying very competitive (sometimes violent) games of Irish snap!

What a couple of weeks, eh?!

[thejoyfulblogger]

Last week was our Youth For Christ conference - a great time with the wider British and International YFC family. It was full of seminars, competitive card games and exploring the fresh YFC vision with the new National Director, Neil O’Boyle.

I loved going through the theme of ‘contemporary holiness’, particularly in the morning sessions when we had Krish Kandiah unpack Ephesians. He offered such an insight on how we can be relevantly interacting with our youth, whilst remaining set apart for God.

I’ve left YFC Conf feeling so refreshed, inspired and equipped to go back to my placement with confidence that Jesus is already here in Partington, and that He can work through me to show the youth the truth and magnificence of the Father.

[thejoyfulblogger]

It’s nearly been 2 weeks since we (People’s Church Partington) held our Christmas Fun Day & so here are some photos to give you a flavour of what things we had in store for those who came. We also had Frozen’s Elsa & Anna pay us a visit, real reindeer come along and many, many hot-dogs to give out!

Around 800 members of the Partington community came and were blessed, all for free! It was an incredible day & I loved being able to see how much of an impact PCP has on the local community.

[thejoyfulblogger]

My Christmas newsletter is coming together well... Here's a sneak-peak!! Look out for when I'll be asking for email addresses of those who would like to receive one!

[thejoyfulblogger]

An incredible Saturday evening at Big Church Night In with Matt Redman & Kari Jobe!

[thejoyfulblogger]

Sorry for my long silence! I've had an afternoon off today so here’s a quick update of what I’ve been up to recently:

We’ve just finished 2 teaching weeks at Wellington School, where we’ve been giving 3 different lessons on suffering, friendship and fact/faith/belief to the years 7, 8 & 9. This has been our third school we’ve taught at so far & I’ve found I really enjoy leading a different style of lesson for the students about great, engaging topics. In fact, last week we had a young boy ask about whether God could compete with what science was saying about the ‘big bang’ theory. We were able to let him (and the rest of the class) know what our thoughts were, and he seemed really receptive. This just reminded me how exciting it is that schools are giving us this platform to teach from and the things we teach can have such an impact!

In terms of my work with People’s Church, we’re planning a free, Christmas fun day for local families to enjoy and it's going to be a right treat! Real reindeer, craft markets, a Frozen world - I’m really hoping as many of the community as possible will come to have a great afternoon out with us.

Hopefully that’s given you a small flavour about what’s happening with me at the moment. Enjoy your weekend!

Hannah x

PS: this is our first complete team photo, so here is (from left to right) Matt (the TYFC schools-worker), Hannah (a part-time volunteer - yes, TWO Hannahs!), Roberto (another YFC One gap-yearer), me! and Dave (the TYFC centre director).

[thejoyfulblogger]

Post Sixth Form group selfie! #ItsBeenAGreatNight #LoadsaLoveForCCYouth

[thejoyfulblogger]

*Laaahhving* my first 1st class experience on the train home ; ) Bedford, here I come!

[thejoyfulblogger]

This is becoming frustratingly common: it tipping it down whenever I am travelling with loads of luggage - grrr. On the flip-side, it could just be that Partington is sad to see me leave each time!

[thejoyfulblogger]

Great memories made every time I stay here!

[thejoyfulblogger]

My day so far: travelling to London for a national Eden team res... apparently getting up at 4.30am means "quirky" selfies are a must!

[thejoyfulblogger]

A fab memory from 'hub' training day this week in Birmingham (This is our fortnightly dig into all things youthwork & theological with the northern YFC Oners)

[thejoyfulblogger]

And here is the beautiful vid from YFC Commish...

PS: see if you recognize the voice-over at the end!