Welcome Youth Weekend Away – an update

Last weekend, our amazing Youth team took 84 of our Welcome Youth to Runways End in Aldershot for a non-stop weekend of outdoor activities, teaching, craft, food, games, and worshipping God together.

Year 7–9 slept in dormitories in the main building (including the occasional vertigo-inducing triple bunk!) while Year 10–13 took the heated “camping pods” (more glamorous than they sound).

James, who heads up the youth team, says:

“Our memory verse for the weekend was,

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13)

“In the talks, we looked at the catastrophic results of The Fall, and how the whole of creation has come under a curse, facing guilt and shame, death, and separation from God; but then we saw the wonder of what Jesus did for us on the cross, reversing the curse by taking it on himself, taking our guilt and shame, taking our death sentence, and being separated from his Father, so that the curse could be lifted from us. Finally we looked ahead to the new creation still to come, where guilt and shame are gone, there will be no more death, and we will be in God’s presence for ever.

“That gave us plenty to thank God for, so we spent time together worshipping him for his goodness, and praising him for reversing the curse by sending Jesus!

Also we got big spiky hats and threw sausages at them.

Here are some pics to capture a few highlights from the time away

We love our Youth!

We love seeing them each Friday evening and Sunday morning, but the weekend away is a rare opportunity to spend an extended period of time together, forging deeper relationships, and going deeper in our walk with Jesus.

Highlights from the team

We asked the youth team to give us their individual highlights from the weekend. This is what came back:

  • Ruby: “Cassie squeezing into a tiny wooden box to explain the Temple”
  • David: “Youth who initially didn’t want to get their clothes muddy literally rolling around in the mud to steal a beanbag”
  • Ben: “Michael telling Euan to turn his alarm off”
  • Zac: “Going round bashing pots and pans to wake them all up”
  • Lucy: “Watching one of the Youth praying for another”
  • Chioma: “Arielle reciting the memory verse by heart, and then carrying on and reciting the bit we hadn’t even learnt”
  • Crispy: “Half of the youth not knowing how to put a new bin bag in a bin”

Thanks & Prayer

I want to say a big THANK YOU to our youth leaders for putting this event on, and for all the time and effort they put in to it. Parents, please do say your own thank you’s too

Let’s all be praying for good fruit to come from this time away together

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