Meet the interns: Philippa

Philippa is a placement intern working with Christ Church Armley.

What are you involved in?

ChristChurch runs two community projects: the Youth Project runs various youth groups for Armley youth aged 8 upwards, whilst Meeting Point is a project supporting asylum seekers and refugees in the area, running a drop-in and advocacy support. I’m involved with both…I help run the drop-in for asylum seekers and refugees on a Monday, where they can come and chill-out, play pool, sit and chat, receive free food and clothes, and eat a hot meal. With the Youth Project I help with the 8-11s youth group and a girls group, where we organise games, crafts, and some more focussed activities for the girls!

On the Church side of things I help with the Church Youth Cell on a Sunday, I’m part of the pastoral team, and I lead a START course (similar to Alpha but simpler) for people from Meeting Point!

What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve learnt so far?

How generous people can be even when they have very little! Many of the people from Meeting Point who are seeking asylum or are refugees are so warm and friendly and so generous. Despite having endured many hardships they are full of smiles, and often people will refuse to take their allotted amount of free food from the food stall because ‘someone else needs it more than I do’. It really has driven home to me what Jesus said about “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt 19:24).

How has God been working in those around you?

At the beginning of November we had a Confirmation Service, where about 10-12 people were confirmed. A couple of them were young people from the youth cell, and the rest were people of various nationalities, many from Iran, who had come to Church through coming to Meeting Point. It was so encouraging to see how God was at work in bringing people to know Him, and how the faithful work…time… energy…prayers …of people in Christ Church had yielded fruit.

How has God been working in your life?

Over the last few months as I’ve been at Christ Church God has been shifting my opinions and perspectives on life. I started out with definite goals for the year, thinking that I was here this year to serve ChristChurch and God’s Kingdom here, and explore different areas of ministry in the Church. But perhaps what I think I’m here for is not the same as what God has me here for. Life isn’t a journey you can split up into nice little packages, and just move from one to the next. It’s continuous and always changing as we let God teach us and transform us. Success as the world sees it…achieving goals, affecting change, is not the same as success in God’s eyes. Success in God’s eyes is simply trusting in Him, and if all I achieve this year is to continue trusting in God, then that’s a successful year in my life.

To find out more about the internship at St George’s visit our website.

Networks Prepare for Christmas

The Networks met again on 18 Nov (Network Sunday) in various locations around the city and there are many stories of God at work as a result!  In the run up to Advent, Networks have also been preparing for Christmas.

Explorers had a fantastic morning of advent workshops. With over 40 yule logs decorated; “chocolate icing was everywhere showing just how much fun we had.”

 

50+ hosted a meal for ‘Caring for Life’.
“It was a relaxed evening, enjoying each others company, listening to live music and an inspiring talk from Peter Parkinson, founder of Caring for Life.”

 

Take Off enjoyed a great afternoon together after church on 25 Nov; a light lunch and mulled wine followed by hilarious attempts to convert six banana boxes into festive hampers!  “The idea followed on from a presentation our Network attended a year ago by Kidz Klub who inspired us to support their work, prayerfully and practically, and on this occasion making Christmas hampers to distribute to families in the run up to Christmas.  It was really good to spend time together, chat and have fun doing something practical and worthwhile. Six hampers were delivered to the Kidz Klub headquarters on Bridge Street that week!”

 

Transit decorated the Christmas tree in our Church.  “It was great fun with mince pies, Christmas donuts, mulled wine and Christmas songs! Everyone got involved.  The boys
insisted on climbing the ladders and put their lives in danger all for the cause of fixing the lights to the top of the tree!”

Find ou more about Networks at St George’s on our website.

 

Student and Young Adult Weekend Away

During the first weekend in November about 65 students and young adults from St George’s went to beautiful Edale in the Derbyshire countryside to spend quality time with each other and focus on God.

Millie Robinson, intern at St George’s and Network Leader of Hyde Park Students, said “We had a great time playing games, worshipping and learning how to be Citizens and Ambassadors of God’s Kingdom.  We had a really fun and fulfilling time together looking to God to grow us and equip us to go and live for Christ in our student lives.  We were privileged to be joined by some young adults from the church and just had a really blessed time building community and encouraging each other.”

Dan and Emily Tyler led a number of sessions over the weekend, as well as encouraging the group to take time out to reflect, chill out and build relationships.  The weekend impacted the lives of many students and young adults, who will hopefully impact those around them in Leeds.

A student from Internationals Network commented,“the best thing that happened to me was the first prayer I did on the weekend away. I started crying as soon as Joy said ‘Thank you God for bringing Cecilia to me’, it was so amazing and touching, and I had never felt God was close to me before.”

A young adult from Transit Network also joined in. “I did not know a great deal of people before the weekend and will admit feeling a little nervous. However I lifted up my worries in prayer and God truly delivered. I felt so welcomed and received, and blessed to be around so many amazing people. Not only that but it was an excellent chance to really meet with God. The Saturday night was very powerful for me and I left the weekend feeling refreshed, forgiven and amazed at God’s grace.”

To find out more about Student and Young Adult Networks at St George’s click here.

Photography by Chris Williams.

Roots Weekend: After

Roots spent the weekend in Cumbria at Blaithewaite house, involving lots of fun games, great teaching and lack of sleep!  The teaching was based on a poem called God Gazer.

• Being a God Gazer: knowing who God is.
• God as a Life Giver: knowing who we are within that
• Being a World Changer: where we go from there

What were the highlights of the weekend?

The whole weekend had the theme of TV, so we had game shows such as Eggheads, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and a very messy version of Get Your Own Back where Chris Balding’s team lost, leaving him to get covered in beans, breakfast leftovers, jelly and gravy. One young person said that “it was the best thing we have ever done at Roots.”

We also made adverts for Blaithwaite House! Getting the young people to be creative and produce some really funny, original videos.

“One of my favourite parts to the weekend was when we had to make the adverts – my team worked together surprisingly well and had loads of great ideas! They decided this was their favourite session of the weekend as they had great fun and were all very pleased with the end result and were consequently delighted when their video won” Chris, first time leader

We also had the traditional Roots Weekend Away game, Hunt the Leader; where the leaders risked pneumonia and hid in the grounds dressed as different TV Characters, waiting for young people to find them.

Some of the leaders also took it upon themselves to write a worship version of the song Call Me Maybe, which it is hoped will become a staple of Roots Worship… or it may have just been our sleep deprived brains that thought it sounded awesome!

Where was God working?

God worked through so much of it but particularly through the seminars we had, the talks and response times, we had one young person asking Jesus to come into their life.

One seminar was explaining what the Holy Spirit is and how it works, young people really felt the Holy Spirit’s presence, some of them for the first time. Another was on prophesy; the young people were interested in it and had been praying over each other in the week leading up to the weekend and writing encouragements and what God was saying to them.

“It really built new friendships between the young people that we hadn’t seen before, and also brought out a great sense of community between the leaders who came along, and between the leaders and the young people. It means that Roots is becoming a really safe space to share life. As for loving Leeds, in the World Changer session we introduced our plans for a Roots Mission Week in Cottingley, where we’ll be staying overnight together and showing God’s love to the people in that area over the Easter holidays.” Alice, leader of the prophecy seminar

To find out more about Roots visit the facebook page, to contact us and keep up with the latest news.

Photography by Chris Williams.

Hunting the leaders!

Dec/12: Mission Partners

Charles and Jocelyne Montagu

Charles’ work with Arab World Ministries reaches out to Arab countries via the Internet-based resources and email correspondence.

In a  recent prayer letter Charles shared with us some messages from correspondents from Syria and Saudi Arabia which demonstrate wonderfully how the Gospel is impacting on the lives of people in these Muslim countries.

Charles asks us to pray:

• For their websites and Media projects to bring a message of peace and hope in Jesus to the Arab world.
• For effective and helpful responses to those who write to us, and for the arrangement of personal follow up where possible.
• For more workers to help answer emails especially in Jordan, N Iraq and Sudan.
• For Hamid, a fairly new believer from Morocco and father of four daughters one of whom has recently come to faith, and for Andy (also from Morocco) whose mother is recovering from cancer surgery.
• Please also pray for Charles and Jocelyne that God will protect and uphold them and their family.

Bethlehem Centre, Romania

Visit the website for more info.

For the last few years St George’s Church members have joined other Christians from Leeds to serve on a project to support and encourage the work at the Bethlehem Centre in Hunedoara, Romania.

Ann Weir has recently spent a month there, working with the team at the Centre, providing pointers to help them work together most effectively.

Ann writes:  “It has been my privilege to work with the team and observe or participate in the different projects and church life.

There is an amazing team here, who daily serve in a demanding and costly situation. I trust I have loved and encouraged the team in what they are so faithfully doing.

These are exciting and challenging times, as the leadership understands their calling as leaders in these times and as the team as a whole work and grow together in love and support of each other.”

• Give thanks for Ann and Emi, now safely back and pray that God will use that visit to encourage and build the team at the Centre.  Pray especially for Corneliu and Diana who head up this work.
• Pray for Corneliu and Doro as they are now in Britain picking up shoe boxes from right across Britain, from as far North as Dundee to London.
• Pray also for the new Joseph Centre social action project in Mico 6 of the City

To find out more about mission partners at St George’s visit our website.

Dec/12: Thank you for

Answers to prayer…

1.  Weekend Away
… Alpha, Roots and Students have all spent a weekend away in November.  All weekends  went well and all returned home safely.

2.  Internationals Network
… The International students work is flourishing and people in the network want to be baptised!

3.  Network Sundays
… There have been some great stories out of Network Sunday and opportunities for Networks to grow.

4. Contemporary Carols
… We had more people than ever at St George’s on Sunday 2nd December for a very successful start to the run up to Christmas!

Dec/12: Pray for

Pray for…

St George’s Church to be joyful during this month. Pray for preachers, worship leaders and welcome teams!

Also pray for people to meet Jesus when they come to our Christmas services.  Pray for the presence and welcome of God to be felt at all the St G’s Christmas services.

Pray for the Wrangthorn Christmas services to draw in lots of new people.