We love bringing you stories from all over England and Wales, sharing encouragements from the churches, projects and Faith Guides and you support. But these are often just snapshots of the day-to-day adventures that continue all year round. With this in mind, we have picked a few of the stories we’ve featured this year to celebrate over again and find out how things are going as the projects progress.
This week, we travel back to the North East where a team from King’s Church Durham were starting a regular programme of ‘mission through sport’ focussing on connecting with young people on the local estate. They were running after school sessions for around ten young people on a regular basis and had made contact with over 40 from the local area.
Faith Guides Joel and Leonie shared some of the story, ‘It was really hard to start with – the kids were very unruly and didn’t listen to a word we said! But Sarah (from the SU sports team) said that this showed just how much they needed Jesus and positive role models in their lives. SU’s training and her advice really helped us manage the situation and things started to settle down.'
The turning point came when one child quarrelled with another and trudged off, but quickly returned after seeing what they perceived as a threatening figure on the streets. So, after the session, the mission leaders walked every one of the children home.
‘They realised we really cared about them,’ says Leonie. ‘One younger boy who used to get into fights has become much calmer and has a much better relationship with the other kids now. He’s started praying too! And the older kids are asking questions about faith – why we believe in Jesus, whether Jesus came back to life, who made God.’
We left them asking what might be next for the group, and wondering how to provide more opportunities for these young people.
Sarah Bowey, SU Sports Mission Pioneer has remained involved in this project as the year has gone on. Her update is so encouraging, ‘The kids are now actively listening and exploring on a deeper level. The relationship with the kids is such a God thing - sometimes it takes you by surprise how much they listen, respect and are thankful for us going out.
‘We started HUDDLE at the beginning of this year, to start with it was only the team leaders joining in and then one week two kids joined and just yesterday we had about 12 kids in HUDDLE, engaging in prayer in some way thanking God for sport, friendship and, as one boy said, "life" ...even some kids on the outskirts of the HUDDLE shouted out Amen!’
They have also seen more young leaders get stuck in developing their skills. ‘We have three new students now involved in the team, as some of the original team have moved on. The new team are so good and it is exciting to see the opportunity to train and support more new young leaders!’
And despite the cold weather setting in, Sarah says the group are determined to keep going. ‘As this winter hits, we now have floodlights to keep going out throughout the dark nights!’
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