The Parish Magazine April 2024

8 The Parish Magazine - April 2024
the parish noticeboard — 2
St Andrew's Youth
email or text me, Westy,
for ideas, a chat or to
encourage what we are doing
youthminister@sonningparish.org.uk
0794 622 4106
STAY Half Term Activities
RUSH: On Monday 12 February we took 25 of us
to Rush trampoline park in High Wycombe. It's a
warehouse full of trampolines, dodgeball arenas,
ninja warrior courses and a gladiator duel activity.
PANCAKE PARTY: The next day, 22 of us stuffed
our faces with pancakes at our annual pancake party
before many of us gave up things for Lent, such as
refined sugar, social media and fizzy drinks.
BOWLING: On Wednesday 14, a group of 11 went to
the Hollywood Bowling Alley for some awesome 10-
pin fun. We had PB scores set and lots of laughter as
some got zer0 even with the barriers up!
ICE SKATING: On Thursday 15 February, 25 of us
went to Planet Ice Rink in Basingstoke. Some took to
the ice like a duck to water while others clung onto
the side for dear life. Nonetheless, we had a great
time skating together and enjoying the exercise.
STAY on Sunday
Sunday 11 February: we joined with local councillor
Sam Akhtar for the Sonning Litter Pick. Each young
person was armed with a high vis jacket, a picker, and
a rubbish bag. Prizes were given for the best litter
picker, along with the weirdest thing found, smelliest
thing found, largest thing found and the oldest thing
found.
Sunday 25 February: We met in the main church
service to hear the testimony of one of the STAY
parents before heading to the upper room to discuss
what we had heard, and to answer some questions
the Oxford Diocese youth enabling team had asked
us to consider.
STAY on Monday
Monday 5 February: The weekly STIR card topic was
‘A Survival Expert’ so we watched some videos about
Bear Grylls. He spoke about how his faith at school
was shaken and he lost connection with God. But the
hopeful part was that he found it later in life again
and wants to live his life to the full. This encouraged
the young people to think about how they want to
live their lives.
Monday 19 February: ‘Self Conscious People’ was the
STIR topic this week so we watched a video of You Are
Special by Max Lucado. Punchinello was covered in
dots while others were covered in stars because they
let other people's opinions of them stick. Punchinello
met Lucia who didn’t have any dots or stars because
no one’s else opinion of her mattered but Eli’s, the
wood carver. He said she was special and unique so
only his opinion of her mattered. This is the same
with God. Only his opinion of us matters, not others,
whether good or bad.
STAY on Friday
We had a new record of young people during February
with 72 young people attending youth club. The
leaders made lots of comments during the debrief
about what a lovely atmosphere the youth club has
and how much they enjoy spending time with and
getting to know the young people.
As the nights get lighter we are excited to start
more outdoor games. Plus we have all the usual
consoles, games, sports, baking, crafts and wide
games. As always we meet in The Ark from 6.45-
8.15pm in term time, with the year 6s welcome to join
in on the fourth Friday of each month.
STAY in Schools
Our schools work has grow
Corinne going into all four
a week each. Our work cons
Christian Union, assemblie
lunch clubs, worship leader
support for teachers and st
The chaplaincy at Readin
lift and we’ve been given a n
students.
As part of ongoing traini
of visiting Wellington Colle
chaplaincy encouragement
from Adrian at Wellington,
ate some amazing curry fro