The Parish Magazine December 2024

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8 The Parish Magazine — December 2024 the parish noticeboard — 2 St Andrew's Youth Westy email or text me, Westy, for ideas, a chat or to encourage what we are doing: youthminister@sonningparish.org.uk 0794 622 4106 STAY in October Half Term During half term we invited all the local young people for four days of fun: a scavenger hunt around Sonning, a ‘Give Back’ day of food bank shopping, a day at Thorpe Park and a light party. The scavenger hunt saw five teams working out 30 clues around Sonning village. There were prizes for quickest time and most clues found. One young person said: 'That was amazing, we had so much fun, please can we do it again.' We also took 10 young people to buy food for families who are less well off. This feels like such an honour to be able to do. One day, the young people chose to go to Thorpe Park — it's like it’s my second home! And we ended the week with a light party celebrating Jesus being the light of the world — darkness cannot overcome light STAY for Youth Alpha Youth Alpha is a course that introduces the Christian faith as some young people prepare for baptism and confirmation in November. It runs on Friday nights after youth club. Many of the young people asked deep questions about life and faith. Many of them hadn’t read the Bible so we bought them one each and the young people found it to be a safe space to think and ponder some of life’s big questions with their friends. STAY on Friday Our weekly STAY on Friday youth club continues to be a fun and safe space for teenagers to gather and enjoy their Friday evenings. We continue to have new young people joining each week for our weekly ‘term time only’ youth club that runs all year. On the fourth Friday we welcome year 6’s to help with their transition to year 7. We have lots of games, sports, crafts, baking, consoles, board games and more. We always end with a final thought where everyone stops to think about a deeper question in life. STAY on Sunday STAY on Sunday youth group now meets every Sunday at 10.30am in The Ark, apart from the first Sunday of each month when we all gather in the main church for our family service. We follow a pattern each month of: 1st Sunday — Family Service 2nd Sunday — Faith and videos in The Ark 3rd Sunday — Big games in The Ark 4th Sunday — Card games in the Bull Inn 5th Sunday — Faith and videos in The Ark STAY on Monday We love meeting every other Monday in the homes of the young people for games, conversations and deepening our faith through using STIR cards. The among us game continues to be a popular choice. Who knew? STAY in Schools We have also continued our schools work in the four local schools, through assemblies, prayer meetings, a Christian Union, mentoring and our brand new lunch club at Piggott WI. It is a safe space for students to bring any questions or thoughts they might have. We had 25 year 8’s come along the first week and had a wonderful time talking about life after death and our purpose as humans. 135 DECEMBER 2O24.indd 8 13/11/2024 10:14:52
Lights shining in the dark! Corinne writes: October was filled with so much light! It brought daylight savings, the weather has felt chillier, and with the clocks changing, the days have grown shorter. With that said, there has been so much goodness and light that it has felt easy to be filled with joy. One of my favourite Bible passages is John 1:5 'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.' I love the idea that even in the darkest of times, hope is always an option, and for Christians, so is our faith. There have been many things to be grateful for, including our time spent together in Sunday Club. On the second Sunday of the month, we talked about what it means to have a rich life, one where we are grateful and humble and live life to the fullest. We talked about how richness can come from doing things we love and being with people we love, and when we have an abundance, that is when we are called to give to others and support our community. SPEECHLESS On the theme of richness, we made a very rich chocolate dessert with a topping of chocolate biscuits and chocolate gold coins. Any snack or treat is always a hit! Then, on the fourth Sunday of the month, we read a passage in which Jesus healed a blind man. We had a fantastic discussion comparing Jesus's guidance and love like a pair of glasses, giving us clarity and a tool in which to live our own lives. The children were so insightful it actually left me and the other adults speechless. It is so beautiful to see their minds learn and grow! After our conversation we took turns playing a puzzle game in which one person was blindfolded and the rest guided the blindfolded person through a maze of red and green coloured paper, guiding them to get from one end of the maze to the other, making sure the person only stepped on the green pieces of paper. GLOWING LIGHTS At Messy Church, our theme was 'Light for the World' and we had many crafts and activities focussing on light. One of the children's favourite activities was creating their own lanterns with windows cut of the cardboard and then decorating them with coloured tissue paper. We loved seeing the colours shine brightly, lit up by battery-powered LED tea light candles. On the last day of October we also had our first annual children's light party, in which we all gathered in and around The Ark, decorated with brightly glowing lights. The Parish Magazine — December 2024 9 Corinne We talked about how Halloween is an opportunity to all come together and have some fun, but that instead of focussing on the dark and spooky nature of Halloween, we could celebrate all together at a light party and focus instead on the goodness and light in the world. We had lots of fun with competitions such as relay races, handless doughnut eating contests, apple bobbing, the flour game (in which you try not to let a chocolate fall into a pile of flour), as well as decorating our faces with face paint, creating some candle holders, and enjoying hot chocolates with squirty cream. Seeing the young people's faces light up with so much joy truly brought light into this dark time of year. 135 DECEMBER 2O24.indd 9 13/11/2024 10:14:56
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