CLiKS Newsletter
Transcription
CLiKS Newsletter
SPECIAL THANKS From Alison: Sarah Liddell for being undaunted by any task and her (unhealthy) willingness to be gunged Henry Pettinger for all his support Jo Wright for her creativity, humour, wisdom and cups of tea From Miriam: Claire Voss for all the ways she has supported the work of CLiKS. I could not have done it without her. Angie, Charlotte and Demi at Hainworth Wood Girls’ Group for their dedication to supporting the young girls of South Keighley. They are the dream team! Everyone at Worth Valley Primary School for welcoming me into the family. I will miss you all! From Steve: Judith Bland for her great story telling skills and her servant attitude at all the events she attends. Moz for his unstoppable enthusiasm and commitment to young people across the area and for being a great role model to all he meets. Kathy Hughes for her commitment to X:site, for her support, encouragement and hard work as she seeks to enthuse others to be involved in the event. July 2011 Christian Links in Keighley Schools Reg. Charity no: 1114284 Reg. Company no: 7411554 Volunteer and supporter special “I first decided to get involved with CLiKS after reading a newsletter. I noticed Alison was asking for volunteers. I had been working with the young children in my local church and I felt it was important to help the children. In the sessions I had to lead a small group of children through some of the activities on offer. The session was all about Easter so we had the children planting bulbs and then decorating their plant pots. Then the children were given little booklets crammed full of puzzles and facts about Easter. I helped the children to read through the story and do the puzzles. Being able to share my faith with the children and letting them know how much they are loved was a great experience. I could see the joy that the children were receiving from this event, and watching them interacting and having fun was worth volunteering” - Marie, group leader at REWIND, from Worth Valley Church “Hi I'm Joseph, I'm 15, and I'm part of the junior team at X:site Keighley. At X:site the kids (and team) learn about various bible stories relating to a yearly theme. This year it was the ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus. We do this through leading them in games, crafts and reading the bible. I really enjoy sharing my faith with the kids as I know from being on the other side how great it is”- Joseph, Junior Team at X:site, from St Mark’s Church, Utley Prayer Points • • • • Thank God for a good and productive (if long and hard) year Please pray for Steve as he settles into his new role and leads the X:site National Holiday this summer Please pray that the school staff in the Keighley area have a good holiday and a rest from planning and marking Please pray for the children of this area who are going through transition and other changes • Please pray for Miriam as moves to Merseyside and begins her new job • Please pray for our volunteers who will be leaving to move on to new things • Please pray for Alison as she moves house • Praise God that he gives us time to rest, enjoy life, be with family and friends, and reflect “We feel it is a privilege to take part in both Fast Forward and REWIND to Christmas & Easter even though we only do the "low profile" stuff, i.e. welcoming the pupils & teachers and making tea & coffee. It’s wonderful to see the pupils’ enthusiasm when taking part in quizzes etc., shouting out the answers with gusto and obviously enjoying it. They also thoroughly enjoy the workshop part as they make their "works of art" in the various groups. The teachers enjoy being looked after for the session with tea/coffee & biscuits available at all times and can relax by being able to leave the kids in total safety. They too appear to enjoy seeing the kids having fun in a relaxed atmosphere” - Dudley and Moira, Support Team for REWIND and Fast Forward events, from St Mark’s Church, Utley Contact: Alison Way CLiKS Schools Worker 25 Bridge Street, Oakworth, Keighley BD22 7PX T: 07806 869569 E: [email protected] Web: www.cliks.org.uk Many thanks to Bev and Paula at the Copy Shop for doing a brilliant job with printing all our postcards and newsletters! My first experience of the CLiKS team in action was through my eldest son. I collected him from the X:site event at Keighley Shared Church and he was absolutely buzzing. He loved it. That was just about as much involvement as I could muster right then - 2 other younger children and busy lives etc etc. Somehow though, after volunteering to help on the team for Boing! when it was in its embryo stages, I ended up on the core planning team and that was that! It’s such great fun and I get to find my inner 7 year old all over again with planning and taking part in games, silly dances and lots of messy stuff. Oh yeah there’s stickers too, you’re never to old for stickers! So Boing! has now managed a full school year of events and hopefully will continue to grow and offer more KS1 children an opportunity to meet with Jesus from September. I also attend and help to run the family tea time service at St. James’s Church Crossroads. Attracting up to 14/15 primary school aged children plus their parents and carers, it’s a lively, friendly group which loosely follows the church calendar in it’s games, activities and crafts each week during term time. What really makes both of these events special though is the true sense of community and congregation you experience amongst everyone involved —Jo, Boing! core team and Good Friday leader, from St Mary’s Church Oxenhope From Miriam: Wow what a year it has been. When I look back over all that has happened I cannot help but smile. Particular highlights have to be golfing with the girls at Hainworth Wood Girls’ Group, going to Scarborough with Worth Valley Primary School, seeing growth at Messy Church and watching the development of the girls at Sophia. In the last newsletter you may remember that I mentioned I would be leaving in the summer. At the point of writing May’s newsletter I did not have further employment to go to. However, I am extremely happy to report that I have a new job! I am moving to Merseyside at the end of July to work in a high school as their Chaplain. I will be responsible for the school’s collective worship, developing the spiritual life of the school, pastoral support and co-ordinating the school’s charity work. I am really sad to be leaving Keighley but I am excited about my new opportunity. I just hope they can understand my Yorkshire accent over there ha! I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone who has played a part in my work and life in Keighley. You are fantastic and I will miss you all. “I have been privileged to have been involved with CLiKS since its inception five years ago; taking part in many events including X:site, the X:site holiday, Fast forward, REWIND and Reality. Serving with CLiKS is a fantastic experience. Not only has it enabled me to serve God and given me great experiences for my CV, but, without exception, I have also found worshipping our awesome God with young people to be an incredibly humbling and rewarding experience, of as much benefit to my faith as theirs! I am continually taken aback by the depths even young children can go into their faith as we learn together. If you've never experienced worshipping, serving and learning together with young people then I cannot recommend it highly enough. There are roles to suit everyone and I know your faith will benefit from being a part of the CLiKS team” - Moz, group leader at Reality & X:site, Support Team & Junior Team Leader for X:site National Holiday, from Airedale Church From Alison: this year seems to flown by so quickly! I have now been in Keighley for 3 years (and have moved 3 times!) I’ve really enjoyed X:site this year, seeing the children having lots of fun and thinking deeply about their faith; being part of Good Friday and helping in Year 6 at Ingrow Primary. This issue of the CLiKS newsletter is a big THANK YOU to all our volunteers and supporters, as well as all the school and community centre staff we work with. Without you we could not do such brilliant work with the young people of Keighley! This summer I will be moving house (again!) and going on the X:site National Holiday. (Please look out for my new postal address) “hi my name is Helen and I am a retired foster parent. I am currently on the team of our after school group at Christ Church Oakworth called WOT, which means Worship on Thursday. We take it in turns to arrange a short worship and story time with an activity that reflects the story. I sometimes struggle with the activity but there are lots of resources on the internet. Our group is mainly boys around 6 to 8 with a couple of toddlers and a couple of girls. It is a very lively session so I’m glad that we are a team of four or five. I really do enjoy WOT and hope the children do too” - Helen, leader at WOT, from Christ Church Oakworth “I was surprised and pleased to be asked to be a Trustee of CLiKS in March 2010. I had worked as a volunteer at REWIND for several years, and had also helped with the early X:site events in Leeds. What drew me to CLiKS? My wife, Pat, had run Christian youth events at local schools and churches in Micklethwaite and Crossflatts, with the assistance of Scripture Union, from the late 1990’s. I helped at many of these, and was inspired by her work to volunteer for REWIND. My other main reason for volunteering was my desire to make positive connections between Christians and young people from other faiths (or in many cases no faith). With the mixture of white and Asian children at REWIND events in Keighley, the need to make their experience of Church and Christianity, and one another, a positive one, is a key reason for my support of CLiKS. What do we do as Trustees? We have to make sure that the work of CLiKS follows the objects set out in our Trust Deed, ‘To advance the Christian Religion for the benefit of the public in Keighley and district , in partnership with local churches and others, amongst children, young people and families’. Our vision is to facilitate a Christian presence in every school in our area. This includes fundraising, making sure that our school workers, Alison and Miriam, are directed and supported, providing resources to achieve our aims, and making sure that we spend our funds properly. I have found the Trustees to be very committed, conscientious and supportive in their work, and I believe that we are all keen to develop a strong feeling of teamwork” Bill, CLiKS Trustee, from Aire Valley Church From Steve: A whole load of words to sum up my year... snow, conferences, encounter, sabbatical, regenerate, reality, running, X:site, Awesome!, future faithful, mentoring, UAK, challenge, curry, would you like a cup of tea? I have recently started my new post as Diocesan Children's and Young People's Adviser. I am based at Kadugli House in Steeton and I am looking forward to meeting new people and working alongside children's and youth workers across the diocese and helping the diocese work towards every child and young person having a life-enhancing encounter with the Church and with the Christian faith.