Partner Update

Recently we were contacted by a parent

Recently a Mum spoke to us after a Bridge session when she realised that we also play an important role in secondary schools.

“Ah you’re the guys who run doughnut day! My son really struggled with school to start with, he was surviving not thriving, but through doughnut day he’s made some really lovely friends, it was a real game-changer for him. It’s actually one of the reasons I felt comfortable sending my younger son to Oldbury because I knew there was that kind of support.”

An update from Louise about supporting students

In the Autumn I started a 6-week rolling course for students in Oldbury wells, mainly yr8 and yr9 girls at the moment but in the future, I’m hoping to do the same for the boys.

The course is designed to look at relationships and resilience within the ups and downs of the different relationships we have in our lives. We have looked at, relationship goals, challenges, personal values and character.

I have just come to the end of the first course and feel that it has been a real success, I have this time done it with 4 yr8 girls and 6 yr9 girls. The girls that were given to me are from different social groups but have really bonded together and have all thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so they’ve not wanted to stop meeting.

My yr9 girls have set up a WhatsApp group so they can be continued support to each other when we are no longer meeting.

From talking to the school, they seem to be pleased with how the sessions have run, and I will be starting two new 6 weeks courses for a new group of girls.

Stir Gathering is gaining momentum

In the past 18 months we've hosted a number of Stir Gatherings but since September Stir Gathering has become a real expression of worship and teaching for young people in the town, and area. Please do pray for all the young people who are attending, and please pray that more will come.

Our hope is that these gatherings will be a place where young people can grow. We'll also take young people from here, The Bridge and the Stir Groups to Spree West Midlands. So far we have 7 young people booked on for this year. Please pray that more book on in the coming weeks.

And now for something completely new

This image might be completely new to you, but it is in fact ours! In the past year John has been writing a gospel focussed young reader novel. We're going to be using it this term in some primary schools and if you'd like to know more about it, we'd love you to click here and read his blog about it.

This is a paragraph from the blog post.

"About eighteen months ago, I was mulling over new projects, and I found myself writing the outline to a fictional story. The story would need to follow the biblical narrative closely enough to be able to be used by evangelists like me. But it needed to be exciting, it needed to explain why Jesus had to die, and why we need a saviour. It also needed to be visually stunning."