Blog Roll - CICS News

Update on Schools Work

Assemblies
We have been able to present another week of assemblies at Rastrick High School the week commencing 29th January. We looked at the subject of making excuses and encouraged students to become slow at making excuses and quick to take responsibility for their own actions.

The week commencing 5th February we were invited to lead a week of assemblies at The Brooksbank School, Elland. We used the 'Puma/Adidas' story to look at the topic of friendship. This was an excellent opportunity for the profile of CICS to be significantly raised in this school as we were also delivering RE lessons in the school this week. We were very well received in the school, who showed us great hospitality throughout the week.

Forthcoming Assemblies:

• Rastrick Assemblies w/c 19th March
• Crossley Heath - We will be leading the year 9,10 & 11 Assemblies in the w/c 5th March
• Rock Solid will be taking Easter Assemblies at Brighouse High School w/c 26th March
• We are continuing to try to raise awareness with schools that we are able and willing to lead assemblies.

Lessons
'What is a Christian? - We spent 2 weeks at Brooksbank School delivering this session to 10 year 7 classes. The students really enjoyed this participative lesson and I'm sure there will be further openings for us in this school. We are currently in the process of delivering this session to 8 year 7 classes at Hipperholme & Lightcliffe High School.

Christians and Poverty - We have been asked to give some input to a 2 hour session on the subject of poverty for a year 10 group at Brooksbank. Comic Relief is just 2 days after this session. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate what Christians believe about the outworking of their faith.

Morality - We have also been asked to take a year 11 session at Brooksbank on the subject of moral decision making. We will look at the Christian perspective on this issue.

Faith Day - We will also be having discussions with the head of 6th form at this school with a view to CICS having some kind of input at their 6th form faith day.

Lunch Clubs
The lunch clubs that are running include:

• Holy Trinity - one on Monday and one on Wednesday. Tony tends to lead one and Heather leads the other. Monday's group continues to be very well attended and cannot be run unless both Heather and Tony are present. We have recently taken the decision to run a youth alpha course with this group. Whilst the numbers have initially dropped we feel that those who are still attending are gaining more from the group.
• Calder High School - led by James (vicar at Daphne's Church) - Tony will be working on attending this more frequently over the next two terms. This is difficult to attend unless cover can be found for the Monday group at Holy Trinity.
• Hipperholme and Lightcliffe - Both of these groups have experienced a decline in numbers recently. Please pray that we will be able to continue the work at this school.
• Brighouse - Lorna and Steve Bowers run this club and invite Tony to lead a session occasionally.
• Rastrick - on Friday. Tony gets to this as often as possible. It is led by Mark Stephenson and John Bouckley. We will be working through the 10 Commandments with this group until the Easter holidays.
• North Halifax Grammar - Praise God for answers to pray with regards to getting involved in this group. There is already a core group of 6-8 'churched' young people attending this group. We are working towards running a youth alpha course at the school with the intention of the young people inviting their friends o attend.
• Brooksbank - We will be launching a CU at Brooksbank on Thursday 8th March. The school have been really helpful in the setting up of this group supplying a room, helping with the publicity and a Christian member of staff is willing to come in on her day off to assist with the group.
  

Update Re: Other Schools

• Crossley Heath - As detailed above we have been booked to lead assemblies here. We have also been given the green light in terms of running a lunchtime club. Tony is waiting for David Sharpe to get in touch to finalise the details of this group. Tony will make sure he speaks to David when he is in the school this week.
• Sowerby Bridge - Tony is trying to contact the RE teacher he met at the school when he had a tour recently. There is potential for a church visit and helping out with the RE lessons at the school in the future. We already have a volunteer in place to help to run a CU and a couple of members of staff have approached me about helping to get a group going.

Training for Volunteers
Scripture Union held a training day for Children's & Youth Workers at Oakes Baptist Church, Huddersfield on Saturday 24th February. Tony has been involved in the planning and promoting of this event. He lead two seminars at the event, one was age specific: working with 14-18's and the other was reaching young people beyond the church - exploring church links. The whole day was well received by the 58 people that booked and attended. Bob Hartman was excellent and the other seminars were well received and feedback from those who attended suggests they were useful for their ministry.

After liaising with the trust I offered places to some of our volunteers with CICS offering to pay their booking fee. Unfortunately only one of our volunteers was able to take the offer and attend the training day. He (Sam who helps at Rastrick's Rock Solid) found the training day very useful.

The overall take up for the day was less than anticipated and Scripture Union has made a £187.00 financial loss.

3. Church Presentations

Tony has arranged visits to the following churches;
18th Mar - Brighouse Evangelical Youth Service
4th May - St. Matthew's Men's Group (Northowram)
17th June - St. Andrew's

We are also waiting to confirm dates with Christ Church, Pellon & 'The New Beginnings Centre'

Tony was also booked in at short notice to speak at a recent joint baptismal service held at Halifax Elim Church. This was a joint service with Halifax Central Church. 9 people in total were baptised with 3 of them being young people who go to Holy Trinity. There first real contact with Christianity was through attending the CU at Holy Trinity. This was an awesome evening.

We also had the opportunity recently to promote our work at The King's Church. This was very well received by the church who was encouraged to hear about the work we are involved in.

4. Other Events
XV - God is really moving in this area. I'm a little out of the loop as I've missed the last few planning meetings. There has been a wonderful core group established containing a diverse mix of people who are united by their desire to serve young people in this area.

The first XV youth congregation will be held at The King's Church on the 20th April.

As I'm sure you are all aware we are hosting the HOPE 2007 tour with appearances form LZ7, thebandwithnoname & Blush at The Victoria Theatre on the 20th May. We aim to be instrumental in the publicising of this event. We need to sell in excess of 1100 tickets to young people in this district and beyond.

X:sport unfortunately it is not feasible to run an event this year. However, Tony will look at the possibility of being involved in the event running in Bradford 23rd - 25th July. There may also be opportunity to offer places to young people that Tony has regular contact with in Calderdale.

5. Links with SU
Su Training Event - Mentioned above

SU Holiday - The en:gage holiday was a real success with 25 young people attending the holiday. I was apprehensive about the holiday before hand because of the age group. I found that I adjusted very well to the age group and felt that I was able to contribute a great deal to the team. This was great experience for me of an SU holiday and it would be great to be involved in a similar holiday in the future that is attended by young people from some of the CU's that we run!

The work of CICS continues to steadily grow and new opportunities seem to be arising o a regular basis. I believe we currently offer a great deal to the schools and there is real opportunity for our work to expand further. It is important at this stage that we are careful about the extra work we take on. We must be protective over the quality of the work we deliver and focus on maintaining quality in this season. Please pray as we seek to follow God's will for this work.