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 Hi everyone!
I have now been in Kidderminster just over a month. Thankyou for praying for me during this period I really appreciate it. I have found out that prayer makes a lot of difference. I am staying with a family of seven who are very friendly. It was good having other young people around when I first started. However there are only three other people in the house now due to family members either going to University or boarding school. The Parish that I'm working in consists of three Churches called St Georges, St Cecilia's and St Chad's. I work at all three Churches during the week and the Church that I am based at on Sundays is St Cecilia's. The congregation sizes at the Churches are a lot smaller than at Knowle Church. The people at the Churches are friendly, however there aren't many young people. It would be great if you could prayer that I find some more people my own age in Kidderminster to be friends with.
Well each week I do a range of different activities. These include working with Toddler, Children's, Teenage and Elderly groups as well as doing planning and home visiting. Although the groups are always on at the same time every week, each week turns out very different. The main thing to pray about with the toddler groups is for the recovery of one of the key leaders who had a heart attack last summer. She is a very inspirational person and her presence is missed. With the Children's groups it would be great if you could prayer for more children to come to St Cecilia's Church on Sunday mornings. The attendance at the moment is low and I believe that there is potential for more children to come to the services from the surrounding estates. On Thursdays we go into place Spennels School to do games and Christian activities. Please prayer that the children continue to enjoy this session and that they decide to come to the church groups on Sundays as well. Also prayer for the Jubilee club which meets on Thursdays. The attendance has been good so far this year, but there have been a few behaviour problems. Hopefully children will be able to come to the club and have fun and also learn about Jesus. The two teenage groups that run in the Parish at the moment are Pathfinders on Tuesday nights, which is for 10-14 year olds and CYFA on Sunday nights for 14-18 year olds. Pathfinders is always energetic and lots of fun and each week a different activity is done. So far we have had a movie night, had a quiz, gone swimming and also had a harvest special. Hopefully the teenagers will keep having fun while also benefiting from being in a Christian environment. At CYFA we are studying one of my favourite books which is Job. The book was a winner of a poll, which also included the book of Mark, Acts and Hosea. A rota is followed so that a different person leads the study each week. The three people on the rota are Nick Barker, Hugh Burton (the two vicars) and me. Prayer that the person leading the group each week will be able to really get Gods message across. So far the studies have been really successful. Young at Heart meets on Wednesday afternoons at St Cecilia's Church and as the name suggests the people are young hearted. Quite a lot of the people who go to the group don't go to Church. Prayer that they will be inspired by the Christian atmosphere at Young at Heart and that they will go to the Sunday service at St Cecilia's as well.
While six people from Knowle Church have gone or are going on gap years this year all over the world, including places as far away as Africa, South America and Kidderminster some people from St Georges Parish have also gone abroad. Rachael Burton has gone to Senegal, Fay Thompson has gone to Jordan and Kate Andrewes has gone to Spain. Prayer that they will be safe when they are abroad.
Christmas is coming soon. Please prayer that this years shoebox appeal for the Samaritans Purse is successful and that also the Christian magic show at the Baxter Theatre is a success. A Magician called Toby Travis is flying in from America and he is meant to be one of the best magicians in the world. However at the moment not many tickets have sold for the show. Also we are planning of doing a sheep auction with the children's and teenage groups to raise money for charity which I hope goes ahead.
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This year there are 84 Careforce volunteers altogether from 21 different Countries. The volunteers have come from Countries as far away as Columbia, Mexico, India, Africa, China, Alaska, Siberia and Wales. Last week we had an induction week at the Quinta Centre in Shropshire in which all the volunteers got together. The week was great, because there were fantastic Christian teachings about the Sermon on the Mount by Derek Burnside as well as lots of fun activities. We went on a walk into Wales and also played a football match between GB and the Rest of The World. True to form GB lost 6-1. It was really inspiring seeing so many great Christians from all four corners of the earth. It would be great if you could also prayer for the rest of theW Midlands area team. They are Victor Rincon, Yina Quique, Ses Springett, Althea Wright, and Holly Roeber. During the Conference week Careforce also mentioned that they like us to try and aim to raise £1500 so that they can support future volunteers. I have £300 already. However it is likely to be hard to raise the rest, because I can't do fundraising events in St Georges Parish. Please prayer that some opportunities will arise so that I can raise some more money for Careforce.
Thankyou greatly for reading this prayer letter
From Jonathan
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