Youth News

Date	Title	Pix's	News	Reporter
		From time to time the youth groups here go out and about and get up to some interesting things….here are just a few of the most recent activities they have been involved in. These articles were written for the parish magazine and we hope you enjoy them to.
December 08	Manna Christmas party		Manna Christmas party…on a slightly larger scale. 59 young people (ages 14-18) had great fun on an 40 foot long ‘Bungee Eliminator’. The aim of the game was to move 3 Velcro pads from the middle, to the end of the inflatable as fast as you could. It sounds easy, but when you are attached to your opponent who is running in the opposite direction with a large elastic rope, it’s actually quite a challenge. Manna youth and leaders alike had a chance to wrestle each other to the ground whilst wearing large padded ‘Sumo Suits’. They were also able to have a game of table tennis, with a couple of leaders displaying signs of a miss-spent youth, or show of there musical talent on ‘Rock Band’. Energy levels were kept up with the usual toast and toppings, and festive mince pies.	Sam Sterry Youth Intern Knowle Parish Church
December 08	KP Nuts Christmas Party		68 11-14 year olds enjoyed an evening of fun in the way of inflatables at the annual KP Nuts Christmas party at Knowle Parish Church. On offer was the usual table tennis, tuck shop and Rockband, however, the main hall was taken over by a big fly wall. The young people had to dress up in Velcro suits and hurl themselves at a big Velcro inflatable wall. Points awarded for style. There were plenty of attempts at the upside down jump which resulted in plenty of laughs for those who were watching and waiting for their turn. In the small hall there was a Sumo wrestling competition. Leaders and young people alike donned HUGE Sumo suits that removed the ability to walk and comedy ensued with little ‘wrestling’. Overall a lot of fun was had and a big thanks to Lichfield Entertainments for providing the inflatables.	Stuart Ratcliffe Assistant Youth Worker Knowle Parish Church
16th August 2008	Soul Survivor 08		Following a fantastic visit to Romania in July, the Youth of Knowle Parish Church made another trip in August of this year but this time, to the exotic reaches of Shepton Mallet. On the 16th of August 33 young people and 9 leaders made a long journey down to Somerset where we would all spend just under a week camping in a damp field in Shepton Mallet. Despite the weather we were all feeling very positive about the week ahead and thoroughly enjoyed the first meeting later that evening. We stated with half an hour of worship which gave us both an opportunity to connect with God and invent some cheesy dance moves to some of the songs. During this meeting a fantastic talk was given which amazingly convinced over 400 people to devote their lives to God. This appeared to be a recurring theme throughout the week as more than a further 350 became Christians over the week including three of our own youth. However, these evening and morning meeting were not the only times where we could learn more about God and strengthen our faith. There were also seminars on all throughout the day which we could attend depending on which topic being discussed was relevant to our lives. After the evening meeting there was still lots of fun to be had as the venues opened, which became a time known by the youth as `Dreggs O'clock'. This was due to the fact that our favourite venue was called `Dreggs' where entertainment was supplied in the form of game shows and watching comical youtube clips. This was a place where we had many laughs and our very own `Adam Baggot' won `Dreggs got Talent' (a slightly less publicised version of `Britain's got talent'). Despite the weather and sewage running directly through the centre of our campsite we all stayed positive and found the whole week an amazing experience and a great way to strengthen our faith. I was extremely disappointed to have to leave, especially as I, along with five other young people and Louisa, had to leave early to go and collect our GCSE results. We all thoroughly enjoyed the week and would like to say a massive thanks to the leaders for organising the week and putting up with us all and also everyone who prepared meals for us, the foods fantastic!	Louisa Neumann Youth Team Knowle Parish Church
June 2008	Knowle Youth Community Champions		This year our 11-14s have been focusing on local and global social issues – from poverty and fair trade to the local environment and homelessness. This has formed part of the Hope ’08 initiative with churches throughout the UK focusing on positive social engagement. Whilst learning more about the needs of others, our young people have also put words into action: writing petitions, buying fair trade products, raising money for Africans in poverty, and more recently getting out and serving in the local community (in partnership with Solihull Council). On Wednesday 4th June, 35 young people from Headstart and G2G headed to Knowle Park to join Park Rangers on a community project. Our young people worked hard on activities such as litter picking and securing some of the slopes by planting holly and ivy. They weren’t doing community service nor were they helping out a cash strapped council but simply following up a desire to serve their local community. On Wednesday 18th June, our young people were joined by parents, local councillors Rebeiro and Holl-Allen, council officials, Sergeant Ann Strachan, Knowle Parish Church Wardens, local press and the Mayor and Mayoress of Solihull. We held a reception to publicise the great work of our young people as well as to award them with Solihull Council certificates officially recognising them as Young Environment Champions. It was a fantastic occasion with much praise heaped on our young people and much cake consumed too! Our final project this academic year involved taking 21 young people to Chelmsley Wood on Wednesday 25th June to help on the Cole Bank Park Project. Headstart and G2G worked particularly hard on litter picking and generally tidying up the area for local residents. Our 11-14 year olds have done a great job this year, both the church and council want to say a massive thank you!! Knowle Youth Team	Andy Rowlandson Assistant Youth Worker Knowle Parish Church
	Andy Rowlandson talks about stepping out in faith, using the example of different ways in approaching a swimming pool
	Time out for the 11-14’s		Knowle Parish church’s 11-14’s survived a weekend full of activities & Bible studies at Blackwell adventure recently. High All aboard, Zip wire and assault course were a few of the activities available, with everyone (including the leaders) having a great time! Games in the rain and a cowboys and Indians theme night capped an exciting and fun filled weekend for all involved	Stuart Ratcliffe Assistant Youth Worker Knowle Parish Church
	Manna Weekend 2008	Click here to read the report and pictures
	Manna Weekend 2007		Parish Mag Article post Manna Weekend 2007 Choices Choices Choices This February saw the Manna weekend away head off to Cliff College in Sheffield. A total of 45 people enjoyed great talks by Revd Richard Trethewey. We looked at the subject of choices and how do we make decisions. Manna is for young people in the 14-18 age group and many are making decisions at the moment about university's, GCSE's and relationships. We had space and time to hear from God, think and understand how to make informed decisions and consider how the teaching might impact our lives as we go home. Saturday afternoon saw a range of activities available from Hill Walking, Crawling around caves getting dirty and wet, trying out the local pitch and putt or strolling through the well lit local caverns. All in all much fun was had by all in the various activities with some venturing outside of their comfort zones! Huge thanks to Sue Houghton for being brave for the girls and crawling through the caves. Andy Rowlandson assures me that at least 8 of the 14 pitch and putt golfers got a hole in one at least once during the afternoon…humm… not to sure about those statistics. For those of you facing big choices and needing to make decisions and wish you could have joined us for the weekend feel free to download the talks along with the quiet time booklet and PowerPoint presentation from www.knowleparishchurch.org A BIG thanks from the youth team for the volunteers who joined us for the weekend. By Louisa Neumann	Louisa Neumann Youth Team Knowle Parish Church
August 2007	Soul Survivors!		This summer, for the second year running, 47 young people and leaders from Knowle Parish Church Youth Team attended the Christian youth festival, Soul Survivor in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Along with 12,000 other Christians, the five day event was a great opportunity to get to know more about God, with the theme of the festival as `being transformed into His likeness'. Twice a day we attended a main session held in the biggest tent in placeEurope! These sessions focused on worship and also involved talks from many influential speakers such as J-John and Jim Yost, which were very thought-provoking. During the week, we also had plenty of free time to go to seminars about various topics, such as the being a Christian at university and the reality of poverty, to play sports, watch movies and relax in cafés with our friends. We were also introduced to organisations such as Soul Action, the collaboration of Soul Survivor and Tearfund, which supports projects and friends working in poor communities throughout the world. Despite the very wet and muddy conditions, everyone who went to Soul Survivor had a fantastic time. We all grew a lot in our faith and strengthened friendships with each other and with other Christians we met on the trip. We would like to say a big thank you to all the leaders who came for making the trip possible. By Becky Elliott and Becky Walsh
	Soul Survivor 2006		Towards the end of the summer, as British airports struggled to recover from the terrorist threats, Knowle Youth Team took 40 young people to Somerset. For the first time our young people were to experience a week long Christian festival called Soul Survivor. First held in 1993, Soul Survivor has grown to now accommodate 11,000 young people from throughout the UK. Although slightly daunted at first by the scale and independence on offer our young people quickly thrived on the relevant Bible teaching, awesome worship and multiple activities available. It was a great week and we much look forward to taking many more young people to Soul Survivor again in 2007. Andy Rowlandson
25 June 2006	Baptisms 2006		On June 25th as the sun was beaming down on Solihull, 4 young people took the step of faith to get baptised. Nathan Brown (14), Matt Roberts-Davies (14), Emma Wilson (14), and Andrew Wilson (10), had all decided that this was the time for them to make this public and personal affirmation of their faith in God and to commit their lives to God. The service was attended by around 50 friends and family of the young people, and marked a new rung on the ladder for the life of the young person they had seen grow up physically, mentally, and spiritually. We pray that this will be a new step of faith for all of them and a time when they see God do amazing things through them.
9th – 11th June 2006	Gaines Five Alive		We gathered on the cobbles at the front of Knowle Parish church on Friday 9th June. Rachel Pinwell with clipboard in hand to make sure everyone was there, and Louisa Neumann struggling to start the N reg Minibus. After all this commotion we were off members of Headstart, G2G, KP Nuts, Pathfinders and Double take, ready to take whatever the Gaines weekend had in store for them. One hour later we arrived. After everyone had found their small group leaders, and their bedrooms we settled for dinner. The theme of the weekend was Five Alive, four talks plus a prayer room which made the five things to do living life as a Christian. Louisa Neumann kicked off the talks, with love, followed by Gareth Roberts-Davies on being a family together supporting each other, Rachel Pinwell on growing up as a Christian and running the race for God, to be rounded off by Aaron Neumann on the theme of reaching out, to encourage everyone to go out and spread the message of God to their friends and family. After each session we had small groups were the young people could talk about what they had heard, this was also an opportunity to go into the prayer room and do some creative prayer. The prayer room consisted of five stations such as post-it prayer and the Graffiti wall. Each group came out of the prayer room having experienced something new of God, some for the first time. The talks were separated by activities such as, grass sledging, the death slide, assault course, football, tennis and mini Golf. Which were made even more enjoyable by the sunny weather. Then the last session of the weekend came before we packed and went home, some of the young people took the opportunity to say to the others about what they had learnt over the weekend, and say thank you to the Gaines staff for providing all the food and activities. The coach was then loaded up with our bags and we went home, exhausted but happy because of a fantastic weekend.	Paul Cox, & Paul Murphy
May 2006	KP Nuts Mini Golf (photo attached)		In May the KP Nutters braved the extreme weather conditions and embarked on a 12 whole mini Golf course in Dorridge. Despite the wind and rain, we managed to get a round of golf in and had joint winners with a round of 22, which I think is 2 under par a score Tiger Woods would be proud of. Who knows what fun socials next term of KP Nuts shall bring, who next shall we take on? Watch this space to find out.