July

Well, June zoomed by! Here we are with less than two weeks left of the school term, which means two weeks left of being a minion :(

The last month has been great, with lots going on in the youth work. Some highlights have been:

• All of the Soul Survivor fundraising including a day helping out at a tag-rugby tournament, BBQ-ing at the folk festival, and Team Man (HUUUUUH!) at the carnival. A huge massive thank you to all of the young people who came along and helped out! We are close to our fundraising target and it's been fun to spend some time together before we go to Soul Survivor in August. 
• On Thursday 3rd July, most of the current and new cell group leaders had a training meeting led by the fabulous Nick Page, focusing on leading Bible studies with cell groups. It was really interesting and gave us all lots of ideas.
• Olly had a fun week in Sweden! Obviously we missed him in the office, but it was a great opportunity and glad he did it. 
• David Cameron came to visit Eynsham Youth Centre on Friday 20th June, so Friday Pathfinders were invited to go along and meet him. It was slightly chaotic to begin with, but he answered lots of questions, played table tennis and posed for selfies!

 As always, our schedule is packed but it's going to be a really exciting time...

• On Sunday, we are taking a group of young people to London for a visit to Holy Trinity Brompton church and then spending the afternoon playing The Great Big Game of Monopoly! It should be really fun :)
• We have two big socials coming up - one is the final Pathfinders of this term, this Friday. We are combining Older and Younger together, meeting at 6.30 at the church hall and then moving down to the playing field for some games and a water fight! The other is next Thursday (17th) when we are combining all the cell groups together to have (guess what?!) another water fight, plus games, BBQ and a reflection time, starting at 7.30pm. Letters should be going out to cell groups this week with more details.
• Our final Soul Survivor sponsored swim session is on Tuesday 15th July from 7-9pm. We are pretty hopeful that we will smash the target and hopefully have some time for fun in the pool too!
• We are really excited that two of our young people have made the decision to get baptised! Steven and Lily will be baptised in the river at Cassington Mill on Sunday 20th July. There will be services at both Long Hanborough and St Leonards, and then everyone is invited to bring a picnic and witness them both make this amazing step :) 

This may well be the last blog that I write for St Leonards Youth Work Update :( I can hardly believe how quickly this year has flown by, and as we reach the summer and the youth work winds down a little for 6 weeks, it can seem a bit like there's not as much to do. But of course Olly will be working incredibly hard getting ready for the next school year. So as we reach the summer, some prayer requests would be:

• For the continuing fundraising and organisation towards Soul Survivor. It's come around really fast and there is still much to do! 
• For the young people finishing school and for those who have already finished - that they will have a safe and happy summer holiday.
• For Beth and Sarah as they finish the internship. Also, for Olly as he continues with and takes on even more work, and adjusts back to not having minions to annoy ;)
• For the London trip on Sunday - safe travelling, energy and fun!
• For Steven and Lily as they get baptised.

Thank you for all your support! Until next time...