Dave shares the experience with the youth group.

For many people, myself included, January is very much a time of reflection. Looking back on the year that’s been, and looking forward to the year ahead. As I sit here typing away, I am doing just that with the Youth Group, and in summary – 2011 was an awesome year!

2011 saw us networking and meeting with other Youth Groups. We were blessed to be invited to Buckfastleigh & Ivybridge for their youth meetings ‘Solarflare’, as well as a great beach party at Slapton Sands. In return, we were blessed to have their youth groups come to our Fusion Nights. We attended ‘The Net’ throughout the year, which was a great opportunity for our young people to see that they were not alone, that there were in fact hundreds of young Christians, just like them, across Plymouth.
It was also really encouraging, and quite emotional, to see the church get on board and encourage the young people. We were also taken aback to see Zak, Jim and Jared initiate their appreciation of the church by saying thank-you for inspiring them.

The Summer then saw the re-launch of Impact, and the introduction of Hannah, Emma and Charlotte to its mayhem, with the ‘Big Weekend’. It was a great weekend which left vivid memories for everyone involved (the 4am fire drill will never be forgotten!). Over the past 4 months we have seen the group bond, relationships strengthen, and real spiritual growth amongst the 8 young people, including Matt & Lawrence, who we are proud to call our Youth Group. It has also been a real blessing to see Bronwyn occasionally, a girl whose family was first introduced to the church by Reach. We have witnessed all of them rising up to read daily devotionals and speak to the group about what they have learnt.

We have studied Faith and Hebrews 11 together, and they have all astonished us with what they have learnt for themselves at home. I especially want to give credit to Emma Taylor who has stood out this past term to be determined to learn more about the things of God.

So, what’s next for IMPACT?

The next 7 months will all be building up to an amazing week away camping at Soul Survivor, a summer youth event with over 10,000 young people all gathering for one purpose: to meet with, worship, and learn more about Jesus!
With this in mind, we will be arranging a few fundraising events to help with the cost. Summer car washes are always a great favourite, but we also want to serve the church in other ways, so expect offers of dishwashing, cleaning, gardening and much much more over the next few months.

We will be looking at young people in the Bible, such as Gideon, Jonathan, David and Timothy and seeing that just because you’re young, it doesn’t mean you can’t do amazing things in God. We will continue to encourage the youth with their daily reading and are expectant to see yet more spiritual growth.
Plans are already coming together for yet another Big Weekend at Easter, with yet more fun, mayhem, learning and of course, a few surprises!

Please keep praying for all our young people; Jim, Jared, Hannah, Charlotte, Zak, Emma, Matt, Lawrence, and Bronwyn. IMPACT is stepping up a notch again this year. Our focus not just on fun, games, food and socialising (though these are all very important factors), but we are expecting God to move amongst all nine teens, so we will be pushing, encouraging, and challenging them. We don’t look for Soul Survivor to be a small fire that quickly goes out when we return home, but we want that fire burning in them before we go, so our week away becomes an explosion that changes lives forever!