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!

What an exciting year that lays before us.  What an exciting time it is to be a Christian!

The Church new building has started and awesome things are happening within the reach project.

Well where do I start? It’s been such a busy time as you’d imagine leading up to and including the Christmas period.

First of all I’d like to thank you for your £5 donations from the Christmas card messages on the projector; this has raised £74 which is fantastic news (although somebody was £1 short by the looks!!)

We have been working really hard in the community. We have been building some great relationships with the families and the professionals who refer the families themselves. God has given us favour with the Plymouth Community Homes offices in Estover and Whitleigh. The two area housing officers are very keen to work close together, so please pray for them, they are called Adam and Vicky.

We continue to help and support the most vulnerable people in our community, from clearing sheds, painting, basic DIY and helping a single mum being able to move home.

We have also had a lot of single adults referred to us recently; one of which the police referred. Some have been the worse cases I’ve come across; desperate people living in awful conditions, needing the most basic of things and living within 3 miles of your home. Thankfully with your £5 a month contributions we continue to be able to provide bedding, blankets, hot wattle bottles, curtains, pillows, kitchen equipment, cutlery, microwaves (for most this is their only way of cooking) and lots more. (If you’d like to contribute please see Jo Taylor).

We also continue to build strong partnerships with other Christian churches who continue to donate food and help with people we’ve been supporting. We had a kind donation from the Catholic Church in Crownhill who heard from another church what we are doing in the community and wanted to help.

You may or may not have noticed our new container next to the Food Bank container, this is for practical items, non food related (Brenda and Hilary will be pleased as the food bank container is now just for food!)

Regarding food bank in December with your help we collected 750kg of food from Sainsburys, that was a tremendous effort so well done everybody, we continue to deliver food parcels during week day evenings, if you would like to be part of this please see me and we can add you to the rota.

Over 150 parcels have now gone out in the community since we started reaching over 200 adults and 250 children.

In December we also delivered our Christmas hampers – 32 in total. Thank you to the guys and girls who helped putting them together and deliver them, and also to the gifts we had had to give to the single mums from our ladies day recently. We wrapped them and gave them as presents which the mums were overwhelmed and so grateful with. Each hamper went out with a Christmas card and our church leaflet explaining who we are and what we believe.

Rob recently laid before us God’s word to the church for this year which is “Fulfilment”.

Full: meaning abundant in supply, no part lacking, complete

Fill: meaning plugging a gap, or to meet a requirement

Ment: meaning a result of an action

At the start of this New Year I’d like to challenge you all to ask yourself “what can I do?” or “what time can I give?” to influence somebody for Jesus this year. Out of the abundance God has given you, what need can I meet? Or what gap could I fill (I’m not talking with polyfiller!)?

I guarantee there will be families or individuals who live near you that will have gaps of emptiness, hurts, disappointments and a feeling of desperation in their lives.
What a great opportunity we have to show the goodness of God to a lost community.

In this Olympic year let us be a people of passion in 2012, determined to WIN for Jesus.

Thank you for your continued prayer

If you would like to know more about what we do at Reach and who benefits from the project please come and talk to me.

Your friend

Dan Taylor