Andy Croft on reading the Bible in one year:

This week is the start of Soul Survivor’s Bible In One Year.  It’s an NIV bible, where each day you read a section from the Old Testament, New Testament and Psalms/Poetry.  To help you along with it there is a special Bible In One Year Blog.

The great thing though is that you don’t actually need a ‘Soul Survivor Bible In One Year’ to follow along.  The references and notes are being posted on the blog each day, and with some help from Jon Jolly (a friend of Chris’), we’ve been able to put the Bible in One Year blog automatically onto the the tbcYouth facebook page.

A video we made at summer camp:

Some highlights from the tbcYouth Mission2Mumbai in July 2010 visiting Oasis India projects:

We’re thinking thinking of all getting exam results today.  Come and see us if you want, or if not, let us know what you got.

Whatever your results young people and parents may find the advice from BBC Radio 1′s The Surgery helpful in deciding what to do next.

The tbcYouth Cafe Special is here, Weds 25th Aug, 10am-4pm including: Wii, art, pampering, basketball, free lunch, movie afternoon, 5-a-side football at Longmead Sportsground, all for £3.00. Bring extra money for drinks and sweets for the rest of the day.  If you’re coming please bring a note from your parents saying you can be there, and can go down the Longmead Park with us.

Wayne has been put forward as our new potential Senior Minister. Before Wayne and the church make their final decision he is coming to TBC to spend some time answering questions. We’ve been fortunate enough to secure an hour of that time for young people and youth leaders to hang out with hmi, 6-7pm on Weds 25th August.

Wayne has very kindly agreed for YOU to write your own questions and for me and him to choose the best questi…ons to answer for 45 minutes.

If you have a question please scribble it on the event wall, message me on facebook, email me (chris.kidd@tbc-online.org.uk) or text me (07958 780849) by Monday 23rd Aug 9AM.

We’re thinking thinking of all getting exam results today. Come and see us if you want, or if not, let us know what you got.

For Young People:

Clearing 2010: a step-by-step guide is a helpful guide from the Guardian giving details on what to do if you’re using clearing.

For Parents

A-level results: how parents can help disappointed children: a helpful article from the Telegraph Education sectionon the need to react with care to your child’s exam results because your response will be remembered for life.

Some pictures from The Quinta go karting trip:

We thought some of you might like to relive the moment you pulled a minibus:

We’ll be posting more photos over the coming days.

Following on from the Angels and Mortals challenge at camp – why not scribble a note to a leader to thank them for the time they invest in you.

Mentoring is a trusting relationship, in which one person helps another to grow and develop. In tbcYouth, this can be in one of three ways:

1. Lifestyle – meeting up with somebody to talk about certain issues (anger, self esteem etc.) and finding a way of working through them together.
2. Role Model – talking to somebody you respect; the kind of Christian you would like to become and learning from them in order to grow in your faith.
3. Skills / Arts – meeting specifically to develop a skill or gift. This could be anything from music to sport, art to spiritual gifts.

Mentors and mentees can meet as regularly as they wish (from weekly to termly) and this is something that will be decided at the beginning of the relationship, with guidance from the tbcYouth Mentoring Scheme.

People usually meet in a coffee shop, in town, here at TBC…. there are lots of options.

Here is what a young person already enrolled in the tbcYouth Mentoring Scheme has to say about it…

There are many reasons to why a mentor is great. It gives me the chance to talk to someone about anything, good or bad.  It lets me know that someone cares.

When I come to see my mentor we get up to many things; we chat about how I am feeling and what has been going on recently. We have a laugh, muck about a lot, sometimes about really weird things.

Sometimes we go out for a coffee which is great because lots of fun things happen while we are out!

Information for Mentees

Please get in contact with Lydia Sheard, the tbcYouth Mentorship Scheme Leader (lydia.sheard@tbc-online.org.uk) to discuss setting yourself up with a mentor. Please make sure you have the permission of your parent or guardian before you do this.

Information for Mentors

Please get in contact with Lydia Sheard, the tbcYouth Mentorship Scheme Leader (lydia.sheard@tbc-online.org.uk) and ask for a Mentors pack. This will give you all the information that you need to help you decide if you are able to commit to this exciting challenge!

I’m writing this on our last full day at camp and I feel soooo tired this evening I’m sure your young people are exhausted too! What an amazing and packed week we’ve had, filled with friendships, spiritual challenges, great activities, music, team challenges and food. Early this evening we wrapped up our sessions by thinking about the future where we are journeying together, and then followed that up with our big Cabaret evening, it was an amazing finale of a truly great week!

Attached is a letter that tells you a little more about the week, and some questions to discuss tonight as your young person arrives home: Parents letter post-camp

See you around 4pm.

Devotions and Worship

Please pray for the theme at this year’s camp: Unity

• Unity in Worship
• Unity in Prayer
• Unity in TBC and the wider church
• Unity in what we believe
• Unity in the Trinity
• Unity in being a Child of God
• Unity in where we go

Pray for the speakers (Chris Kidd, Chris & Jan Mungeam, and Derek Hills) and for Kevin Burgess, Dan Potter, and the team leading worship.

Please pray too for:

• the optional late night worship sessions.
• young people to have life-changing encounters with Jesus.
• a sense of freedom in faith and yet a corporate unity – the joy and the excitement that being can church can bring.
• young people to revel in the Holy Spirit, to share prophetic words, to see healings …
• Andrew Meade and Chris & Jan Mungeam as they have specific roles to minister to the leaders and young people.

Activities

Please pray for Jamie Miller and his team who manage the programme of activities and for Bekki Bentham as she works alongside the children of leaders. Pray that  young people enjoy the variety of activities on offer to them and they will develop new friendships through the activities.

Health and Safety

Pray for safety in our activities, especially travel, our most dangerous activity. Pray against an outbreak of any illness  and for the team of first aiders to have wisdom and discernment in dealing with illness and injury.

Catering

Give thanks that preparations are going well and pray that this will continue throughout the week. Please pray for the team: Karen Aldridge, Jo Bentham, Tony & Mary Miles-Prouten, Keith Morgan, and Janet Simmonds that they stay healthy and work well together.

Please do join us at the prayer meeting for tbcYouth’s Summer Camp on Tuesday 3rd August (tomorrow), 8-9pm in Darenth at church. It would be great to see as many young people, parents and leaders as possible gathering to pray for this week away.

As we’re back now, we thought we’d update you on the last week of our experiences.

Saturday:

• We had a day off from the projects so we got more of a chance to explore the local area and in the evening we went to see a Bollywood film.
• The film was an experience in itself, with cats, cockroaches and mice all sharing the cinema with us

Sunday:

• In the morning we went to Bombay Baptist Church, a large and lively church – not dissimilar to TBC
• All felt very welcome and felt they loved having us as guests (although maybe parading us round the church was a step too far!)
• In the afternoon we ended up getting soaked walking along a promenade into the sea surrounded by raging waves as we made our way to a mosque

Monday:

• The boys went to the Bandra Pre-school, some of the girls went to NB and the rest spent the day at Blue Edge
• Hannah became known as ‘HANNAH MONTANA!!!’

Tuesday:

• All groups went to the same projects as yesterday, but really started to grow relationships with those they spent time with
• In our daily devotions we discussed prevention of some of the things we had seen. We felt the need to advocates and raise awareness back home

Wednesday:

• Our last day of projects and a chance to visit the projects we hadn’t seen before
• We had our last devotions and thought alot about what we had seen and experienced. This included thinking about questions Claire and Katie had hand written for each of us (because of the lack of photocopiers.)
• We spent time looking back and laughing at the things we’d written on the quotes board we had been building up for the two weeks we were there.

Thursday:

• Our last day was spent with a debriefing from Leena, a nice lunch out and all the girls having Henna done by some women from the Bandra slum.
• We all had a time of prayer with Leena and praed for each other, realising how much we’ve learnt from the two weeks spent in Mumbai.
• A torrential downpour meant we had to pack the wet clothes in our suitcases and hoped to be dry enough for the flight home.

Another smooth journey back meant we all arrived safetly back early on Friday morning. Although very tired, we have so many experiences we want to share and can’t wait to tell you more about it!

Thanks for all your prayers,

Love the India Team x

Hi from the team in India!

First of all – a big thank you to all those who have been praying for us. We thought we’d give you a taster of what we’ve been up to so far…

Saturday:

• On the plane we had our first (and second) of many curries!
• Thank God for the safe and easy journey. 
• We had our first insight into the crazy roads of Mumbai.

Sunday:

• Went shopping for Salwar Kameez and tried out our bartering skills.
• Made friends with street children and bought them biscuits.
• Got followed by the ”Crazy Eye Man” for about half an hour!

Monday:

• Orientation from Lina from Oasis India
• Dan and Matt went to their first project, a drop-in centre in the red light district; an eye opening experience.
• Katie and Claire had their first fit of giggles whilst carrying 10 litres of water back to the hotel in broken bags.

Tuesday:

• Girls went to their first projects, half to a school in the slums and half to a house for women who have been rescued from the brothels (Nirmal Bhavan -NB).
• We were humbled by the hospitality of the people we met even though they have so little
• Matt slipped over when jumping off a moving train.

Wednesday:

• Some of the girls went to the Aruna project, some visited the same as yesterday and Matt managed to navigate himself through Mumbai while Dan was ill.
• We were inspired by the Oasis staff giving hope to the hopeless
• The real monsoon rain started…

Thursday:

• Half the girls went to the Gatkopper slum and half spent their last day at NB, and the boys were at Blue Edge for the last time as well.
• We realised that us simply being there held so much significance for those we spent time with.
• Waded through loads of water and got thoroughly drenched.

Friday:

• We all went to the Salvation Army children’s centre making fools of ourselves acting out Noah’s Ark and doing the funky chicken.
• Children were so eager to learn and loved the Hokey Kokey!
• Libby scooped up poo with her toes whilst running across the road. Fiona’s current fall-over-tally = 5

We’re looking forward to the rest of our work here and already have loads of stories to tell. It would be great if you could pray for:

• Health: a protection that we don’t compromise our effectiveness by being ill.
• Weather: that the weather doesn’t prevent us from going to the different projects. (the heavens have just opened and has nearly flooded in about 5 minutes.)
• So many prayer requests from those in the projects which we’ll share when we get back but just keep all the staff in your prayers.

Look out for more updates soon!!

The India Team x

The summer holidays have started – whoop, whoop!

Friday night: BB/GB/Amicus is closed now until Friday 10th September.

Sunday morning: R’n'R is closed now until Sunday 5th September – but we’ll be sitting together in the service – where the young people normally sit in the evening – on the left towards the back.

Sunday evening: SNR is closed now until Sunday 5th September, this week Derek is preaching in the evening service.

tbcYouth Cafe: the Cafe is now closed for the summer holidays, we’ll be opening a few times during the holidays itself – keep an eye out for emails and facebook invitations.  We will open again regularly on Monday 6th September.  We’ve now been open for just under seven months, do drop us an email to let us know how you we’re doing, what do we do well, and what could we do differently – be that an activity or something we should sell.

Youth Camp: if you’re coming on youth camp then don’t forget to:

• Read the Campers Booklet
• Let us know, if you haven’t already, of any dietary requirements you have by emailing Chris Kidd (chris.kidd@tbc-online.org.uk)
• Complete the consent form and return this to the church office between Saturday 31^st July and Wednesday 4^th August.
• Prepare any spending money and medicines that you will need to hand in to the Camp Leadership Team on Thursday 5^th August, between 7.00pm and 8.00pm.
• Bring all your luggage to church on Thursday 5^th August, between 7.00pm and 8.00pm.
• Arrive at church at 10.00am on Saturday 7^th August, ready for a prompt departure at 10.30am

Last but not least we have some very exciting news, we’ve just heard today we’re going to be hosting a Youth Art Exhibition in the Angel centre for 2 weeks in November.  We’ll be letting you know more in the next few weeks so keep your ear to the ground. 

Any questions, get in touch.