Tim’s Five Year Anniversary Note

Five years ago I started at Llandudno Youth For Christ.

These five years have not only been an absolute pleasure and grand adventure – but they also mark the longest I have worked anywhere (which I think bodes well!).

Together – over the past five years – we have spoken to thousands of young people about Jesus. Together, we’ve seen dozens of young people commit and recommit to following Him. Together, we have consistently run weekly projects, annual events and developed a ministry that effectively reaches out into many corners of Llandudno.

This adventure has been worth every moment.

The highlights for me will always be the people. I’ve made lasting friendships and developed an amazing team of front-line youth workers. I’ve been able to speak into the lives of many local young people. I’ve been well looked after, mentored and supported by the entire church community, and I’ve found something of a home in this quiet (but never boring) part of the world.

From London to Llandudno

My wife, Katie and I moved here in 2011 from London, after experiencing a somewhat chaotic and very busy city life working for a large South London church. After spending seven years in various parts of the capitol, moving to North Wales was absolutely a culture shock!

In London, the streets start come alive at 7pm, in Llandudno, the streets are quite suddenly empty at 7pm. The serenity, however, was a much welcome reprise from the ongoing hustle and bustle of the city. We quickly got stuck into the local culture and soaked up the incredibly scenery and the outdoor world – hiking in Snowdonia every week.

Then and Now

Llandudno is alive with both spiritually curious and supernaturally aware young people. When I first arrived, I explained in our newsletter that it felt like ‘Aslan was on the move’, and we are now seeing the fruit of that.

There was a small cluster of young people spread around several churches, now we have a vibrant weekly community that gathers dozens of young Christians from across the region. There was some polite interest in a weekly lunchtime group at Ysgol John Bright, now we have two weekly meetings, regularly teach and take assemblies, and run several large events at the same school.

What About Reverb?

Reverb Youth Bar has been through many transformations during the past five years. When we first arrived, it was a great coffee-shop centre with a small core of young people who loved it. We made some changes to attract new people, but quickly attracted too many. As great as large numbers can sound, 80+ young people on a Friday night, crammed into a little coffee shop on the high street does not make for good ministry!

We made some successful changes to steady it out – and wonderfully saw through a generation of young people from first connection, to leaving for college. This was a magical time!

Once this season was over we made the much anticipated move to a larger centre with more facilities. This demonstrated better stewardship of our resources and a much greater potential for our future.

So What Next?

This new season is all about making new relationships with young people that we haven’t managed to connect with yet, particular younger age groups. You may have heard of our Reach Campaign? We want to:

•    We want to reach further to connect with every young person at Ysgol John Bright.
•    We want to reach further to ensure that no young Christian feels isolated or alone.
•    We want to reach further to provide a weekly space for any young seeker to hear and respond to Jesus.
•    We want to reach further to develop and train a whole generation of young Welsh leaders.
•    We want to reach further and call every church in this area to pray regularly for the young people in the community around us.

How can you help us do this?

It always comes down to the same three things; we need prayer, people and provisions.

Pray for us! Come to our monthly prayer meetings, stick our pictures up on the fridge and give us to God every day.

Volunteer with us! Everything from front-line youth work, to admin, to serving in the cafe, to helping us fill in grant bids, to being a YFC champion in your local church.

Give to the work we’re doing. If ten people in ten churches gave just £10 a month we would be able to settle into our projects with security and really push forward in the work that we do.

Thank You!

Thank you for sharing this journey with me! Please consider how else you could be involved. We believe this is God’s mission, and – with His help – we will take the good news of Jesus Christ relevantly to every young person in Llandudno.

Tim