A guest post by new Young Redefine Team member, Jessica!

To any passing onlooker the room at Ty Llywelyn would’ve looked set up for a pretty awesome party. Well, in the humble opinion of someone who helped run the night, I’d say it was as good as epic! But first, you need to understand why we were celebrating.

At our youth group, Redefine, we have a bunch of crazy, unique and slightly scary (but hilarious) leaders. They do everything for us, from giving hugs, praying our exams go well, offering advice (however weird) and teaching us to drum. They also give us food, which in itself is a big feat!

When our Youth Leader Tim suggested we have a Thank-You party for the leaders, as a complete surprise, I was delighted. This is exactly what they need to show them how much we appreciate what they do!

Thinking they were coming in for some tediously boring fire safety training, the leaders trudged up to the party room, expecting fire extinguishers and paperwork, I imagine. The second they were through that door sparkling silver balloons were thrown in their direction as a multitude of voices screamed, “SURPRISE!!” Needless to say, they were pretty surprised.

Then followed an evening of thanks. We wanted them to feel like royalty, so they had a little red carpet and chairs set out like they were judging a contest. We planned it so the five leaders had one young person each to say something about them – a little thank you with a mix of memories from the time we’ve known them. We laughed a lot and some of us nearly cried!

To picture the scene you need to imagine a bunch of crazy young people with breadsticks, jellybeans and sausage rolls being wolfed down and a lot of fizzy drinks in posh glasses to toast each leader. Insert colourful bunting, bags of wrapped gifts (like Christmas, but cooler) and signed photo frames of our mad leaders and your have one crazy-awesome night!

Tim didn’t know that we had another little surprise in store, just for him. He’d run the whole evening as our official Youth Leader because he said he gets credit from Churches and schools all the time as the ‘face’ of YFC. He wanted the evening to bless the leaders who volunteered their time freely and didn’t always get recognition. But we know that Tim works his socks off (sometimes literally) to pull everything together for our little family. He deserved a thank you too!

Kelly appeared magically from the hall with a gift bag just as one of the young people finished her Thank You talk about Tim. The surprise on his face was definitely worth the whispering around that had to be done to ensure he had no clue what was coming!

The evening was a huge success. They didn’t guess a thing! Our leaders deserved that celebration and so much more for their time and energy, done with so much love and support.

Tim, Dewi, Chloe, James, Megan and Todd, you are unique individuals who have made an impact on all of us at redefine. Our family wouldn’t be the same without you, so please stay a long time!!

Here’s to all the youth leaders who give their lives to be a blessing on young people.

YOU ROCK!