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REACH - Religious Education And Christian Help

REACH - A New Name for Our Young People’s Group

On Sunday 16 October 2011, a small group of young people met with some of the adult helpers to re-launch the group formerly known as 21Cent - now called “REACH”!

This name has been chosen by the young people themselves, and it stands for “Religious Education and Christian Help” - but it also reflects the desire to reach out to, to help, and to learn from, others.

You can see this from REACH’s logo, which the group designed - on an iPad, naturally - at the first session. (They also ate quite a lot of chocolate - get one of them to tell you the significance of this!)

The new group is open to boys and girls from school years 5-8 (ages 9-13). It will meet during the church service on the second and third Sundays of the month, so this term’s meetings will be on Sundays 13th and 20th of November, and 11th and 18th of December.

This term we will be thinking about “poverty on our doorstep”. We will be trying to find out more about people in need who are close to home, looking at what the Bible tells us about people less fortunate than us and about the fair distribution of wealth, and considering how, as Christians, we should respond. Our activities will include the following:

• At our Harvest Festival, donations of food and produce were brought for the Chesham Food Bank. On the 13th of November, we’ll be taking those donations down to the Bank, and will hear from the organisers about the work which they do.
• On the 20th November, we’ll be finding out how easy - or difficult - it is to prepare a balanced meal with only a small amount of money.
• On the 11th and 18th of December, we’ll be thinking about what it might be like to have no permanent home. This will include making a fire (we really do promise not to burn the church down - at least we’ll try not to) and making a shelter.

All this will be mixed with readings from the Bible and prayer and - we hope - some lively discussion. We’re also hoping to have some social events, and to be able to take part in some of the 10:00am services - so that the young people can tell the congregation about what they have learned.

We recognise that young people in this age group have many competing demands on their time, but we hope that lots will come along and that we can begin to build this group into a lively and exciting one.

So… what can you do to help? There is always something! We need…

• Young people! Please encourage any young people in this age group that you know to come along to the sessions and see what we are all about.
• Adult helpers. If you would like to be involved with this group - or with any of our children’s and young people’s groups - please speak to Helen Biggerstaff. We really need your support. You might be prepared to help on a regular basis, or to contribute ideas for the group, or to help occasionally
• Prayer. Please pray for the new group and its helpers.
• Encouragement. Please do support the young people in what they are doing: ask them about the activities, and take time to listen to what they have been up to.

We look forward to being able to tell you more about REACH over the next weeks and months.

Helen Biggerstaff / Philippa Howells