Friday March 8th saw 48 young people aged between 11 and 18 head off to Quinta Christian Centre in Weston Rhyn, near Oswestry for an annual Christian Youth Weekend.
The young people come from Birmingham Methodist Circuit, St. John's Muxton & Lilleshall Anglican Churches, Child's Ercal & Wrockwardine churches and Stafford Methodist Circuit for a weekend full of fun, friendship, food and most importantly, worship and teaching.
The weekend followed a theme of Discipleship – 'Called to Follow' and focused on the story of Peter.
Friday night started off (after food) with a fun icebreaker game led by circuit youth worker Michelle and saw the young people competing to make the best boat out of various scrap items before racing them against each other along lengths of drain pipe...not as easy as it sounds!! Then, Stafford's Debbie and Frostie set the scene for the weekend with a reading from Luke 5 v1-11 and a talk questioning 'Why me? I'm not good enough?!'
Saturday morning saw Stafford's Nicky take the story of Peter further with a reading from Matthew 14 v 22-32 'Walking on Water' and talked the young people through the story, leading them to consider 'How can I have a Faith like Peter's?'. After an afternoon of food, cake, workshops and a whole group game of Human Hungry Hippos' the evening session was led by Becky Richards and her son John, who took the story even further and talked about how the young people take their relationship with God one step further, and how they might respond to God's call on their life.
Sunday morning was led by Andy Ackroyd, who rounded the weekend's brilliant teaching sessions off with a talk about how following Jesus, like Peter did, can result in a whole new way of life. The young people were asked to think about how they may do things differently, post Quinta, and how they will move forward in Faith in the way God is asking them to.
The worship band were as always, brilliant in leading the worship and teaching sessions and, as appears to be a theme for the 'older ones of us there' we end up singing ourselves to (the few hours) sleep, with one of the lively worship songs the band plays throughout the weekend.
It is an exhausting few days for leaders and young people alike, but it is an amazing opportunity to see 48 young people from different places, come together to worship their God, in ways that they may not get the opportunity to do in their normal church environment.
Stafford circuit is blessed to have such a team of youth workers who lead and support this annual weekend – thanks to you all, you know who you are!
