WWWYC Christmas Party 2015

On Wednesday 10th December WWWYC held it's Christmas party.  It was held (sort of early) as it was felt many would be involved with Christmas activities at school or other organisations.

Once the younger group, who also had their Christmas party on the same evening had gone home, the young people were invited to play the "hanging doughnut" game.  The game is about who can eat the doughnut (which is hanging on string from a rope across the room) with out using their hands.  The doughnut must not drop on the floor but eaten whole from the string.  The winner took 1minute 6.1 seconds.

They also enjoyed the "chocolate game" where you attempt to eat a bar of chocolate (square at a time) wear a hat, scarf and gloves.  However, you only get a turn if you throw a 6 on a dice.  In order to give the person eating their way through the bar is to throw and pass on the dice as quickly as possible!

The young people brought some food in for all to share, with drinks being provided.  After food, they played the "flour game".  Flour is placed in a bowl and turned upside down.  A sweet is placed on the centre of the flour.  Each player takes a turn to cut away a slice of flour.  Who every causes the sweet to fall off the top has to pick the sweet up with their teeth.

There was also an opportunity to play "apple bobbing"

Local Paper Article

As there is a regular number of young people at WWWYC the need for a third regular adult helper was identified.  A letter to the representatives as "Churches Together In Maldon" (which it was hoped would go out to all churches in Maldon) resulted in one adult coming forward to help out.  He is also connected to the "Bar 'N' Bus" activity that takes place on Friday evening at the Prom.

With 16 very active young people who use nearly every room at the church, keeping them safe is important.  If they are cooking, doing craft or playing outside, a third set of eyes and hands is needed.  When the bouncy castle is out, one leader is always supervising it.

There is still a need for at least two adults on a rota basis.

WWWYC 19th Nov 2014

This week was just a general club meeting with the opportunity to make (and eat then or later) kerb style sweet sticks.  The one tricky sweet to push the sick through was the chocolate coin.

We also took a group photo, well nearly!

At the end of the evening we played a new group game, swing blob.  A soft blob (lump) is tied to the end of a rope.  Everyone stands in a circle and the rope and blob is swung round.  Each person jumps over the blob, which changes speed from time to time.  If the rope gets caught round ankles, the player is out.

WWWYC 12th Nov 2014

This week saw the first use of the badminton net and rackets.  Whilst not a full size net, it does fit comfortably in the hall and allows for other activities to be run along side.

The members of the Club were given an opportunity to play a 4 player Wii game with the screen projected on to a wall rather than a TV.

CUBB Session on Money

Meet Colin our Camel

Colin is able to go through the eye of a needle.

This was the craft that the younger ones did for this session.

The theme that CUBB member chose was money, which was the issue the in answer to one of the many questions asked of Jesus.

We first heard the story of the rich man from Matthews' Gospel.  They were asked to imagine the scene where the story took place.  They then had a quiz about money (like how many XBox One's a car is worth and how many cancer treatments a professional footballer gets paid!) then watched an interpretation of the story.

As it was Remembrance Sunday, we joined the congregation for the Two Minute Silence before returning to our group.  We then split in to two groups.  The younger ones did the craft above and the older ones watched an explination of Jesus' camel and needle answer.

Their conclusion was that God asks us what we are prepared to give up for him just as Jesus gave up his life for us.  This touched on The Fallen who gave up their lives for others.

Light Party 2014

On the 31^st October 2014 8 young people from the CUBB and WWWYC clubs held a light party as an alternative to Halloween.  The party included some fun and games and a more serious look at how Halloween has been altered beyond the original meaning.  The overall theme was “Jesus is the Light of the World”.

The first activity was to butter and jam a slice of break in the dark.  Several interesting results including: -

Buttered bread with a side order of jam

The “I’m on a diet” version

The “there is butter, somewhere!

Having attempted to make one on the dark, they were given an opportunity to make another in the light.  Much better results!

They next activity was to guess the object, again, in the dark.  Most of these were correct.  One banana was described as an orange, but I think he was just fooling around.  The tomato was called a plum!

Having been advised to wear something white, our bouncy castle was light up using UV light.  One of the girls’ trousers and top were brilliant.  Sorry about the “poor” quality pictures, but the web cam struggled a bit.

Having used up just a tiny fraction of their energy, we had a supper of jacket potatoes.

Then outside to play with some sparklers, being challenged to write the initial of their first name.  I’m quite pleased with the pictures this time.

Our Minister then spoke to them about the real origins of Halloween and how it precedes All Saints Day.  One of the ideas was to chase away the ghosts of the past by dressing up as one.  It is also a time to remember those who have gone before us.  Unfortunately, nearly all the origins have been lost in the commercialisation of Halloween.

For Christians, Jesus is the light by which they live, no need to chase away ghosts and he provides and protects us.

Our last activity before hot chocolate, marshmallows, squirty cream and yummy cake (one was a “light and dark” Jaffa Cake) was to launch some sky lanterns.  One the lanterns were some messages the young people wrote reminding the finders that “Jesus is the Light to All”.

The party concluded with a sleep over; all quite by at least half past midnight.  That was a nice surprise! Saturday morning breakfast was cereals and pancakes!

Here are some comment from the young people about the party: -

From H:  What I liked was the activities and how they were related to the topic of the party.  There was nothing bad about the party in my opinion. I would happily come again.

From J:  Pancakes were good. Seven hours of sleep isn’t bad.

From SB:  I liked the sparklers and going down to the field to launch the lanterns, I also liked eating the pancakes and going to sleep late. If I was to make any improvements I would say have some Jaffacakes as a snack and maybe we could have used the bouncy castle a bit more. Overall it was a good night and I would definitely come to it again and recommend it to other people.

From L:  I enjoyed the sparklers and launching the lanterns, I also liked eating the pancakes. If I was to make any improvements I would say we could have the bouncy castle a bit more. But overall it was a good Halloween sleepover. Thank you!

From S:  I loved walking down to the doctors and letting the lanterns go. I also enjoyed the sparklers outside. If I was to improve anything I would have the bouncy castle up for a little bit longer and maybe have some time where we can all play what we want. But overall it was a brilliant Halloween sleepover. Thanks!

From C:  This has been the best sleepover that I have had so far out of all of the sleepovers that I have been to. As well as that I have now faced my fear of holding sparklers, and they were really quite fun. In the dark I managed to make my butter and jam sandwich and it was very tasty to. The hot chocolate soothed me to sleep and the marshmallows were delicious. I hope we have another sleepover soon because this one was fantastic and I shouldn’t forget my bedtime story of the 3 bananas and the pig!  Thanks!!!

From J:  I really enjoyed this sleepover, I couldn’t choose a best bit because I enjoyed all of it. I hope we can do it again next year! J

From Leader M: Another fantastic sleepover.  It is so lovely seeing the young people coming together and enjoying themselves.  Looking forward to the next one. Xxxxxxx

From Leader L:  Fab time at sleepover, young people great, looking forward to the next one, xxxxx

Technofamine

Back in May 2014, members from CUBB and WWWYC spent 24hours without any technology.  That meant for 24hours they did not have use of TV, radio, mobile PHONES, game machines, the Internet and all electronic gadgets we fill our lives with.

Instead, they played games, did a town quiz, help chose evening and breakfast, down to the prom to play on the pirate ship and a sleep over at the Church.

 

Sunday morning started to become a struggle for them as we did not do much in the "being active" department.  This was to let them experience something of what some children experience, little time to play as a child and how much the western world depends on gadgets to entertain us.

Sunday Breakfast Outside

As well as enjoying themselves and doing other stuff they would not normally do, they raised just over £178.  This was given to Oxfam and used to relieve children and young people from the famine they experience.

Well done to them all!

The "Thank You" Certificate from Oxfam

WWWYC "Give Hunder The Boot"

As part of the church's Harvest celebrations in 2014, they supported the "Give Hunger The Boot" campaign for Africa.  The main theme was to raise awareness and funds to support work in Africa to fight hunger.  The humble wellington boot was the logo for this activity.

 Member of the youth club were invited to plant baby leek plants in wellington boots!

 Looks like they enjoyed that!

 Mind you, what is not shown is the mess they made (not just the three above) with the compost.  No a problem as it was easily cleaned up.  The wellington boots were then put around the worship area of the Church for all to see.

CUBB Session on Igloo

The wonderful children and young people who come to CUBB chose igloo as a theme, what a challenge!

Well, the first approach was to build an igloo!  But out of what?  Too warm for ice.  So white cloth was used.

As ice is solid water and water can be steam, this lead to a short quiz on water we call water, ice or steam.  For instance, solid water is called ice, but it is still water.  This gave us an opportunity to look at the Trinity of God; Father, Son and Spirit.

Next we played a silly game as to who can blow a hole through a lump of ice.  This was achieved in just over two minutes.

We then headed back in to the igloo and shared Communion.  We wondered how Eskimo's shared Communion in their Churches, if made of ice.

CUBB Session on "The Big Bang"

As with the majority of CUBB session themes, this one was chosen by the young people themselves.

The session started, not surprisingly, with the opening theme from the TV series of the same name.  Several of the young people joined in, word perfect!

We looked at what the big bang theory is and how it does not explain creation.  The theory is about mater that was already there which then expanded via a "big bang" in to what we know as the universe today.  So where did the the initial matter came from.  The answer we came up with was God.

We then played a game in matching up what was created on each of the seven days in which God created the world.  Surprisingly, no one scored full marks.

To help us remember some of the thing created on each day, we made a craft using foam in the shape of the numbers 1 to 7.

A reminder of what God created on each day of the first week

CUBB Session on "Kingship"

The theme of "Kingship" was suggested by the young people themselves.

We started by playing a game using normal playing cards where you had to turn two cards over and hoped that they were the same kings form the same suit.

We then split in to two groups, roughly by age.  The older ones discussed modern day kings, their behaviours and effect on those they rule.  This was compared to Jesus and his behaviour as Servant King.

The younger ones had a chance to show how a king (or queen) might act when wearing a crown.  One was very regal and another was dancing!  Then they wore a crown of thorns and tried to imagine how Jesus felt.  Again, as a Servant King, he washed his Disciples feet.

They then made a crown that reflects both Jesus as a king and his crown of thorns, as shown below: -