As well as “Taking the Good News Relevantly to Every Young Person in East Norfolk”, the trustees and staff at Unite (East Norfolk Youth for Christ) have always been passionate about empowering and equipping young leaders to grow in their faith and in their ministries. So they were delighted with the way in which two young leaders, Angel and Elizabeth responded, after they had enrolled on a Mission Academy course with other YFC Centres in the county last year.
The idea of Mission Academy is to empower young leaders to achieve their goals. Often the youth worker/main leader initiates the project/mission and the volunteers help to deliver it, however, with MA it is the young leader who has the dream and the adults are there to guide and help them deliver it. To start with, they organised a Sports Day on the Beach to coincide with last Summer’s visit of Street Dance group, Stance, to Gt Yarmouth High School. So encouraged were Angel and Elizabeth when thirty young people attended that they began to dream of running a weekly drop-in café which young people of high school age could visit on their way home from school.
Ang Fox at Breckland YFC has been establishing youth cafés for over 2 years in her communities and so there was lots of discussion amongst the young people from all the Centres at the MA training weekends about them. Alison Roberts, Unite Director says, “Angel and Elizabeth had wanted to do something like this for a while but until they liaised with someone who already had theirs up and running, I don’t think they dared to believe they’d actually do it in Great Yarmouth.”
The girls wanted to create an environment where the kids and leaders could engage on a social level i.e. playing pool, cards, air hockey etc. or just sitting around and chatting, responding to questions and conversations as they arose. They wanted it to be without structure for the majority of the time, but at different times of the term they will deliver a more focused session, perhaps “love” around Valentine’s Day or “sacrifice” around Easter.
Now, having met up with Lt Ben Selfe from the Salvation Army in Gt Yarmouth, Angel and Elizabeth’s dream has come to fruition. On Wednesday afternoons from 3.30pm until 5.00pm the Salvation Army citadel in Yarmouth Way is open to high school aged youngsters so they can pop in and have some social time in a safe and relaxed environment. Volunteers from four different churches show the love of Jesus in a practical way, their aim being to build relationships with the young people of the town.
Elizabeth says, “We are really excited about our partnership with the Salvation Army team and hope this café will give the young people a safe place to chill out.” For Angel, seeing everything work out has been brilliant, “It’s amazing how everyone has pulled together to make our dreams a reality”, she declares.
Once the café is established, the team intend to provide a space where the young people can learn about Jesus in a more overt way which would be optional for those who want to know more.
