One of the first young people I mentored was a 12 year old boy called Matt. He had a complicated background and family, and I would often get confused by all the names and how they were related. One day I asked Matt to draw me a family tree – this was an amazing time as it gave him time to spend a few minutes describing each person and the relationship he had with them. Read more…
What started as an idea from one parent to make her family’s daily walk a little more interesting, has become an image of hope and gratefulness. The original Facebook group has the description “Our children soon won’t be able to see their friends. Create a rainbow picture to display in your window so that children can go rainbow spotting whilst out for walks.” Who doesn’t love the sight of a Rainbow in the sky – Read more…
A friend of mine, a single parent, posts her “reasons to be grateful” on Facebook every evening. When she started doing this, like with most posts, I gave it a cursory glance if and when I saw it. Now I find myself looking out for her posts each day. Partly I’m sure because of the morbid human curiosity of peeking into other people’s daily lives, but mostly because seeing the simple things in her day Read more…
Trying to remember what day of the week it is, let alone what date or month it is, is quite a challenge at the moment. I’ve just taken five minutes to run back through my diary trying to work out what I’ve been up to, and I think I can summarise it like this: Week 1 – novelty, sitting on the sofa, finishing off half-finished jobs Week 2 – setting up a home office, learning Read more…
This week, our friend Emily Twigg, guest authors a blog about her experiences of doing youth ministry virtually: “4 weeks ago I, like many others, had never head of zoom, kahoot, houseparty or drawful amongst many other games and video calling apps which have now become part of our daily lives. Yet these apps are also playing an integral part in enabling PSALMS’ ministry to continue to share the Christian faith with children and young Read more…
This week I’m going to look particularly at how parents can support young people during the current social isolation period. We might be used to our kids spending most of their time in their rooms, accessing their phones, staring into space, but without school to go to, we can feel guilty and irresponsible if they are doing it all the time. Above everything else, helping young people keep their mental health in a good place is Read more…
Like all of us, young people have been dramatically affected by social isolation. School closures happened pretty much overnight, GCSE and A-Level exams were cancelled, and social activities were suddenly banned. In modern society, it may seem like these changes are exactly what young people have been looking for: No school, a relaxed timetable (getting up mid-morning), and everything being driven by social media and accessible through their phones. But its probably a case of Read more…
We are committed to continuing to provide the best possible service to young people during the developing situation with COVID-19, whilst assessing the potential risks and maintaining personal safety as our key priority. In line with government guidance, all are youth groups are currently CLOSED until further notice. But we have made illuminateStroud “virtual”. Here’s what’s happening: 1 – 40Acts every morning on Facebook and Instagram 2 – PrayerSpacesOnline Reflections every afternoon on Facebook and Read more…