CLiKS Newsletter

SPECIAL THANKS
From Alison:
Sarah Liddell
for being
undaunted by
any task and her
(unhealthy)
willingness to be
gunged
Henry Pettinger
for all his support
Jo Wright for her
creativity, humour,
wisdom and cups
of tea
From Miriam: Claire
Voss for all the ways
she has supported the
work of CLiKS. I could
not have done it
without her.
Angie, Charlotte and Demi
at Hainworth Wood Girls’
Group for their dedication
to supporting the young
girls of South Keighley.
They are the dream team!
Everyone at Worth Valley Primary
School for welcoming me into the
family. I will miss you all!
From Steve: Judith Bland for her
great story telling skills and her
servant attitude at all the events she
attends.
Moz for his unstoppable enthusiasm and
commitment to young people across the
area and for being a great role model to
all he meets.
Kathy Hughes for her commitment to X:site,
for her support, encouragement and hard
work as she seeks to enthuse others to be
involved in the event.
July
2011
Christian Links in Keighley Schools
Reg. Charity no: 1114284
Reg. Company no: 7411554
Volunteer and
supporter special
“I first decided to get involved with CLiKS after reading a newsletter.
I noticed Alison was asking for volunteers. I had been working with
the young children in my local church and I felt it was important to
help the children. In the sessions I had to lead a small group of children through some of the activities on offer. The session was all
about Easter so we had the children planting bulbs and then
decorating their plant pots. Then the children were given little
booklets crammed full of puzzles and facts about Easter. I helped the
children to read through the story and do the puzzles. Being able to
share my faith with the children and letting them know how much they
are loved was a great experience. I could see the joy that the children
were receiving from this event, and watching them interacting and
having fun was worth volunteering”
- Marie, group leader at REWIND, from Worth Valley Church
“Hi I'm Joseph, I'm 15, and
I'm part of the junior team at
X:site Keighley. At X:site the
kids (and team) learn about
various bible stories relating
to a yearly theme. This year
it was the ‘I am’ sayings of
Jesus. We do this through
leading them in games,
crafts and reading the bible. I really enjoy sharing
my faith with the kids as I know from being on the
other side how great it is”- Joseph, Junior Team
at X:site, from St Mark’s Church, Utley
Prayer Points
•
•
•
•
Thank God for a good and productive (if long and hard) year
Please pray for Steve as he settles into his new role and leads the X:site
National Holiday this summer
Please pray that the school staff in the Keighley area have a good holiday
and a rest from planning and marking
Please pray for the children of this area who are going through transition
and other changes
• Please pray for Miriam as moves to
Merseyside and begins her new job
• Please pray for our volunteers who
will be leaving to move on to new things
• Please pray for Alison as she moves
house
• Praise God that he gives us time to
rest, enjoy life, be with family and friends,
and reflect
“We feel it is a privilege to take part in both Fast Forward and
REWIND to Christmas & Easter even though we only do the "low
profile" stuff, i.e. welcoming the pupils & teachers and making tea &
coffee. It’s wonderful to see the pupils’ enthusiasm when taking part
in quizzes etc., shouting out the answers with gusto and obviously
enjoying it. They also thoroughly enjoy the workshop part as they
make their "works of art" in the various groups. The teachers enjoy
being looked after for the session with tea/coffee & biscuits available
at all times and can relax by being able to leave the kids in total
safety. They too appear to enjoy seeing the kids having fun in a
relaxed atmosphere”
- Dudley and Moira, Support Team for REWIND and Fast
Forward events, from St Mark’s Church, Utley
Contact:
Alison Way
CLiKS Schools Worker
25 Bridge Street,
Oakworth, Keighley
BD22 7PX
T: 07806 869569
E: info@cliks.org.uk
Web: www.cliks.org.uk
Many thanks to Bev and Paula at the
Copy Shop for doing a brilliant job with
printing all our postcards and newsletters!
My first experience of the CLiKS team in action was
through my eldest son. I collected him from the
X:site event at Keighley Shared Church and he was
absolutely buzzing. He loved it.
That was just about as much involvement as I could
muster right then - 2 other younger children and
busy lives etc etc. Somehow though, after volunteering to help on the
team for Boing! when it was in its embryo stages, I ended up on the
core planning team and that was that! It’s such great fun and I get to
find my inner 7 year old all over again with planning and taking part in
games, silly dances and lots of messy stuff. Oh yeah there’s stickers
too, you’re never to old for stickers! So Boing! has now managed a full
school year of events and hopefully will continue to grow and offer
more KS1 children an opportunity to meet with Jesus from September.
I also attend and help to run the family tea time service at St. James’s
Church Crossroads. Attracting up to 14/15 primary
school aged children plus their parents and carers,
it’s a lively, friendly group which loosely follows the
church calendar in it’s games, activities and crafts
each week during term time. What really makes both
of these events special though is the true sense of
community and congregation you experience
amongst everyone involved
—Jo, Boing! core team and Good Friday leader,
from St Mary’s Church Oxenhope
From Miriam: Wow what a year it has
been. When I look back over all that has
happened I cannot help but smile.
Particular highlights have to be golfing
with the girls at Hainworth Wood Girls’ Group,
going to Scarborough with Worth Valley Primary
School, seeing growth at Messy Church and
watching the development of the girls at Sophia.
In the last newsletter you may remember that I
mentioned I would be leaving in the summer. At
the point of writing May’s newsletter I did not
have further employment to go to. However, I am
extremely happy to report that I have a new job!
I am moving to Merseyside at the end of July to
work in a high school as their Chaplain. I will be
responsible for the school’s collective worship,
developing the spiritual life of the school,
pastoral support and co-ordinating the school’s
charity work. I am really sad to be leaving
Keighley but I am excited about my new
opportunity. I just hope they can understand my
Yorkshire accent over there ha!
I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge
thank you to everyone who has played a part in
my work and life in Keighley. You are fantastic
and I will miss you all.
“I have been privileged to have been involved with CLiKS since its
inception five years ago; taking part in many events including X:site,
the X:site holiday, Fast forward, REWIND and Reality. Serving with
CLiKS is a fantastic experience. Not only has it enabled me to serve
God and given me great experiences for my CV, but, without
exception, I have also found worshipping our awesome God with
young people to be an incredibly humbling and rewarding
experience, of as much benefit to my faith as theirs! I am continually
taken aback by the depths even young children can go into their faith
as we learn together. If you've never experienced worshipping,
serving and learning together with young people then I cannot
recommend it highly enough. There are roles to suit everyone and I
know your faith will benefit from being a part of the CLiKS team”
- Moz, group leader at Reality & X:site, Support Team & Junior
Team Leader for X:site National Holiday, from Airedale Church
From Alison: this year seems to flown by so quickly! I
have now been in Keighley for 3 years (and have
moved 3 times!) I’ve really enjoyed X:site this year,
seeing the children having lots of fun and thinking
deeply about their faith; being part of Good Friday and
helping in Year 6 at Ingrow Primary.
This issue of the CLiKS newsletter is a big THANK
YOU to all our volunteers and supporters, as well as
all the school and community centre staff we work with. Without you we
could not do such brilliant work with the young people of Keighley!
This summer I will be moving house (again!) and going on the
X:site National Holiday. (Please look out for my new postal address)
“hi my name is Helen and I am a retired foster parent.
I am currently on the team of our after school group at
Christ Church Oakworth called WOT, which means
Worship on Thursday. We take it in turns to arrange a
short worship and story time with an activity that
reflects the story. I sometimes struggle with the
activity but there are lots of resources on the internet.
Our group is mainly boys around 6 to 8 with a couple
of toddlers and a couple of girls. It is a very lively
session so I’m glad that we are a team of four or five. I really do enjoy
WOT and hope the children do too”
- Helen, leader at WOT, from Christ Church Oakworth
“I was surprised and pleased to be asked to be a Trustee of CLiKS in
March 2010. I had worked as a volunteer at REWIND for several
years, and had also helped with the early X:site events in Leeds.
What drew me to CLiKS? My wife, Pat, had run Christian youth events
at local schools and churches in Micklethwaite and Crossflatts, with
the assistance of Scripture Union, from the late 1990’s. I helped at
many of these, and was inspired by her work to volunteer for
REWIND. My other main reason for volunteering was my desire to
make positive connections between Christians and young people from
other faiths (or in many cases no faith). With the mixture of white and
Asian children at REWIND events in Keighley, the need to make their
experience of Church and Christianity, and one another, a positive
one, is a key reason for my support of CLiKS.
What do we do as Trustees? We have to make sure that the work of
CLiKS follows the objects set out in our Trust Deed, ‘To advance the
Christian Religion for the benefit of the public in Keighley and district ,
in partnership with local churches and others, amongst children,
young people and families’. Our vision is to facilitate a Christian
presence in every school in our area. This includes fundraising,
making sure that our school workers, Alison and Miriam, are directed
and supported, providing resources to achieve our aims, and making
sure that we spend our funds properly. I have found the Trustees to be
very committed, conscientious and supportive in their work, and I believe that we are all keen to develop a strong feeling of teamwork” Bill, CLiKS Trustee, from Aire Valley Church
From Steve: A whole load of words to sum up my year...
snow, conferences, encounter, sabbatical, regenerate, reality, running,
X:site, Awesome!, future faithful, mentoring, UAK, challenge, curry, would
you like a cup of tea?
I have recently started my new post as Diocesan
Children's and Young People's Adviser. I am based at
Kadugli House in Steeton and I am looking forward to
meeting new people and working alongside children's
and youth workers across the diocese and helping the
diocese work towards every child and young person
having a life-enhancing encounter with the Church and
with the Christian faith.