This is the last week before we break up for Christmas which is pretty sad but I am looking forward to a break and being with family for a prolonged period of time, not just a weekend. Unfortunately Rm1 at Coombe isn’t on this week because they have building work going on round our hut so we can’t use it this week. I was off ill some of last week so I didn’t get to see them which is a shame. We’re going to have a go moving some stuff around in Rm1 which should be cool.

This is also the last week at Hollyfield, I only have 2 more sessions there, and knowing Bex, we’ll be doing some very Christmassy things with cheesy Christmas songs on in the background! But it’ll be fun.

THE KINGSNYMPTON CHRISTMAS BALL WAS AWESOME! It went really well we had a really good turn out, they all had fun which was really cool. Some of them had prepared a dance routine which was really cool. They did it wrong first time apparently so they did it again and they got it right but it was really cool, they had put a lot of effort into what they wanted to do how they would like while they were doing it, preparing the dance area, and all-in-all, it was a success.

And finally, last but not least, the boys group on Thursday evenings had their Christmas do/party thingy, well it wasn’t really a party, we cooked them a Christmas dinner which was awesome, and the guy who did the stuffing is a genius errhermm..J. They really enjoyed the meal and we had a really good conversation with them about Christianity and prayer and they got really into it and they were really listening to what Ashlee and I were saying and they were asking serious questions.

This was a real answer to prayer because I was getting a bit frustrated that I wasn’t really getting or seeing opportunities to talk to the young people about Christianity and then you have these guys here who can’t sit still for 2 minutes if their lives depended on it, sitting still and listening to us and being genuinely interested! It was amazing and I really hope we can carry this momentum on into 2010 because there’s really good potential in that group.

Please pray for all the young people that over Christmas they can see what it’s all about and they can see past the presents and decorations and see the real point of Christmas.

Thanks you all for reading my updates over this year, I hope you have a great Christmas, stay safe, stay warm, it’s gonna be white this year!!

God Bless

Jamie

The final part of the youth material will be released online in time for the Youth for Christ staff conference on 5th January, where Richard James (writer of the Test of Faith youth material) and Ruth Bancewicz will be giving two seminars.

In addition to the Youth Material there are new extra Test of Faith online resources available online here. These are for anyone who is interested in finding out more about science and faith, either independently or alongside a Test of Faith course. They include:

• An extensive collection of media clips for streaming or download
• Three new articles written by academics for a popular audience
• A series of 10 briefing sheets
• Book reviews
• Chapters from the book, ŒReal Science Real Faith¹ (Ed. R.J. Berry, Monarch, 1991)
• Book list and Links

There is more to come in the next few months. As this is a work in progress, feedback is very welcome.

Since it was first thought of in 2000, and launched in 2001so much has happened and so many people have been through. If we were to look at it in numbers then we would see there have been nearly 100 Gap year workers, around £1m in cumulative turnover and over 60 different projects. We have met thousands of young people, run dozens of going deeper groups and seen our church support grow from 21 to 38.

But statistics are always relative and so we look to the stories, the high points of the last few years. With all this investment, what has Oxygen achieved? For me as someone who has been around since the beginning I could list dozens and dozens of conversations, of perceptions changed of not only young people but also parents and other youthworkers. Then there are those young people who have been connected to the local church through clubs such as the Korean Club in New Malden, the Rock Solid Club in Norbiton, Urban Nites in Surbiton and New Malden. Then there are the individuals people like Adam who came into a band night at Oxygen and several years ended up on a gap year before now working for a church in Bookham and Carol who came in to see what her son, DJ was up to at Oxygen and ended up taking a gap year herself. There are others who have been baptised, people who have been confirmed and others who have got involved in the general church life. Alongside the spiritual impact have been the practical implications of Oxygen’s work. The young people who have been effectively challenged about binge drinking, sex and relationships as well as identity and self esteem.

I am honoured to have been involved in this work and have had the chance to work with some great people. People like Sarah Parker who has been involved each week since 2002 when the charity was its infancy. When in 2005 the trustees decided to grow and not consolidate the work, we were honoured to be joined by some great people such as Debbie Garden as Senior Youth worker, Paul Jacobs as Street Pastor Coordinator and Kate Davies as Rm1 Coordinator. Latterly they have been joined by Tamara, Ashlee, Andrea, Tara and Becky.

A special mention and thanks must go to the trustees and the other management teams. Paul Pearse who became Chairman of trustees in 2001 has been a constant source of practical, personal and financial support for Oxygen. Alongside Paul have been people like Steve Barnes and Benoy, Glyn, Jill, Trevor and Jenny. Alongside the trustees have been some wonderful management volunteers such as Liz Wynyard who has sorted accommodation since the first years, Tim Lucas and Chris Gretton who have given over time seemingly endlessly to help finances and Amanda Kilgour who is always available to do whatever is needed.

Finally there are those who have given financially, raised money, taken up standing orders and made random donations when needed. Whether they have given £1 or £1,000 these people have been constant sources of inspiration to all of us in the office.

Whenever you write one of these homilies you always forget people, so I apologise to those who I have overlooked at this stage. Your contributions have not gone unnoticed rather I have been amiss in thanking you.

Can I sign off this last prayer letter of 2009 asking you to spend some time thanking God for Oxygen during 2001-9, in particular

• Give thanks for those who have given their time, energy, money and prayers. In particular for those who contributions have gone unnoticed and unwittingly unvalued. Pray that God would bless them for blessing us
• Give thanks for those in positions of management and leadership that they have given wisdom to guide this work. Pray that God would bring forward the people to take the project onto the next level
• Finally, send up a prayer of praise to the God in Heaven, because he calls us to a mission of energy and joy, one in which we learn as we go and gain as we give.

By taking part in this event, you would be joining hundreds of others who will be taking part in Sleep Easy Sleep Out events being staged by other local YMCAs around the country. We chose the date as it is the night before Homelessness Sunday and the first day of Poverty and Homelessness Action Week, http://www.actionweek.org.uk/

The URC Church, just up the road from the Memorial Gardens, will act as an indoor venue and will be open throughout the event for hot drinks etc. There will be lots of fun activities going on including – a shelter building competition and giant outdoor games like Jenga and Connect 4! There will also be hot soup provided during the evening and a McDonald’s breakfast first thing in the morning to round off the event.

Proceeds from the event will be split 50/50 YMCA / KCAH and will be used to fund projects which help local homeless people get their lives back on track.

Come and join us!

Come on your own, as a family or as a group of friends or colleagues and sleep rough so that others don’t have to!

You can download an entry form at: http://www.kwymca.org.uk/pdfs/sleep_easy_leaflet.pdf alternatively, it would be a great help if you would forward this e-mail to your colleagues, friends and family.

If you have any questions or would like a poster for your work place / entry forms posted to you please contact Andrew Bates andrewbates@kwymca.org.uk or 020 8339 7323.

Singing it back for Oxygen was the name given to a fundraising concert organised by Kingston Methodist Church to raise support for Oxygen. At this great evening's entertainment Mary Bourne's Singing it Back Choir were joined by Luke Sital Singh and Bonnie-Belle and Alfred Pickard. This video includes some songs from the night

WE now have USE OF THE KINGSNYMPTON BUILDING ON FRIDAYS!!!

I haven’t mentioned anything about it in previous posts so this will probably seem a bit odd if you haven’t read any of the others! Basically we’ve been hoping to have a session on Fridays in the evening to give the young people something better to do on a Friday night rather than go out drinking and doing drugs. We’ve only done it twice so far but both times we’ve had brilliant turn outs and Bonnie cooked an awesome pasta bake. We did a quiz with them this week as well which included an obstacle course they had to complete while wearing a pair of beer goggles. They all really enjoyed this, and some were even saying `this isn’t like what it’s like being drunk`. Unsurprisingly the people who do drink got the best times. One boy who said he doesn’t drink had a go and he found it really difficult and said that going on this experience with the beer goggles, he didn’t want to drink which was really cool.

Rm1 at Coombe boys is still really good, relationships with the boys are getting better, and some of the boys are getting really comfortable talking about their family situations in front of the whole group as well which is awesome. One of the boys in the group’s cat has just died so he’s been really upset about that and on top of that his parents are going through a major break up which is really hard. When his cat had died he was asking questions about death and heaven and I was able to give him my opinion. He then asked the best question EVER which was so funny, I probably shouldn’t laugh but it was quite funny. He said to me,` Jamie, why is it when you’re in a plane in the sky, you can’t see people that are in heaven?` Obviously he had been told that heaven is a place in the sky and it was a genuine question as well so I then had to explain about heaven and that it isn’t a physical place in this realm which I don’t think he really understood. It’s hard explaining it to a 12 year old!

Rm1 at Hollyfield is good, numbers are up and down some days we can have a decent turn out and other days we may get just one or two. But in a way it makes it better because it gives us a chance to get to know them better on their own rather than have a conversation and be keeping an eye on other people.

Rock Solid on Thursdays kicked off a few weeks ago, and the guys there are really cool, they love mucking around, playing dodge ball with the balls and then finding other things to chuck around like pinecones and table tennis bats! They love cooking as well and they normally make something with Ashlee for us all to eat and it’s generally really good. They entered a Boy’s Brigade 5-a-side football tournament a couple of weeks ago and they won that which is very impressive. Congratulations to them! They now want to try and either join a pub team or enter more tournaments so we’ll see what can do for them!

Wow this must be my longest update! Quickly prayer requests, keep praying for good numbers at Hollyfield, I might start going to King’s church so please pray for God to guide me in which church he wants me in, and also pray for opportunities to share Jesus with the young people.

Thanks for reading! See you in a couple of weeks!!! Jamie

Over the last 2weeks, God has been really impressing on my heart the need to be vulnerable to those around me and I believe God has confirmed it so many times in the past 2weeks as I have interacted with the team. Its not been an easy road and I’ve debated a lot with God as to why I need to be vulnerable but I can comfortably and confidently say I think a healing process has began in my life. I’ve grown up in an environment where I was indirectly given no room to be vulnerable because there has always been someone looking up to me, both family and friends and not that that’s wrong, but in them expecting me to always be there to help fix this or that or stand in prayer with them for this or that, I’m the one who was mostly left to be the ‘strong’ one, with ‘no’ weaknesses or ‘real’ needs and because of that I think I put on myself a title that with time became more than my share to handle and since I didn’t know how to get out or rather control it ……and so became the story of my life and only the handful of people that really persisted to always follow me up and exercise the virtue of patience J got to know who Sarah is. I’d be lying if I said from today henceforth I’ve learnt what it means to be vulnerable. I believe I’m still in the learning and healing process but I do know none of these processes would have started off had I been back home and I know its not easy opening up to someone who doesn’t open up much but I do appreciate the support and patience from my fellow gap year team members.

I’m also learning the importance of prioritizing my priorities though its much easier said than done when it comes to applying what we know we should be doing in comparison  to what we are already used to doing. I would also love to reach a point where I can consult with God not only in hard times but also in good times when all is going well.

Basement nights last three Fridays have had a really good turn out. Quite a number of familiar faces, thank God for that. The rest of the projects have also ticked along, no news from them yet! However there is one funny story I wanted to share

We had thanksgiving dinner with the team last Thursday. The not so funny thing is apparently I was to bring the gravy but I honestly didn’t hear Kirsty tell me to so we had a lot of dry food with no gravy but we managed to enjoy the food as well as the evening, thank God. We had turns in thanking God for what He has done thus far and enjoyed the rest of the evening. All thanks to Bandna and the rest of the team.

That’s my update.

For more on what this represents click here

Lean on Me, Silent night, March Little Soldier and The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy… will all be performed at the Oxygen Christmas concert taking place this Saturday Night at Kingston Methodist Church. Featuring the Singing it Back Choir, Luke Sital Singh and Bonnie-Belle and Arthur Pickard the event will comprise a great mix of modern and classic songs sung and performed by some accomplished musicians and performers. Entry is free, but donations are encouraged to support the work of Oxygen.

for more information contact 020 8547 0566

I worked with Coombe Boys School after school club on sessions ‘turning over a new leaf’ and ‘spirituality in a box’ in October and with a 15+ group for girls on the Cambridge Estate looking at the importance of dreams. In November I explored ‘the meaning of light’ with ‘Girls for God’ in Surbiton and organised a concert to celebrate the first nationally recognised Inter Faith Week for Kingston’s Inter Faith Forum. This involved young people from the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Baha’i faiths either playing instruments, singing or giving presentations and aimed to celebrate their creativity and diversity while respecting each others differences and showing the positive contribution made by the religious communities in Kingston to the life of our Borough. Next year I plan to work with Hollyfield School’s after school club and a new teenage parents group.

Read the rest of Andrea’s update here