Are you ready for a miracle?
The Rev'd Nick Gurney is Youth Pioneer in Bishop's Castle as part of our Youth Hubs pilot scheme in Hereford Diocese.
So, I’d set up the banner by the classroom door, placed out my Explore Prayer cards next to a few bowls of crisps with a ‘Question for the Day’, and added a card game to the centre of a table, hoping one of these might encourage a conversation if a student or two turned up. This was the first of the new lunch time Chaplaincy drop-ins at the Community College at Bishop’s Castle with its 520 students from the area, and just a few weeks back into school in January this year. Was there any need? Would I be simply hanging around idle for an hour? Would anyone say hello, question, or even engage? Within two minutes of the lunch bell ringing, two students dropped by, one asking about the morality of war and the other about the church and issues of human sexuality.
Before I took up my role in October ’24 as Youth Pioneer for the Diocese Youth Hub Project, I was a Priest-in-Charge and Pioneer Missioner for Glossopdale in the High Peaks. It was here a congregation member of my church asked me “How do we engage with all the young people in the town?” I began to observe, listen, and I was drawn to the words in Mark chapter 6 whilst 100 or so students trudged along the main road by the church in extremely heavy rain: “When Jesus saw the large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd”. Jesus then goes on to teach and to feed them as the passage continues with the feeding of the five thousand. This began the ministry of TNT (for the Tea N’ Toast served) offering a space and time for young people to be together, to be themselves, and be comfortable in and around a church and church people.
Soon a whole crowd would regularly come in and they’d say: ‘this is the highlight of my week’. As the volunteer church team and I engaged in everyday conversation and served these young people tea, hot chocolate and toast, questions followed, faith based small groups developed, and young people came closer to God. I still have the clearest memory of the look upon a regular Year 8’s face and the words he used coming straight up to me on arrival one day and saying, “Nick I have something to tell ya… I have given my life to Christ”.
Young people across this diocese share the same questions and concerns, and probably a few more, about life as everyone else, and are hungry to learn and to know. But who will feed them? There is no child-size portion of God, or a limited grace because of age, and so opportunities to engage and question with young people in their daily life is vital. The disciples in Mark chapter 6 at a time when many were desperate to hear from Jesus thought it was time to call it a day and suggested sending them away to ‘the surrounding countryside and villages’ to find food for themselves. But Jesus answered them, and I suggest, gives us a clear directive as we live out our faith during this year of engagement, that: ‘You give them something to eat.’ Jesus is already present in all of our lives, regardless of age, and a simple act of spending time with those who are questioning may lead to a miracle.
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