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Hats off to a Busy Summer

There was a time when Summer Months meant report writing and forward planning for Oxygen. Generally things closed down throughout July and August as the Gap year team finished and the office was occupied by myself and occasional staff from St Peters. All that has changed in a dramatic way in 2007 full programme of sumer activities and projects to keep us very busy!

On the Kingsnympton Estate, Kurstie Wheatley is running a programme for young people from the estate. I visited them last night and was surrounded by up to 20 local young people playing pool, talking and enjoying an evening in the youth centre. Over the course of the summer Kurstie is running activities and workshop to encourage conversation and discussions. Towards the end of the summer she will be running a trip to Thorpe Park for the young people along with local volunteers.

Pray for

• ….the smooth running, now the club has changed time to the evening due to other daytime activities the young people were involved in
• Pray for opportunities to continue to talk and pray with the young people
• For the long term development of work on the estate, for wisdom in taking this work forward

Alongside the Kingsnympton work, Oxygen have also been commissioned to run Summer Schemes for referred young people. Here using games, creative activities and sports alongside discussion based relationships a team of volunteers, led by Carol Clack and Kate Davies with support from Laura, are working with some young people who really need support.

Pray for

• …. The young people who are coming next week in New Malden and the final group booked into Surbiton the week after. Pray that despite the gap between them booking and the week finally coming around, that they still would want to come.
• …for the regular workers involved, including Maddy, Hee Jin, Hyo Kun as well as those coming in during different weeks including Tom, Pete, Anna, Shonaugh, Alice and Mark.
• ….wisdom in making decisions about discipline with some of the young people who are particularly excitable! Pray that Kate, Carol and Laura would know     

Much of the summer activities are going to be linked into thecalling remix which is a different sort of outreach event on 17th August. Here we will be using Art, Music and conversations and videos to tell people a little more about God. Many of the young people from the Summer Scheme and Kingsnympton work are being invited along to this

Pray for….

• Confidence and boldness in presenting and talking about our faith to the young people at thecalling remix on the 17th.
• Pray for volunteers to be around, especially given that so many are away during the summer months

Finally despite all the business over the summer, we still are planning for a great and exciting new term. The New Oxygen team arrive in a few weeks time, settle in and then are being commissioned on the 22nd Sept. We did have a space left on the team for a female to work with young girls after school, but that looks like it is filling up now.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers!

Rich

technorati tags:summer, schemes, kingsnympton

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Three Peaks Completed

 

Over the course of the last weekend, in a little over 24 hours a combination of Oxygen trustees, workers and volunteers climbed the three highest peaks in

Scotland

,

England

and

Wales (see the photos)

.

Their aim was to raise money for Oxygen’s street youthwork programme, called Urban Nites, which aims to put youthwork volunteers onto the streets of the Borough each night of the week engaging and working with the young people who can be found hanging around on the estates and street corners often with nothing to do.

In completing the

Three

Peaks

the Oxygen team aimed to raise around £4,000. Anyone wishing to make a donation to support this work should do so online at:

http://www.justgiving.com/richardbjames

Summer Clubs have started: Chessington

School summer holidays are amongst the hardest times for parents who often run out of ideas on how to entertain and keep safe their sons and daughters. After being approached by the Schools and Councils we have put together something we have called the Oxygen summer scheme.

The first summer scheme started yesterday in Hook Rugby Club for the Chessington and Hook Area. Around a dozen referred, young people turned up for a day of craft, sports, computer games, dance and discussions. The photos from the day can be seen on the Oxygen website: www.oxygen-online.org/gallery

Please could you pray for Project Leaders Kate, Carol and Laura who are running these clubs with a range of challenging young people, some of whom demand a lot of support. Pray also for the workshop leaders Kirsty, Maddy, Debbie, Tom, Lucy and Jon.

If you would like to be involved then we are running the summer scheme across the Borough, each at different weeks:

o        Chessington: 31^st, 1, 2^nd August

o        Kingston Centre: 7,8,9^th August

o        New Malden: 14,15,16^th August

o        Surbiton: 21,22,23^rd August

 

Oxygen :: Infuse :: Gallery

technorati tags:summer scheme