SYM : Chelmsford Schools & Youth Ministry

My very first job for SYM at the beginning of this academic year (straight after my summer holidays) was to speak at one of the local churches about the work of SYM and then to preach from the book of Acts. I was nervous about this firstly because it was the first time I had preached in this role and secondly because I wasn't sure what was going on with SYM. Our administrator had handed in her notice, our chief associate had just started a new full-time job and I was looking ahead to a year of being completely by myself. What's more, this church had asked me to speak from the passage in Acts which speaks of the relationship between Paul and the tentmakers, Priscilla and Aquila (a prime example of team work and community in ministry – Acts 18). I had already spent a year working for SYM, untrained and inexperienced, feeling as if I was making my job up as I went along. It had been a very difficult, frustrating and lonely year. And the next year was looking to be more difficult, more frustrating and lonelier. So as I stood before this congregation of people at the start of the 2007/08 academic year, I made a decision to be really honest. I needed help. I needed colleagues. I needed community. I needed someone to bounce ideas off of. I needed a boss. I needed people I could work with and have a laugh with. I needed a team. I needed prayer. And so I spoke to this body of Christians and supporters and told them that I believed that God moves best in people through relationships and communities and, as such, I needed their prayer.

Eight months later, as I sat in my colleague’s garden last Sunday, soaking wet from a water fight I had just had with my three co-workers and their families (see picture), I couldn’t help but reflect and think that God has been good. God has been really really good.

SYM now has a team of four really committed, passionate and energetic workers:

Lynsey joined us at the end of September/beginning of October as our brand new administrator to continue all the great work that Karen had been doing. Jo came on board in January of this year as a second schools worker focussing specifically on SYM’s relational work and helping me run and manage emerge. And then last month, we were all massively excited and relieved to welcome Libby as SYM’s director. It’s great to be able to say that I work with a dedicated team of people who keep me accountable and whose company I genuinely enjoy and relish.

So I am currently feeling mightily blessed with a great team and, as a result of that team, blessed to be part of a company which is having a far more effective ministry in secondary schools. And with our brand new director on board and with an amazing new vision and strategy already forming, it seems as though SYM can look forward to a really exciting future.

The past year and a half (as well as being difficult, frustrating and lonely) have been really exciting for me as I’ve watched teenagers develop, ask important questions and make a stand for what they believe in. I have had the privilege to teach young people, mentor them, get alongside them and support them in a number of ways over the past months. But as I listen to what God is saying and as I look forward to what He has planned for SYM, I feel I can say with honesty and with no small amount of joy in my heart that we ain’t seen nothing yet.