Category Archives: Blessing

A Prayer for Teachers

Lord, we pray for all those Christian teachers who are struggling with their work; who feel called to serve You in education and want to honour this calling but who now cry out for Your help.

Lord, we lift to You those teachers who struggle daily with pupil indiscipline; who feel close to breaking point; who cannot cope any longer with the verbal threats and physical abuse they face.

We pray for all those teachers who dread the prospect of facing this class on a Monday morning or that pupil on a Friday afternoon; for whom each day is a waking nightmare … followed, each night, by worry and insomnia in a seemingly unending cycle of fear … and stress … and guilt.

Lord, we lift to You those teachers who are burdened by bureaucracy and worn down by excessive workload; who admit to feeling browbeaten and demotivated; who are unable to keep up with ever increasing mountains of paperwork.

We pray for all those teachers for whom there never seem to be enough hours in the day; who spend most evenings marking and record keeping and much of each weekend planning and preparing for the week ahead; for whom mental exhaustion and spiritual dryness is a term-time way of life, and physical and mental breakdown is an ever present threat.

Lord, we pray that ALL teachers might be given the support they require:

from colleagues at school;

from governors and parents;

from union and local authority officials;

from their church;

from You, Almighty and Everlasting God.

Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, we ask You to empower and energise each and every Christian teacher in their calling to serve You.  Strengthen and protect them; bless and enable them so they might be “salt” and “light” to the communities they serve.
Amen

prayer submitted by Vik Sekasi, Furness Network Youth Minister

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Are you the one?

View of Coniston Old Man from Brantwood

 

We’re seeking a leader who can bring vision to a community called to share the good news in one of the most beautiful places in England.  We have mountains, sparkling water, lush green fells, and people who visit from all over the world.  This is a place where one can and does have a spiritual encounter.  Called to share The Way?  Respond now to archdeacon.south@carlislediocese.org.uk

Benefice Profile

Person Profile

Role Description Coniston and Torver

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December Prayer Diary

Vic had just published the December Youth Prayer Diary

Here is a key to the youth groups Vic and her team support around the Furness Deanery:

Explore – Christian union at Ulverston Victoria High School run by Vic and Saga
Christianity Club – Christian union at Dowdales run by Vicki Bunter
Kirkby Youth– A group for young people in Kirkby run by a youth committee that employs Libby Cuthbertson.
Urswick Youth– A group for young people in Urswick run by Barbara Green, Gra-ham Perry and Steve Hobson. Formed out of a confirmation class.
Ignite – A discipleship group for young people run by Sarah and Mark Callaghan.
VISION,Energize Y & O & H20 – Four discipleship groups for youth in Ulverston run by Ulverston Parish Church youth team.
Big Questions – A philosophy group at UVHS & John Ruskin school where we dis-cuss the big questions of life. Run by Vic, Lisa (at UVHS), Thomas & Saga
The Vibe– A discipleship group for young people at Emmanuel Christian Centre run by Lisa Smith.
Meeting point, Broughton-A group for young people in Broughton run by Jenny, Saga, Chris and team.
NJOY, Coniston-A group for young people in Coniston run by Johann, Vic and team
Thwaites Youth – A group for young people in Thwaites run by Vic & team

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Time out with your best friend

St. Andrew’s Church, Coniston, Cumbria

friend

What would you do if your best friend suddenly stopped meeting with you?  Would you

  1. Just ignore them and hope they returned
  2. Move on
  3. Seek them and find them to restore the relationship.

When was the last time you talked to God?

Time out for Prayer.  Every Second Wednesday, 12:30 p.m.

30 minutes to connect with the best friend you never knew you had…..

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Join us in The Great Wave of Prayer

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has called on all churches across the land to participate in a week of prayer, from 8 to 15 May.  You are invited to join the following events taking place in Coniston. 

St. Andrew’s Church, Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Open Prayer Space, 11:00 to 12:00; 12:30 to 15:00

Time Out, Prayer & Praise, 12:00 to 12:30

Why pray?  Christians believe that ‘prayer changes things’, and we are all very aware of the need for peace and hope in our world which is trying to cope with so many issues of local, national and international concern.  Even the scientific and  medical communities have recognised that when people are prayed for, even if not believers themselves, their recovery record is consistently better than those who were not open to prayer.

The Prayer Space is in the body of the warm church and is there for anyone to pop in at any time.  You may wish to sit quietly and reflect in peace, write a prayer on a tag and attach it to the prayer tree, light a candle for someone you care for or just ‘be’. There is usually someone there to talk to or pray with if you wish to, but that choice will be yours.

Time Out is for those who want to come together with others to focus on a theme in an active spirit of worship with music and prayer.  Time to listen to God.

Often when crisis strikes we can feel helpless or even hopeless, not knowing what to do to help…when that happens…we can always pray!

‘Fear not for I am with you,

Be not dismayed for I am your God,

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

I will uphold you with my victorious right hand’

Isaiah 41:10

So let’s do something positive, and ‘pop-in and pray!’

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Prayer Diary March 2016

If God is for us, who can be against us! Romans 8:31

Vic has put together the March diary to pray for the youth of Furness Deanery. 

Thought for the month from Tommy
Let’s be honest. Being a Christian isn’t always easy. Some would even say it is harder to be a Christian sometimes. We suffer, we experience hard times and pain. But is this God punishing us? No, I don’t believe it is. I believe it is God trying to wake us up! Trying to awaken us from this world and to acknowledge Him and seek to be with Him. In the book The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren quotes C.S. Lewis and says “Pain is God’s megaphone. It is God’s way of arousing us from spiritual lethargy. Your problems are not punishment; they are wake-up calls from God.” He wants us to wake up! To be awake together with Him in an intimate friendship.

Prayer Diary March 2016

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The Journey, February 2016

Vic Sekasi has put together the latest Youth Prayer Diary, February 2016 .

Her latest letter is full of news and some call for personal prayer.  Her Father is suffering from a personality changing dementia and Tommy’s Dad has a rare condition which has caused his aorta to expand to double the normal size with surgery required down the road.  Health issues are never easy so pray for healing and God’s hand to open doors in these difficult times.

Some highlights from January, with the remainder of this directly from Vic:

  •  Building a team to organise the annual youth weekend away. It was great to hear all the amazing feedback from the young people from last year and then to see how great and committed the leadership team is to enabling the young people to explore the Christian faith.
  • Being involved with Meeting Point (youth group in Broughton). We had a great leaders meeting this term followed by a great quiz. I loved seeing the leaders and young people having fun together and being competitive.
  • It was great to see Charlie again. We had a great time catching up and also we went to see Lexi (one of the young people in hospital with anorexia). Do pray for Lexi as she has had a difficult month and has had a blip and lost weight again.
  • We had some amazing testimonies at EMPOWER. It was great to hear how God had rescued 2 teenage girls from depression and suicide.
  • We had a great opportunity to go into John Ruskin school in Coniston and do an assembly on BIG Questions. We got the whole school to write down a question – If God did exist what would you ask? We then started a club the following Thursday and had 16 turn up from every age group. We are using their questions to theme the club.
  • Tommy led a great session on family at NJOY which was quite challenging for me never mind the young people. It’s exciting to see his gifts develop and grow.

In February we are looking forward to:

  •  Seeing some of the young people from the Youth alpha course we helped run at Low Furness get confirmed in Urswick. Do pray for Lily & Daniel
  • A relaxing break ;-).
  • Seeing the Big Questions at Coniston develop
  • Thwaites Youth as we haven’t met yet since Christmas!
  • Preparing ourselves spiritually as we go into the season of lent

Can you also pray for UVHS and Millom as they haven’t got back to me about the emails I’ve sent about lessons and prayer spaces.

Thanks again for all your prayers.

GB

Vic (& Tommy)

Victoria Sekasi

Furness Network Youth Minister

The Journey

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Receive the blessing

At the end of yesterday’s talk, everyone gave and received the following blessing:

Receive the blessing of Christ.   Know that Christ is with you always.   Let the love of Christ fill you.   Know the power of God in all your ways.   Walk in the promised land.

We are redeemed people.  Accept the blessing.  Let us surrender to Christ.

 

 

 

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