Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde & Argyll

Welcome

Hi,

Maybe you've visited this page because I am the Regional Worker for your region (sorry about that) and you want to find out more about what is going on, or perhaps-and this would be really good-you want to know more so that you can pray for the schools, groups and events that are happening. Maybe you are here because you would like to see the young people in your area engaging with the Bible and want to know how SU Scotland could help. Or perhaps you are from Aberdeen and you've hit the wrong link and found this page accidently! I don't know, but the best thing would be for you to get in touch and introduce yourself because there is a lot going on and a huge amount of ways in which you can be involved with SU Scotland.

You could volunteer with us in so many different ways. You could be on a team at an SU Holiday. You could help in the background at an event, run an SU group at your local school, or pray for your local school. Again, if you would like to chat about, it please get in touch-you can email me at Martin.Boyd@suscotland.org.uk.

Easter-Looking Back!

We had a great Easter Holiday at Scoughall in the April. I'm back there in the summer, but with twice as many young people since we will have the tents out. It wasn't really weather for tents at Easter; in fact, we bought the campers some hot water bottles just to make sure they were toasting at night time-there was a distinct drop in temperature. Not that the weather prevented us having a great holiday, which saw us telling our Easter week Bible stories on a minibus, in a graveyard, on the roof of the National Museum of Scotland, in a forest, at the top of North Berwick's Law and on a beach.

It was then good to come "home" and chat about these stories over a pre-dinner "mocktail", some Doritos, and think about what the stories mean for us today. One girl commented that she had got to know Jesus better because of her week at Scoughall.

I'm looking forward to Scoughall again in July (only a couple of places left!)-if you think you would like to be involved in SU Holidays, drop me a line, or if you know a young person who would enjoy a fun filled, action packed holiday then go to www.suholidays.org.uk.

Schools

Before the schools stopped for Easter, there were the usual and the not-so-usual Easter events. Alongside assemblies it was great to see primary classes visiting their local churches to 'walk through' the Holy Week story, visiting the Upper Room, finding out what happened at Gethesemane, thinking about Calvary and wondering at the empty tomb and the folded grave clothes.

There was a a Making sense of EASTER room at one school in East Renfrewshire, to allow pupils to investigate the story from Palm Sunday onwards, and reflect the historical events of that week, as well as an opportunity to look at issues of justice, friendship, sacrifice and love. We have great opportunities in Scottish schools to tell the amazing story of Jesus sacrifice and victory over death.

If you would like to find out about how your church could be a resource to your local school please get in touch.

Megamix

Megamix is an event for young people P6-S1 in East Renfrewshire-we meet monthly from 4-6pm for a mixture of games, stories, crafts, challenges and food. In March, we had a great "Mega table games challenge" followed by hot dogs (with crunch onions on top for those who had taste!)

Our next Megamix events are:

• Saturday 21 April, at Maxwell Mearns Castle Church;
• Saturday 19 May, at Eaglesham Parish Church.

The leaflet available for downloading on this page has all the details you need - please get in touch if you need more information.

Here comes Summer…

…Argyll

I am planning to be on the team again for the SU Mission with the churches in the north of Mull again this summer, and I will be visiting schools and volunteers in May in the lead up to this week. Please pray for the team of volunteers in Mull as they plan-there is such a variety of events and detail that needs looked at, so pray for unity throughout and a clear sense of the vision to reach out to young people, families and the community with the Good News of Jesus.

Training Opportunities For Young People

Recent studies have commented on the connection between young people's faith being grounded (and growing) with the opportunity to serve in church and beyond. SU Scotland offer these opportunities during Easter and Summer at SU Holidays and Missions, and are committed to training the young people in order for them to be equipped to serve on teams and back in their own home churches.

Training: young people (S5 and S6 and students) are already booking up for training with SU Scotland with a view to volunteering in 2012 at SU Holidays and Missions. The COmMISSION page has all the info you require about our Basecamp programme. It's been great to see all that was achieved by those who went to Basecamp last summer, the friendships that were built and faith that was established.

The Last Saturday

The Last Saturday events are for secondary-aged pupils and are an opportunity to meet in a relaxed environment each month with an informal programme. More information is available on the Last Saturday web page.

If you would like to hear what is going on in your area and you are on Facebook, you can keep in touch by going to the Scripture Union Scotland Facebook page.