Summer is here – apparently. We haven’t had much rain for a while but it doesn’t seem to be getting any warmer. Hopefully it’ll warm up soon because we want to go in the lake so we can use our kayaks! Anyway, here’s our latest news:

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New Team

We’re excited to introduce to you two new full-time team members:

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Rachel Nunns joined us in January and has been settling into life at Gaines and the Worcester countryside ever since. She brings a lot of experience in outdoor activity instruction, and we’re looking forward to bringing in a more varied activity program using her skills and knowledge. She’s also managing all of our bookings, so when you get in touch with us she’ll be the person you speak to!

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Neil Avis is coming at the end of June. We’ve known Neil for a long time as he’s volunteered on numerous camps and events that we’ve run over the years and we haven’t managed to put him off! He’ll be busy helping Joe in the grounds, getting stuck into instructing activities, and generally making stuff happen. We’re looking forward to his arrival!

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New Stuff

Things are ever changing here. We recently acquired some Kayaks courtesy of our friends at Rock UK which will give us another activity option on the lake, and we also had delivered equipment to run Archery Tag – think Dodgeball with bows and arrows – which was a great hit with the kids we tested it on last week!

Incidentally, we’re permanently in need of new stuff! It may be 234 days to Christmas, but if you’d like to buy us an early present we’d be really grateful. Here is a page of things that we need in order to keep growing the ministry and improving the facilities. If you are able to help with the purchase of any of these items we’d love to hear from you, but please also use this list to help your prayers as you ask God to keep providing for us. Thanks!

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New Events

We’ve introduced two new weekend events into the diary that we’re looking forward to hosting. We’re planning a ‘Dads and Lads‘ weekend at the end of June, and a ‘Supersize‘ weekend in November. Supersize is for small youth groups (who wouldn’t otherwise be able to go on a residential weekend) to join with similar churches and enjoy time away together in a larger context.

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New Toilet (!)

We’re still doing what we can to improve the fabric of the building. We’ve renovated, re-painted and re-carpeted the ground floor toilet. Joe has been busy with our ‘Foggies’ (Friends of Gaines) to get the work done in the last few weeks – perhaps you could be a Foggie? Every Tuesday a team of volunteers turn up and get busy doing whatever needs doing practically around the house and grounds. We provide lunch and the fellowship is also free! See here for more details.

All these new things are great, and we want to give God thanks for all he has provided for us, and all he has done in keeping us going and growing here,so please join us in doing that! Pray that God would continue to meet our needs and enable us to expand and reach more young people with the great news of His gospel.

Please also pray for us as a team. With all the newness going on around us we need to remember our Gospel focus and that our unity comes from being brothers and sisters in Jesus. There’s so much good stuff going on it would be no surprise for Satan to try and spoil it, and the easiest way to do that would be to cause divisions amongst us. Please pray for us that we would remain united for the cause of the Kingdom.

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In Him,

Ben and the Team