Once again, we write to you to express our gratitude for your continued support and encouragement, which has enabled Label of Love to continue throughout so many years. It has meant, and means, so much. Thank you all.
It has been a challenging time over recent months – especially since lockdowns brought so many changes – and the Trustees are extremely grateful for the hard work and gracious commitment of the Team throughout.
You may remember that last spring we employed Cathy Beynon to explore for us what the current needs and opportunities are for Christian ministry in schools – and some of you gave Cathy some valuable feedback on your own interest and reasons for supporting this area of ministry. Thank you so much for that.
Cathy did a fantastic job, and it became clear that there were still opportunities, but that we might have to change a little how we work.
For this year (Sep 2023 – Aug 2024) Adam will be delivering work in two Secondary Schools on behalf of other organisations. He will continue his excellent work in South Hunsley School for Hunsley Christian Youth Trust supporting students. Adam will also be working at Archbishop Sentamu Academy on behalf of St Aidan’s Church. He will join the chaplaincy team led by Revd Anne Richards who already has lots of ideas for what he might do. We are very excited about these two areas of work and Adam is looking forward to the coming year.
Also, as a result of Cathy’s work, we believe there are still opportunities to do creative and engaging RE with schools. This may mean developing RE:action (which once brought pupils from different schools together in large church venues) in different ways, and offering a service that more schools can engage with despite the financial and time restrictions they face. Cathy also got positive responses from churches about helping them to connect more with their local schools.
With these opportunities in mind the Trustees have decided to recruit a new worker for schools and churches with the specific role of redeveloping RE:action and working with local churches to connect with their schools. Please do send the attached advert to anyone you know who might be interested and send them to our website www.labeloflove.co.uk for more details about the job.
As we are looking forward to new opportunities we will also be looking for some new Trustees this year as two of our longstanding Trustees will be stepping back from active involvement after many years of commitment. There will be more details on our website soon, but please consider yourself or anyone who you know who might have the interest and skills that can help us grow in new ways in the future. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more. The Trustees who are retiring would confirm what a blessing it has been to them to be involved in this work over the years.
Even through difficult times, and perhaps especially through those times, God has sustained us, and it seems that a way forward is now opening up for us to continue to share the wonderful good news of the Gospel, and His amazing love (His Label of Love) for all those young people that we are able to reach. Please do pray for us as we explore what this will look like and we look for the right people to help us take our next steps.
With our love and thanks,
David and Joy Bower
(on behalf of the Label of Love Trustees)