Introduction Blog-Who am I?
Wow, It seems so long ago now that I was elected Methodist
Youth President at 3Generate 2014. Here I am now, sat in Methodist Church
house, a week into the new job, writing my first blog. What a journey it has
been and what an amazing journey it will continue to be. God has remained consistent
and faithful through it all. I pray now that he would use me, that this role
would be done in his strength and not mine, all for his glory.
I thought I would take this initial opportunity to introduce
myself and give you some background information on your current Youth
President. I was adopted at a very young age by a wonderful couple: Jane and
Steve. My mum who is now a Methodist minister instilled Christian values in me
and dragged (literally on some occasions) me to church on a regular basis. At the age of 10 I rebelled against this
forced commitment to the Church and I refused to go. The only connection I had
with Church was a youth club in Oadby, Leicestershire who ran summer camps once
a year. At the age of 12 I gave my life to God and my life was changed; for all
of about a week. Routines and old habits crept back in and life went back to
normal. My faith and commitment to God
vanished until the following years summer camp when I once again reaffirmed my
commitment to Christ. This became a continuous cycle until I began my GCSE’s
and I openly professed my faith to my friends. My faith became real, a daily
relationship with God. This doesn’t mean that I stopped making mistakes, or
that I was the perfect Christian- I definitely wasn’t! But I understood the
love of God. The opportunity arose to do work experience during year 10 and I
spent an amazing week working alongside St. Phillips Centre in Leicester who
work developing inter-faith relations. This helped me grow in the knowledge of
my faith and the acceptance of those around me. Later that year I went to
Sweden with St. Phillips Centre, helping to begin an inter-faith programme in
Gothenburg.
After GCSE’s we moved house, Mum had been ordained and her
first appointment was 40 minutes away in Rugby. The busy town seemed a long way
away from the quiet fields of Kibworth in rural Leicestershire. It was a hard
time for us all, but God was at work. I began my A-levels at Lawrence Sheriff
School, joined a rugby club and started a church. For the first time in ages I
was regularly attending Church and enjoying it! I even started going twice a
day! It was during this time that my faith matured, I began to grow and God
began to reveal more of himself to me. Following the completion of my A-levels
and after feeling God tell me no to go to university at Soul Survivor 2 summers
previous, I planned to do what I always felt called to: work with young people.
I had been doing voluntary youth work for just over two years by this point and
I loved it, I felt God call me to go and bring ‘Hope to the hopeless’ in line
with my passion for social justice and young people. What better place to do
that than in Sierra Leone-West Africa. Six months later I was a changed man, I
had seen so much. Volunteering in the slums outside Freetown led into Orphanage
work in Panaji in India, throughout every new experience God revealed more of
himself to me.
Prior to my work abroad I was part of the interviewing panel
for a One Programme Participant in my local Methodist Church- during this
process a member of the connexional team came to facilitate the interview, she
told me about the programme, the Rep roles and the Youth President. It was from
this moment- almost 2 years before I applied that God showed me the plan. I
prayed into it, my mum prayed into it and we both felt God point towards the
youth president role as where he wants me. Come November 2014, after lots of
stress, panic and arguing with God, I was elected Youth President 2015/16.
Since that time I have worked as a youth/schools worker, gone on trial as a
local preacher, lead worship, done a social justice project with Tearfund and
worked in a primary school. All this, I hope, will have prepared me for what
lies ahead in this coming year. Above all I learnt- God is loving, faithful and
has it all in control!
It would be my pleasure as Youth President to come and visit
any events you have got going on in your local area. Please send me any invites
to gaffneyc@methodistchurch.org.uk
and we’ll see if we can fit them into my diary. (it’s filling up fast!)
For now, this is Craig, signing out!
@youthpresident
