An essential part of any church’s work is in the local community that surrounds it. Over the years, The Ark Community Church has been involved in community projects and the lives of individuals who live in Abbots Langley, Bedmond and Leavesden.
Although the focus varies from year to year, our priority has been to work with children and youth, seeing the next generation as very important. We have always tried to see every child and youngster as special in God’s eyes and have encouraged them to see themselves and each other positively.
For many years we ran an ‘Alive and Kicking’ Kids Club for children aged 7 to 11 years in Hillside Hall, School Mead, Abbots Langley which was an all action fun packed evening but with Christian values at the heart of its programme. Alongside dodge ball, games, biscuit making and crafts around 40 youngsters each week would learn about telling the truth, respecting parents and other peoples property, dealing with anger, loving one another and other relevant subjects concerning home and school life.
Many of our regulars stayed with us right through to secondary school and we still meet them from time to time in the village.
Over the last two years we have switched our attention to the needs of local teenagers. Without a regular youth club meeting in either Bedmond or Abbots, and some anti-social behaviour being reported by residents and the Police, we decided to have a hands-on approach by running a converted ambulance called Upod and parking it up in Manor Park skate park on Monday and Wednesday evenings. You can read the story on the ‘Youth’ page by clicking HERE. We have employed Mary, our part time youth worker, and along with a youth volunteer team we reach out to local teenagers using the bus as a base and engaging with them through football, basketball, X-Box, hot chocolate or just hanging out and talking about family and school, which are two of the biggest discussion topics.
In addition to this, the Ark has part sponsored youngsters from the local area to go on Summer camps, run graffiti workshops and subsidised go-karting trips which have been a huge success.
One of the regular questions people ask me is ‘Do we preach at the Kids ?‘ Our approach is very simple and we make great efforts to show by our words and our actions and our lifestyle that Jesus is worth following. Bible bashing youngsters won’t achieve anything and we are firmly committed to building friendships and being there for any who want a listening ear or some help. Jesus was very much part of his local community, reaching out to those in need, and we see that as our objective too.
Historically, we have helped clear out the old spring and pond in Bedmond Village School’s grounds and made a safe place for the children to enjoy local nature and pond life, and have engaged in various initiatives to clear rubbish in Leavesden Country Park and Tanners Wood as part of our community commitment. |
