Trinity Year 9

This has been a really jam packed weekend, and you all got straight in with everything. The team challenges on the first night were so much fun. Hello to mine and Liam’s small group, ‘4 boys 6 girls and a purple dinosaur’ You were such a laugh and all worked really hard, so well done to you. Your morning prayer was dead good and I also think that the asking prayers yoo wrote for mass were a really high standard, so well done to you!

Thanks for a very busy fun filled weekend! Good luck with everything!

Take care

Steph

Trinity Y9

This has been a great weekend and I only wish you could have stayed longer!! I had a great time with my small group, ‘Take it to the Max’, especially concerning attack of the killer moths!!! I especially enjoyed playing football in break times, it was so much fun and a great laugh, shame I never won though!! Hope you all enjoyed your stay here too, best wishes for the future!!

Don

Trinity Year 9

This was a great weekend and I really enjoyed getting to know you all. It would have been cool if you had stayed longer because it was clear to see you were getting a lot out of it. Mass was amazing and all the role plays and prayers were great and afterwards the disco was a lot of fun.

God bless

Matt

Trinity Year 9

Yoyoyoyo!

Great few days, full of fun times. Just wish you guys could have stayed abit longer!

Many funny moments surrounded the weekend, makes me laugh now just thinking about them. You guys were all very friendly and easy to talk to something I proper respect, cheers for being great yo!

Oh, and big up to my small group: ‘4 Handsome Lads and 6 Lovely Ladies’ you guys were awesome!

God bless.

Conor

Easy yo!

What can I say, what a sick weekend! We got up to so much and I can’t even remember what we did!

It’s a real shame you guys couldn’t have stayed for a week, I know some of you were dying for a couple more days with us.

Big shout out to mine and Orla’s group, fair play to you all it’s been fun!

I hope you all keep in touch

Peace

SJH Y9

Wow, this was an awesome week, I could tell you all got something out of it and I really hope you all enjoyed your first week retreat. A big shout out to my small group, you were amazing ‘the pigs in blankets with Yorkshire puddings’, maybe one of the strangest names I’ve had. You were a great group and I was impressed with just how enthusiastic, chatty and willing you were to through your self into everything.

One of the highlights had to be bowling and was definitely impressed with a lot of the bowling skills around. Unfortunately I came second to last. The variety show was just amazing and the disco was sooooo much fun because it was great to see you all dancing and just enjoying yourselves.

Good luck and God bless

Matt

SJH Y9

I’ve absolutely loved this week, and I hope you enjoyed it too! And I’d just like to say G’day Bruce to the ‘Cardboard Gang’, I really loved having you all as my small group and hope you all had a laugh too! It was great to see how the everyone always got involved, a prime example was the Bee session, and I’ve no doubt my group would have won if we’d had another go!!! Overall it was an unforgettable week, thanks for the great memories guys, and best wished for the future!!

Don

St John Houghton Year 9

This has been a truly amazing week! I have loved every second of it and I hope you all enjoyed it just as much as I did! You were so friendly and easy to chat to.  A big shout out to my small ‘Bob’s your Uncle, Nigel’s your brother.’ You guys were amazing and every single one of you joined in with everything, so thanks for that! Our mascot for our small group was awesome, and well done for winning the horse race!!

Reconciliation was amazing! Every single groups presentation was so powerful, and I really really enjoyed it so well done to you guys. The walk as well was great and I loved being able to chat to you all.

So thanks for a really memorable week, I loved it all, so thank you!

Good luck for the future,

Take care,

Steph

St.John Houghton Year 9

Well what another fun week it has been! It’s always good fun when SJH turn up!

Big shout out to myself and Clare’s small group ‘Green Gang Gardeners Gnomes’, you guys were brilliant, never failing to make me laugh and getting involved with everything we did.

Was loving the Bowling on Wednesday and the Bee session on Thursday, even though things got very complicated trying to work out how many bees we had! Haha.

Anyway peoplez I’ll love you and leave you for this week, hope to see you up here again yo!

Conor

St John Houghton

Safe safe everyone! How you all doing?

I’ve got to tell you that I have absolutely LOVED you all being up this week, it’s been safe as anything! Big shout out to my small group, I was loving your company J We pretty much just dosed around getting to know each other…I was in Heaven. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Prayer journeys were joke as well…nothing like a fire alarm to kill a mood. I hope I was able to cheer you all up as well!

This has been such an eventful week! I’m only just remembering that we went bowling!!! How could I possibly forget?!?!

We were definitely the best group, we didn’t even need a group room.

I really hope you all enjoyed your time up here, spending the better half of a week just dosing around getting to know the rest of team. Please come up and visit and let us know how your all getting on!

Peace yo!

SJH

Hey guys!

what a brilliant week I really enjoyed chatting to you all and having a laugh. I thought we did some great things and although it was your second, the walk was amazing. I really enjoyed the bees game and trying to get out of debt it was so manic and fun. I thought that Wednesday night was so nice and peaceful and I think you all got a lot out of it. Thanks for all getting stuck in and involved and I hope to see you all again. Take care guys

Sinoia

This year Search for the Light is taking place from Thursday 1^st to Sunday 4^th April.

It cost’s just £80 and is open to anybody year 11 and over.

“Search” is the perfect opportunity to look at the real meaning of Easter with young people from all over the country.

Places as always are strictly limited so download the booking form here and get your deposit in!

If you want to help publicise the event then you can download the poster too!

We’ve been busy trying to put together a video of everything that goes on up here at The Briars, so that you can find out a bit more before your stay, or relive some happy memories!

Enjoy!

The Briars and Reach4 are seeking applicants for next years residential and outreach team.

If you are 18 and over and interested in applying for the residential team at The Briars then you can find out more by looking at The Briars pages or by contacting Hannah by email hannah@ndcys.com

If you have experience in youth ministry already and are maybe looking for a something a bit different – then reach4, the outreach team may be for you. For more information click on the reach4 pages to see what we do or contact Tom by email tom@ndcys.com

Well were back for 2010! We’ve just got back and realised that we havn’t put the photos for Advent 2009 online! so here they are!

A big thankyou to everyone who made this retreat so special, hope you had a great Christmas!

Happy New Year!!

Hey everyone,

I really enjoyed this weekend, and it was really nice to have likeminded people staying with us who we could talk about youth ministry with! Social times in the bar and also the prayer times were really good, and I loved getting to know you.

Best of luck with your future endeavors,

Dave

Although we didn’t see you an awful lot through the course of the weekend it was fantastic meeting you all. I’ve loved socializing with you all with all the card games and chatting to you all at mealtimes.  Ive had some great chats and ive enjoyed every minute of it. I hope you had a fulfilling weekend and enjoyed your stay. I wish you all the best in the future.

Take Care and God Bless.

Sinoia

What a lovely weekend this has been! You have been so great to have around and very helpful! One of the things that stuck out to us all was how appreciative you all were for the work we did, but you really did make it very easy for us, so thanks a lot for that!

I absolutely loved playing card games with you on Saturday night, and it reminded me just how much I love the game spoons, so thank you!

I hope you all carry on with the fantastic work that you are doing…good luck!

Take care,

Steph

It’s been absolutely great having you up this weekend. Despite us not spending so much time together because of your conference on Saturday, it’s been great getting to know you all over meal times. Thank you all for coming to our morning and night prayers, we really do appreciate it. Finally, thank you all for being so kind and talkative to me and the team. It’s nice to have people up who appreciate our work.

Peace.

Joe

This was such an enjoyable weekend, it was great to spend time with people who get what it is we do and why we do it. I really enjoyed socialising with you all, you were just amazing people.
Thank you for teaching me all the card games even though my brain still can’t comprehend salute and all the actions your meant to do. Despite what Don says, I beat him at spoons.
Funtimes, good luck and God bless for all your work in the future and I hope to see you all again.
Matt

This was a really nice enjoyable weekend, and my favourite part was definitely beating you all at cards in Hebron lounge in the evening. It was really nice to meet people who understand what kind of work we do here and really interesting to hear about the work you all do.

I wish you all the best of luck with all the work you do, and hope to see some of you again sometime.

Don

Easy guys!

How awesome were you?! I had an incredibly enjoyable time this week, and really loved how you just threw yourselves into all the activities  from the off with the Tribal game. Sammy we all know should have won! A big shout out to “A-Bun-Dance”, what a name, one of my favourites for sure. I really liked walking with you guys as a small group, you were open to sharing and were really fun to play games with, me and Sinoia loved it!

Bowling was definitely one of the highlights of the week for me, except my below par score, I had real fun. Beating Joe 7-1 on the Air Hockey table really soothed the wounds of letting the girls in my lane win the bowling of course.

Reconciliation was amazing as well! Everyone’s group actions were really cool to watch and made me think a lot. That evening was a really reflective evening and I loved it, especially the Rev’s story with Hot chocolate and marshmallows! I was also well impressed with how good you guys were at singing and the roleplays and our groups rap in Mass was unreal!

Hope to see some of you at Advent,

Dave

Hi everyone!! wow what an amazing week, I wish it could have gone on longer! I loved playing cards and learning new ones like spit and battle of ..I want to say Gallactica but I know that’s wrong haha!!  The tribal game on Tuesday night was epic and I thought you all did well but Sammy the Snake was amazing and he survived the whole week.

Wednesday with Mr T and bowling was great, big shout out to my bowling lane because I came second J which is the best I’ve come in a long time so I was happy hehe.  Reconciliation was amazing and you all did so well and I thought the sparklers and marshmallows after was fantastic with the numerous bedtime stories , such good times.

Thursdays walk was fab, I thought despite the rain and mud you all enjoyed it, I really enjoyed chatting to you all and getting to know you more and then playing cards again for an hour after lunch was so much fun. Mass was truly epic with the ABUNDANCE rap and then the hilarious first and second reading dramas.  Formal was great rounded off by your fabulous Variety show and your jigging disco..great stuff.

As Friday arrived we all enjoyed the day to best we could and final lit was so nice. So thank you for a really great week! Take care and enjoy 6^th form and maybe see some of you at Advent! Sinoia

It was so great spending time with you this week, as you were all just so friendly! I didn’t have a small group this week, but it was really easy to see how well you got on with each other, and just how much you bonded.

One of the highlights of the week for me was the first night and seeing how well you got involved with all the tribal activities, and watching some of the lads pretending to be horses and prancing around the lower conference room. Also fantastic was bowling, especially since I got my highest score ever! A big thank you to the girls on my lane for all the encouragement you gave me J

Thank you to you all for being so nice and helpful and making our lives so easy! Good luck with your a levels, I’m sure you’ll all do great! I hope to see some of you up for the open retreats!

Take care,

Steph

Helloooo everyone!

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed having you all up this week! Seriously I’ve never had so much fun, especially with my shared small group; Okey Dokes. I loved all of you.

From the first night becoming the ‘Tigers’ was just great. Seriously, making that beautiful tiger and then coming up with a chant was just hilarious (I’m soooo sorry that the paint just about gave us 3^rd degree burns!) But of course the best team won. Us.

Doing the Mr. T session with you all as well was just brilliant. Who knew that in one morning prayer you could have Paris Hilton AND Mr. T?! Just one of the many memories I won’t soon forget.

That afternoon playing bowling also. My lane of lads was just pure jokes. I’m sorry
I beat you all but practice makes perfect! The Sloth will always win. Shame about Nighthawk.

Mass was straight laughs as well. Never had a better mass whilst we’ve all been up here. First of all, that rap was just incredible. STOP…Pony time. Genius.

Then First reading, the voice over man should consider that as a profession.

And finally, mine and Matt’s group on Gospel. Jokes. I’m now considering becoming a professional shepherd. You all made wonderful sheep.

Thank you for all the kind words you said in affirmation.

I hope to see ALL of you up soon…I mean all of you.

God Bless

Peace

Joe

Wow, what and amazing week, I know I speak for all the team when I say we had so much fun this week. I really enjoyed getting to know all of you, especially the okie dokes. Big shout out to mine and Joes group, you were just fantastic and thank you for throwing yourselves into everything.
I loved all the tribal stuff on the first night, and yes the best team won (Oh happay neigh.) I  particularly enjoyed bowling mainly because im sure 95 is the highest score I’ve ever got.
I really enjoyed reconciliation, plus who doesn’t enjoy hot chocolate and marsh mellows accompanied by a bed time story?!
I know I speak for Joe as well but the Okie dokes were by for the best group and we loved getting to know all of you, plus a big thank you for all our affirmations.
I thought the whole week was just awesome and I really do hope to see some of you up at advent, its always nice to see familiar faces and it would be great to get to know you more.
Thanks for every thing you were great. God bless for the future.
Matt

Hi everyone.

This week was absolutely amazing, with so many great memories. The Tribal Quiz Wars on the first night was so much fun. I loved all the hilarious answers there were and especially loved the chants and the best horse neigh songs. But guys, on a more serious note, the Pelican won it. Bowling on Wednesday was great fun as well despite the fact I was rubbish but at least I got more than five. The Reconciliation service was immense, you all set the atmosphere so well, and finishing with the sparklers was so cool, and the hot chocolate and story time just finished the day perfectly. I could tell the Lump video in reconciliation really made a big impression on you, especially my group as it featured in all of our role plays. The walk was so much fun too, especially the game of pony and the highlight of the entire walk, Sinoia falling over. The Variety Show was unforgettable because there was so much talent on display from such a small group of people.

I wished the week could have lasted a lot longer but I hope to see many of you up again for advent retreat. Good luck with the future, I’m sure you’ll all to great .

Don

The most wonderful time of the year! Open retreat for Advent at The Briars for those in year 11 or older (up to 25). It takes place on the 11 – 13^th December, and costs just £62 for the weekend.

It’s a great chance to great chance to meet other people and prepare properly for Christmas!

Booking form available here just download the form and fill it and and send it back with your deposit to the address on the form, places are limited so book early.

You can also take a look at the pictures below from last year to see what it’s all about!

Download Booking Form

Advent Retreat Poster 2009

We are now inviting applications from those who are just finishing their A-Levels and who want to take a gap year working with young people. Come and work at one of the best youth retreat centres in the country. Contact hannah@ndcys.com Tel; 01773 852044 for details and an application form.