Parish of Mickleham - Young People

last updated 21 Dec 2011

The Mickleham Sunday Club for 3 to 10 year-olds meets in the Ranmore Room (church vestry) every Sunday at 10am except the first Sunday of each month when we join the Family Service.

St Michael’s Crew (formerly Crusaders) relies on volunteers to construct activities around weekly themes and to lend a hand on the evening. If you are interested in becoming involved once a month and supporting this worthwhile (and rewarding) programme, please contact C Jones on 01372-450965
St Michael’s Crew for Juniors (ages 7-10) meets every Friday in the Village Hall from 6 to 7pm. St Michael’s Crew for Seniors (ages 11-14), meets every other Friday from 7 to 8pm.

There are also youth groups in the parish of Leatherhead - click on young people in Leatherhead

from the July/August 2011 magazine
Urban Saints Day Out at Westbrook, Isle of Wight
After about six weeks of lovely dry weather I looked out of the window at 7am on Saturday 7th May to a strange sight - it was raining. Although it was forecast, it was still a shock to actually see it and then think of the implications of spending a day outside with a bunch of teenagers! I was taking Amber, Ben and Jamie to an Urban Saints day out for groups from the South East area. We set off from Mickleham at 8:15 a.m. and managed to get down to Southsea in time to get an early Hovercraft, enabling us to be one of the first groups to arrive. It was like going away on holiday for the day. From Ryde Hoverport terminal we were taken by coach to the venue (about 10 minutes away) and given an extensive programme of events and activities including: air rifle shooting, swimming, gyroscoping, giant chess, giant catapult, climbing, ropes course, craft activities, graffiti board and football. Amazingly the sun came out when we arrived in Ryde and stayed out for the whole day except for a down pour during a whole group meeting in the huge marquee. No one took any notice as we were all safely undercover singing songs and having some bible based fun!

The setting is fantastic, a large Victorian country mansion set in 26 acres of varied parkland and 10 minutes walk from the sea. Westbrook opened to Crusader/Urban Saints in 1948 and is used for holidays for youth groups, catering for up to 100 on a full-board basis. There was so much space that we were unaware that there were 350 people participants.

Jonathan and Sarah Blake were up at the crack of dawn to help set up the event. Jonathan was manning the gyroscope thingy, turning children round and upside down – I’m not sure how he managed to survive without feeling really ill. Sarah was doing her Bay Watch bit, as a lifeguard at the busy swimming pool!

Our young people all got on really well and stuck together – the most popular activities appeared to be the shooting (more for Ben and Jamie I think) crafts (Amber) and the giant catapult – all enjoyed equally. Jamie declared it ‘legendary!’ Amber adds ‘I had a great day as there was so much to do and fun to have. We took part in nearly all the activity and it was nice to see some of the people from Not Whit camp.’

We arrived home at 6 p.m. thoroughly exhausted but feeling that we’d had a thoroughly good day out! Thank you very much to the Urban Saints organisers and helpers especially Jonathan and Sarah for organising this great day out. We hope that we can do it again next year.
Amanda Wadsworth

PS Crew welcomes all new members (school years 7 – 11) in the village hall on Friday evenings in term time. Come and join us. Bring your friends.

from the May 2011 magazine
Climbing with the Crew
On Saturday 19th March a group of excited Senior Crew turned up a Mickleham Village Hall and were transported a few miles to High Ashurst – an outdoor activity centre on Box Hill run by Surrey County Council. We were very fortunate to have a lovely sunny and warm day.

Large sums have been spent on High Ashurst over the last two years, resulting in some superb wooden accommodation buildings, all fitted out to cater for both enabled and very disabled youngsters. The equipment installed in these wonderful high quality buildings was amazing. Having arrived at the site, we were shown into the reception centre, built out of wood and designed by Rob Fidgett 14 years ago. After Rob had briefly explained what has been done at the centre over the last few years, we were taken to the 52-foot climbing wall.

We were instructed on how to climb the wall and given the appropriate safety instructions. Once we were fully kitted out, we were off. All of us were eager to climb and try out the abseiling.

The climbing wall itself had two squarish pillars with an arch between the two (a bit like the Arc De Triomphe in Paris!). Along each side of the walls, different holds, in various colours had been placed, to enable people to climb them. This provided interesting and various ways of climbing the wall.

Nervous at first, we all climbed a short way before trying again to better the previous attempt. The wall had only just been installed two weeks previously. Ben was the first person to reach the top of the wall in one section and Sarah the other.

Having climbed the wall a few times, Ben and Christopher attempted a climb using something which was made to simulate pick axe climbing. So instead of using your hands to pull yourself up, you looped a bit of leather attached to a wooden handle to the grips and pulled yourself up that way. Apparently it was incredibly tiring on the arms but Chris and Ben managed one of the walls using this method.

Several exhausting climbs later we moved around to another wall and abseiled down it. I am not scared of heights normally, but stepping off the ledge and looking down was actually really scary. The best way is not to look down but up into the sky and just let yourself go. It is a great feeling, especially knowing what you had achieved at the end.

After the wall we went on to look around the site and to view the new huts.

A wonderful time was had by all. Thank you very much to Rob Fidgett for giving us the opportunity to use the site. Long may it continue!
Sarah Blake

from the Mar 2010 magazine
St Michael’s Crew and Sunday Club
We thought it was time for an update on what we are offering in the way of youth work in the Parish.
The youngest children (three to seven years or thereabouts) and their parents attending Sunday Club are benefiting from the lovely new space that is the Ranmore Room (the vestry that was) at the church. The children join in the first part of the Sunday morning service before going out to enjoy their own activity and teaching; they then come back into church for the end of the service. This new system is working well: just come along if you would like to on Sundays at 10 a.m. or if you would like more information, please contact Sarah Parfitt.

The Junior section of St Michael’s Crew which caters for school years 3 – 6 (approximately 8 – 11 year olds) is thriving under the capable guidance of Jo Elrick, Eric Flint and Caroline Jones with parents helping on a rota basis and David Ireland regularly in attendance to keep all on the right path. Lots of fun and active games are ably organised by our helpers Imogen Adshead and Kerry Mason who have bags of energy and imagination, and there is usually a themed craft activity each week – recently everyone made and decorated a gingerbread man whilst learning about Unicef’s work with children overseas. Another highlight this term was a torchlit, and moonlit, walk over the downs.

The Intermediate group is for those at secondary school in Years 7 – 9 and this group has been growing steadily since it was relaunched a little over a year ago. However, the Seniors, Years 10 upwards, have mostly moved on to other things (mainly exam related, unfortunately for them) and cannot commit to coming regularly. It has been decided therefore to combine Inters and Seniors this year and to offer a session in the Village Hall every other week, alternating with a discussion group for Year 8 and above in the Ranmore Room at the church. This arrangement has worked well as the smaller space is good for quieter conversation, whilst the more energetic activities such as pancake making and team games are more suited to the village hall.

We are planning to take a group of Inters to Not Whit Camp in the summer half term again, and have lots of other outdoor activities in mind for when the weather warms up, so if you would like to join us on a Friday evening, please give one of us a call to check the venue. You will be very welcome. If you are interested in coming along, or in helping then please call S Parfitt on 07767 891772.

from the Jul/Aug 2009 magazine
Not Whit Camp 2009
For the last twelve years West Surrey Urban Saints groups (formerly Crusaders) have held a camp for young people aged between 9 and 19 years at the end of the summer half term. Jonathan and Sarah Blake have been going along as leaders for the past eight years, with or without youngsters (!), and this time it was the turn of Caroline Jones and Alison Wood to take the Intermediate group who have been meeting regularly since September – Amber, Isabel, Miriam, Lucas and Christopher. Jonathan and Sarah were there too, Jonathan in the cook tent and Sarah running the Seniors programme, but even with their support we did all feel very new to this, especially as three of our young people had never camped before.

The setting for the camp is absolutely beautiful, a circular clearing in a pine wood near Farnham, well off the road so the kids can wander and play among the towering Scots pine and emerging green shoots of bracken, and we were blessed with the most perfect weather; blue and sunny for all four days but never impossibly hot. Because the camp has been running for so long and many of the other groups have attended many times, there is a very established feel to it – everyone seemed to know what to do and when, and we just fitted in and learnt the ropes as we went along.

This is a Christian camp and there is a morning meeting with teaching on a theme – this time it was ‘Heroes of Faith’ so we looked at Abraham, Esther, Moses and David - but it also exists to provide us all with some time and space outside our normal daily routines to slow down and think and enjoy one another’s company doing lots of activities and silly games. No electronic games or gadgets allowed, and amazingly we all survived and did not miss them at all!

Chris said: ‘I liked the huddles because it was interesting to hear what other people thought about the teaching. I liked the big wooden puzzles and the hydro Olympics because we got soaked and were allowed to throw wet sponges at people. The food was great – thanks Jonathan’.

Isabel said: ‘Not Whit Camp was a first in many ways for me. I had never been camping before and this was the first time we as a group had sat down with lots of other people like us and discussed exactly what we thought about the Bible, the people in it, ourselves and many other things. I think I viewed it all from a slightly different angle to a lot of people there, as although it was a Christian camp, I am not actually Christian myself. However I did want to find out more as well as have some fun with the rest of the group, and everyone there was incredibly welcoming and anyone was welcome. The range of things to do was brilliant, and although everyone had their jobs to do, nothing felt overwhelming. I would definitely go back next year!’

Caroline and I would like to thank the parents for lending us their lovely children for a few days. We are new to running a group like this and were not at all sure how we would cope with four days camping with a hundred children and thirty or so leaders we had barely met, but it was a fantastically positive experience. Our young people were brilliant; they got on well together and with everyone else, coped with the adversity of no showers and spiders in the tents, shared their ideas and tried new things. They even won first prize for the tidiest tents over the three days! We hope to go again next year, and if anyone reading this is in Years 7 – 9 at school and would like to join us on a Friday evening, please contact either of us for more information.

A Wood 01372 376443
C Jones 01372 450965