Urban Devotion Birmingham: Latest News

Youth Alpha / 180 Residential

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:17:46 +0000

This half term we ran a residential for some young people who have shown a desire to find out more of what it means to follow Jesus. The residential featured inspiring talks, a prayer space, muddy games, a ridiculous amount of food and the opportunity to hang out and deepen relationships. We had a fantastic time at St Swithin's in Barston: much fun had by all, much sleep had by...no-one! Youth Alpha and 180 will continue through to Easter and we plan to run new courses in the summer term. Get in touch if you are interested.

Happy New Year!

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:51:05 +0000

Happy New Year from everyone at Urban Devotion Birmingham! May this be a year filled with hope, purpose and opportunity for you.

We're excited about the projects we've got coming up as they help us to continue serving children and young people and inspiring them to raise their aspirations and reach their potential. We're also really looking forward to buiding on some of the partnerships we are involved in - with schools, other organisations and initiatives such as Kingdom Come 2012. As ever you can keep up to date with what we are doing through this website, through facebook and through twitter. Alternatively feel free to give us a call, email us or drop in for a chat!

Prayer Rooms In Schools Conference

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:39:26 +0000

"On the 5th October I travelled to Clerkenwell in London for the first ever Prayer Spaces in Schools conference, hosted by 24-7 Prayer UK. Prayer spaces in schools are spaces with interactive activities to help children and young people to explore what prayer is and who God is in ways which are relevant to them. Since hosting an Easter themed prayer space at Story Wood School in April 2011, we have been excited about how we can expand on this, and so I attended the conference hoping to come back with lots of inspiration and ideas!

There were over 100 people at the conference and so plenty of opportunities for networking and meeting with people who had run prayer spaces before. The day was full of inspiration and vision, sharing ideas and valuable insight. I found it particularly helpful to hear the wisdom and experiences of people who have set up lots of prayer spaces; to hear how they have continued to sustain creativity and developed further opportunities in schools. Some have even been involved in establishing permanent prayer spaces! There was also the chance to share activity ideas and ways to engage a variety of children and young people. I have come back with lots of new ideas!

The real value of the conference was in connecting with other people who have a similar vision and passion and being able to share all that we have learned and all we want to do. The day enthused me with ideas for future prayer spaces and equipped me with the tools and understanding to be able to develop these."

For more information about Prayer Spaces in Schools please visit prayerspacesinschools.org.uk.

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Introducing Kate...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:56:26 +0000

"My first month working at UDB has gone really fast – I’m having a lot of fun! The young people over in Erdington Hall are definitely characters and I’m enjoying hanging out with them and getting to know them. My table tennis ability has definitely improved in this last month too!

I decided to work for UDB because they gave me the opportunity to invest in the things and places I am passionate about. My role here is to be a youth worker for the Erdington Hall and Birches Green area, which involves running drop in clubs, doing street level, going into Kingsbury School and doing various projects. Another part of my role that I’m developing is working with other agencies to build up a response to the issue of domestic abuse in the area. This is something that I feel God has really given me a heart for and I am looking forward to getting involved.

One of my favourite things about this job is getting to work with a team that is both lovely and hilarious...everyone gets on really well.

Can’t wait to see what God is going to do over this next year and looking forward to meeting some more new people!"

Our New Team!

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 22:28:20 +0000

Wow! We've almost reached the end of September - the first month with UDB for four new team members. In truth none of them are entirely new as they have all been involved with UDB before but at the beginning of September Josh, Kate, Sophie and Steve joined our staff team and have already brought an infectious blend of skill, passion and enthusiasm into the mix.

Click on their names to visit their pages and find out more about them! We've also welcomed Mel back from maternity leave and temporarily waved goodbye to Clair who is enjoying her new-born son Seth. Finally we have been without Amy for most of the month as she got married and acquired a new surname - congratulations Amy Heyes!

Burning Shoes!

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:47:42 +0000

Ask any of the UDB team and they will tell you that you get through lots of pairs of shoes working for UDB. We place a high value on being out on the streets and as a result walk for miles! We want to meet young people where they are at and build relationships with them. We don't usually burn our shoes though!

Last night Amy and I were on Street Level chatting to some guys playing at the MUGA (Multi Use Games Area' to the initiated!) when one of them pointed out a small fire burning in a nearby carpark. Being of inquistive ilk we wandered over and saw that someone had started a fire between two large felled tree trunks. They had done a fairly good job but the fire was still small so I broke up the fire by kicking it whilst Amy fetched some water from the stream with a discarded bottle. Between us we put the fire out but our shoes bear the scars - mine have singed laces and blackened soles and Amy's are muddy from the stream bank! Other than that we had a great evening with the young people with some deep conversations.

Balsam Bashing!

Sun, 07 Aug 2011 10:26:14 +0000

In July we got involved in a conservation effort on the recreation ground in Perry Common. Working alongside volunteers from the local community and as part of the Natural World Project we cleared the Hawthorn Brook of much of the balsam plant that prevents native plant species from growing.

Building on this work we are partnering with the Keep Britain Tidy Waterside Care initiative to establish a regular group of lads between the ages of 10 and 12 to make Perry Common a better and more welcoming environment for local people to enjoy.

Inside Rookery House

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:30:52 +0000

[quotethis]If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large[/quotethis]

"Nestled between the Erdington Hall and Birches Green estates sits an historic building - Rookery House. I was allowed to look inside Rookery House this month with a local resident who has lived and worked in Erdington Hall for over 20 years.

He showed me around the grounds of Rookery Park afterwards, showing me the lawns where abolitionists used to organise tea parties, where William Wilberforce used to visit his future wife. Wilberforce probably would have been personally involved in some of those meetings. Perhaps he would have told his wife's guests about the things he'd seen and learned about, seeking to capture the attention of the people of Erdington and wake them up to the condition of the society they lived in.

His work was about more than laws and institutions. Wilberforce had to give himself to a mission that was all about people. He had to strive for the attention of the complacent, to contend for the support of the passive, to stir the compassion of God in the hearts of the sleepy and the comfortable. His comment above captures the secret he discovered for how to succeed in a monumental task like that. He opened his own heart, allowing himself to be "feelingly alive" to what was going on around him and he spoke up about it. When you meet a person like that, someone who is "feelingly alive," it challenges your excuses for ignoring other people's suffering. It wakes you up to the need to stop treating the difficult circumstances around you as other people's problems.

As I spoke with Patrick about the significance of the moments that had passed on the ground where we were standing, I reflected on the comments of another friend of mine who'd seen the UDB team playing football in that same park with a group of about 25 young people of all kinds of races and backgrounds. He called my attention to the joy Wilberforce would have felt in seeing the descendants of slaves and slave owners playing football together in his father-in-law's back garden. His comments struck a chord with me. At the same time, though, I couldn't help but start to wonder about the passion that drove a man like Wilberforce. I wondered what it would drive him to do today if he could see the situation in which we find ourselves.

The shadow of slavery has lifted now, but new challenges surround us. The E.D.L. slogan spray-painted with a swastikka below it on the fence directly opposite the park is a stark reminder of dangerous attitudes that still lurk under the surface. The regular visits of the fire brigade that have become necessary to protect Rookery House and its grounds against unidentified arsonists in the last few weeks and the flowers tied to a lamppost just down the road with a photo of one of the local young men stabbed to death last year in the neighbourhood are symptoms of ongoing discord, of a society that still needs transformational healing.

There have been many encouragements in June, as we've seen young people come together to enjoy each other's company, to give their time in the service of others, to learn new skills and ways of expressing themselves. Looking ahead to the rest of the Summer and what lies beyond, though, I'm convinced that we too need to allow ourselves to be "feelingly alive" to the challenges that surround us."

ID at North Birmingham Academy

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:40:37 +0000

One of the programs we run in secondary schools is "ID" - a 6 week course focused on encouraging girls to make positive choices and develop their self esteem. We had a catch-up session with our last group today, a few months after the course finished, to see how they are doing and give them folders with photos and reminders of our time together.

Our favourite moment of the session today was when one of the girls proudly announced that she has gone from a 'grade D' for behaviour (close to exclusion) to a 'grade A' - how fantastic?! We love it when we can celebrate success with young people!