Scottie & Renate 2000

details to come

December 1999 - Scottie & Renate Newsletter

You have been sent this Newsletter because you are very special to our ministry with young people in Whangarei and in Northland.

Firstly I would like to thank God for the way He has blessed Renate & I in this ministry with YFC. I have got a story to tell you.

We sometimes apply for grants from various community organizations, sometimes we are successful and sometimes we are turned down. Well for Rock Solid we had two good years of getting funding for the leaders training and office expenses. And felt pretty confident about getting it again. The letter came and we got a shock when they turned us down. Thinking it was all over I turned to God thinking, why us? Why do some sports clubs etc get funding & not us? He told my very simply to "Trust Me" God knows having a name like Youth for Christ makes it tough to get funding in a day & age like this. At times we have been tempted to change our name. But God said to trust in Him. So I did. We prayed about how we were going to operate in 2000 with no funding.

Well firstly we had been asked to fundraise at the Guy Fawkes in Whangarei so we did and made $700. We thanked God and thought this was awesome. Then at Rock Solid Club we were looking at death and the life of Jesus, we visited the grave yard, had different exercises for the children to do and went back to our club rooms. Finished the night with a wrap up (devotions) and while packing up one of the children brought me an envelope, thinking that it was a permission slip for a trip I opened it up to find a $900 cheque !! $450 for Rock Solid and $450 for Renate & I. God reminded me I can't do it in my own strength, my strength must come from God Himself.

I thought that this story would be worth sharing with you, because a lot of people do worry how we survive & stay sane.

God had to remind me that I am to put my total trust in Him. Please keep on praying for Renate & I as your prayers are helping us so much.

Whenever I walk around Whangarei, I always hear "Scottie" called out from all over the place. Sometimes I like to escape somewhere where nobody knows me, like Taupo where I recently videoed a wedding, went to McDonalds and one of the checkout operators knew me from a camp. Went to a church for the afternoon tea and bumped into a child that went to Kamo Intermediate this year. He came up to me and said "You're Scottie from Rock Solid aren't you? I said yes but how do you know me. He said "you came to our school but I moved down here".

So thankyou very much for being a part of what I am doing around Whangarei, Northland and New Zealand.

Keep an eye out for my next newsletter before Christmas. It will be a biggy.

Another thank you for being part of our team in reaching young people with the good news of Jesus Christ. Please keep us in your prayers as we really do appreciate them.

God bless you,

Scottie and Renate Slykerman

Youth for Christ Northland

P.S. If you would like to drop us a personal note, address it to:

Scott and Renate Slykerman

28 Mair Street

Whangarei

Dear Scottie Supporters,

Thankyou very much for being a vital part of my ministry, which enables me to do this work with Youth for Christ Northland. I value your support very much.

Scotties small group -roller rocketing

A few months ago a home group from my church sent me this letter which was an encouragement to me this is how it reads "Scottie we are glad to be able to do this knowing that you are so very much involved with young people. We who are "too old" to be actively involved, have pleasure in knowing that what little we can do "in the background" is being used so effectively on the battle front." This letter shows me how all of you are supporting me in prayer & financially. Thank you.

I have been full time YFC now for 4 years running Rock Solid. I have been thinking about the number of times I have said "this has been my best year" Well each time I seem to just improve and grow. This time last year we were struggling with our numbers at club. But this year our club numbers have exploded. During the winter our lowest number was 50 with the largest at 90 children. Our average has been around 65 children weekly. This term I have had a new idea to specially invite standard fours to Rock Solid for term four only. The main group which will come will be my Bible in schools class at Maunu Primary. We have exposed them to Rock Solid during school time. We will be looking at huge numbers like 100 children this term so please pray for this too.

We are looking at hitting on serious issues this term like relationships (baiting, dating & mating), youth suicide (feeling stink), Sin (Back the Front). Plus we are having events like Motor Mania, Waiwera trip, 24hr camp & a BBQ Bash with Parents.

I am really enjoying the small group work. Recently I was a nightmare to the parents by taking my 12 boys out to a farm on our four wheel bikes, where they got extremely muddy. They absolutely loved it. Other crazy things we have done after school has been roller rocketing down very long drives. I am planning to do a small group camp over labour weekend. Small group activities are such an awesome opportunity for me to get to know the children one on one, and also share my relationship with Jesus. I also have grown over this time.

In YFC we have this saying "3pm out" -which means all our administration has to be done and we go out and visit families of the children from Rock Solid. Just this week I had the opportunity to do this with a new boy's family who is now going to come to club. So pray that I can keep up with my paper shuffling so that I can spend more time with young people.

Renate's been offered 3 1/2 days a week at the primary school that she is teaching at, which is up on her 2 1/2 days a week. Renate has got exams at the moment for her university papers for her degree. Next year she should finish off her degree.

The big thing we are trying to pay off is the student loan she took out to do the teaching course.

Another BIG thank you for being part of our team in reaching young people with the good news of Jesus Christ. Please keep us in your prayers as we really do appreciate them.

Renate enjoying our new couch.

God bless you,

Scottie and Renate Slykerman

Youth for Christ Northland

P.S. If you would like to drop us a personal note, address it to:

Scott and Renate Slykerman

28 Mair Street

Whangarei

You have been sent this Newsletter because you are very special to our ministry with young people in Whangarei and in Northland.

This year has been awesome being married. It has helped me so much in this line of work, to talk out the worries of the day. The place where we are staying is absolutely perfect for us.

Renate is really enjoying her 2 ½ days a week teaching, and is making good progress with her university studies. Renate is well on her way to finishing her degree. The latest additions to her class are two little chicks which she absolutely adores.

I have been kept busy over the last two terms with all sorts of things. I have enjoyed the new challenges that have been involved in looking after the running YFC while Garth takes a well earned break. I guess you could call this acting director.

Rock Solid club is going well for our team in Whangarei. Our club strength is due to the great team that is supporting me in my work on the actual coal face. It has been of great concern to me to see some of our other Rock Solid Clubs fall over due to lack of leadership.

Renate and I have also learnt the importance of balancing our work with our married life.

Doing Bible in schools last year saw familiar faces coming to Rock Solid which was a dream of mine and of course I took up bible in schools again this year.

I always look forward to Wednesdays because that is when Renate comes home from school at lunchtime for the rest of the day. We go shopping, and get to spend the rest of the afternoon together.

I have got a small group of excellent 11-13 year old boy’s. We just recently had an all out play station night a couple of weeks ago. The evening was topped of with ice-cream and coke.

Another thank you for being part of our team in reaching young people with the good news of Jesus Christ. Please keep us in your prayers as we really do appreciate them.

God bless you,

Scottie and Renate Slykerman

Youth for Christ Northland

P.S. If you would like to drop us a personal note, address it to:

Scott and Renate Slykerman

28 Mair Street

Whangarei

Scottie & Renate 1999

details to come

Scottie 1998

details to come

Scottie 1997

December 1996 - Newsletter Scottie

Christmas Edition 1996

Please take time to sit down and read this for it is a newsletter full of inspiring news as to what I have been up to over the last 5 months. This is what I want to share with you. So get into a comfy chair with a nice drink & biscuit. There has been alot happening in my life and in club this year. My hope is that you will share in how God has been moving in my life & ministry with young people in Whangarei and Northland.

God Bless
Scottie
Youth Missionary with Youth for Christ Northland

Y-ONE Roadshow 1996
This team aimed at form 1,2 and 3 students was in Northland for 3 weeks. They did 16 schools which involves lunchtime concerts & classroom modules with topics like Bullying, Peer pressure etc. Also they did 6 night time rallies incorporating music, dance drama, testimonies and talks to convey the message of how we are loved and accepted by Jesus for who are. The name of their tour was appropriate therefore, it was called The " Could you be loved?" tour. In our local rally in Whangarei we also ran a "chatter-ring"contest. For those of you who don't know what a chatter-ring is, it is the latest craze with kids. It consists of a metal ring with little washer type things on it. Any how these kids love them and can do amazing things with them.
Certainly over my head. In the Y-ONE report they chose Northland as the 2nd best centre
in NZ. One draw back however was the cost of the concerts at $4 a head. Next year we
are hoping to find people to sponsor a child $3 and for them to pay only a $1, which should boost the numbers coming to the rallies. For we don't want the cost to put someone off coming to hear about how Jesus can change their lives.
If you would like to sponsor 10 kids and donate $30 it would be an investment that would not be wasted.
World Vision trip to Africa 1997
I am really looking forward to going with World Vision to Africa in August - September. I really think that I need to see how these people are being helped by World Vision. Because I am a rep for 40 hour famine in Intermediate schools it would ideally help for me to share with our own children how some children live overseas in countries like Africa.
I will be spending 2 weeks over there visiting places like Zimbabwe & Zambia. I have been asked to run a couple of Rock Solid type programmes while over there. I have started informing people about this opportunity.
Scottie the Missionary
In August I was accepted by Central Baptist church as a missionary to be supported once a month. It is a great privilege to represent the church in such a capacity and really have have appreciated everybody's support. However, I am still scraping to keep my support to a decent level. I believe I am going to be in this ministry for the long term. At the moment I seem to be doing 60-65 hours work per week. I know this newsletter is full of me asking for money, for the projects I am undertaking, places I am going. But these won't happen if don't keep on living. Perhaps you have the odd $10, $20, $50 a month.
Please help Rock Solid
This notice is to inform you of how Rock Solid survives at the moment. To help put you into the picture I will try to explain how we usually survive during the year. Each week a child usually pays $2 to come to club. This goes towards supper , prizes, postage, petrol, office expenses and the list goes on. Rock Solid runs a BIG event at the start of the year called Wet 'n' Wild which is always a successful fundraiser. This keeps us going until April / May. We under took a different fundraising project in October selling detergent packs at $10 each pack (two bottles in each pack) & Rock Solid was meant to make $3 per sale. This was going to be our main fundraiser and had the potential to be long term. I soon found that it was harder to sell than originally thought which now leaves us with $300 worth of unsold detergent. I need to get rid of this unsold stock. I will sell it to you for what it cost at $7 a pack to get Rock Solids money back. I will even deliver it to your home FREE if in Whangarei of course.
Summer Harvest Camp
This year will be my 10th Summer Harvest and is surely going to be a real blast. This year the camp is already full at 1400 so please pray for us as YFC staff & helpers as we prepare things for camp. It is such a privilege seeing God move on the hearts of young people to bring eternal change and salvation. Please pray for all the young people at camp between 29th Dec & 4th Jan. That God will move in a mighty way in their lives. My involvement for camp started two months ago promoting camp to churches around Whangarei, helped organise cinema city ads, some technical stuff like EFTPOS, video etc. and different odds & ends around the office. I will be working at camp as part of the video team . Doing daily highlights & live Big screen video at the woolshed meetings.
Whats been happening?.......
If you came along on a Tuesday night to see our amazing children at Rock Solid (R/S) you would have been blown away by the potential these children have. As our new logo says "Fully on the edge" we are surely reaching into these young peoples lives.
We have averaged 50 children coming each week with the lowest club night being 30. We had 120 along to 1 club night.
If we had all our regular kids come along on one night we would have a club of 70. If you count all the kids that we have had contact with over the year there would be 170. But even though children are coming in droves we find that we can't keep them. The important thing is not how flash our programme is but the contact we have with these children lives. We are very short of volunteer leaders who enjoy working alongside these kids and sharing their love of Jesus with them. We are looking for "onto it" leaders for 1997 so see me if you are keen to help as a junior leader, leader or even as a helper. I am always on the lookout for amazing suppers for club nights so if you are a keen cook & you can help. I am also after vans and van drivers for camps and trips so let me know if you can help.
Contact me, Scottie at YFC, PO BOX1450 Whangarei, ph 4386059

New Rock Solid Clubs
Since my last newsletter we have had 3 new Rock Solid clubs start around the northern area. They are Dargaville, Hikurangi & Manaia. This now takes our total of Rock Solid clubs to 11 in Northland. These clubs are Wellsford, Kaiwaka, Dargaville, Manaia, Onerahi, Whangarei, Hikurangi, Moerewa, Kerikeri, Kaitaia & Taipa. We are now reaching out to over 500 11-13 year olds in Northland. Local people from local communities are reaching out to local young people. Ain't that great!!!
Spring Breakaway Camp
In September, I ran a Combined Rock Solid Camp for Whangarei, Onerahi, Wellsford & Kaiwaka. We had 100 campers and leaders with this years Y-One Roadshow team at the camp sharing through drama, songs, dance and testimonies. It was a "shorter than usual" camp but very action packed. On the Saturday night Y-One did a full on concert with 30 young people coming forward as first time commitments. The team later commented that this camp was their No. 1 highlight of their tour so far. We have already got next years team booked in for next years camp which is a bit earlier in the year (April).
Kids Camp
Myself and my friend Leighton took 2 van loads of Breakfast Club kids to be leaders at Lake Taupo Christian camp which runs a kids camp for 8-12 year olds. It was very successful with the 2 of the leaders being Rock Solid girls from my club. This gave me time to do video highlights during the camp which I showed each night just before lights out. I am definitely taking a group down next year after the awesome time that was had this year.
Tasmania Trip
This was definitely the highlight of my year. One thing that God hit me with was that I was trying to do too much on my own steam, so as a result of that I have dropped Campus Life. Although I will still help where needed. I learnt alot about myself and how he has developed me over the last two years. Tasmania is a lot like NZ, but it also has some really neat scenery of its own too. Overall I really enjoyed myself.
Answered Dreams
In my last newsletter in July I mentioned some of the dreams I was working towards. Since then I have had some amazing answers to my dreams............
1/ I have raised my support through individuals giving and my churches missionary committee.
2/ YFC has just about fundraised enough to get me into a Toyota Hi-ace by April 97 hopefully.
3/ I have got church cell groups and individuals praying for me and my ministry.
4/ YFC received some money to go towards video gear which I will use for camps, schools and YFC rallies. We are only $900 short now. I will be set up and going by 1997.
5/ By 1997 some of our children at Rock Solid will be ready to come to church of course this will take time.
6/ I have had an excellent bunch of leaders for 1996 but so many are moving on next year. This leaves me very short of leaders for 1997. So I am on the look out for new volunteer leaders.
7/ I have seen so many children respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ through YFC camps in Northland and Taupo. This shows that my God is alive and kicking and still changing young peoples lives today.
EXTRA DREAMS
1/ Go over to Africa to see world vision in action & help work with young people over their for two weeks.
2/ I need 8 more leaders for 1997 for Whangarei Rock Solid.
3/ Start Running Rock Solid lunch times with a difference actually in the schools at lunch times .
Van Sponsorship
I need businesses to get behind the running costs of the Rock Solid van with sponsorship each year. So that we can run the van on the money generated by this sponsorship. What you get is a space on the van to put your Business name. Their is space available now. So if this interests you ,please contact me at the YFC office so that we can talk about this some more.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

If you would rather do a monthly automatic payment our account is:
Whg ASB Youth for Christ Northland inc. 123099 0616502 01 YFC Scottie wages.

FULLY ON THE EDGE!

Scottie 1995

details to come

July 1995 - Newsletter Scottie YFC

JULY 95
The last four months have been very busy so in this newsletter, I will try and give
you some idea of what has been happening.

24th,25th March was the 4OHr Famine. 65 dirty and scruffy dressed Rock Solid kids
turned up as refugees. The night started off with, I can safely say, the largest
newspaper riot in Northland! On Sunday we broke the famine at McDonalds.

31st - 2nd April: Youth For Christ Staff and
voluntry training at Lake Taupo Christian
camp.

3rd - 7th April A-One Block Course. Straight
after YFC Training, I found myself travelling
with the Auckland Impact Team to Taranaki. We
tried to discover a new way to get there, but
after many windey roads we finally made it!
At A-One Block Course I learnt alot about
myself and working as part of a team. I
sometimes tend to like to do the job myself.

11th April: During the school holidays, I took 30 Rock Solid kids to Waiwera Hot Pools
where we had a good time getting to know our young people while also having fun.

13th - 17th April Easter Camp: I went with my church Youth Group. This was a very refreshing time for me.

18th - 22nd April Awesome Adventure: My sister Nicola and I went to Waiheke Island
to catch up with our parents on their yacht. We had not organised to met up with
them but thought that we would surprise them. We prayed that God would help us find
them, and within 15 minutes of stepping off the ferry, guess who sails into the
bay. Our parents. So we stayed with them for a couple of days. It was neat catching
up.

4th, 5th & 6th May YFC Expressions Rally: Collected video gear from Auckland.
Used video equipment to put on a live Big Screen Video of Rally on the Saturday night.

13th May: Used video gear again to video Certain Sounds Concert.

26th May: Rock Solid went Ten Pin Bowling

27th May: I video’d ExCell Ministries
concerts for both Saturday & Sunday nights.
1st - 5th June Capital Teen Convention

YFC took two buses filled with 103 screeming teenagers and leaders to this
Nation wide Talent Scan in the coldest & windiest part of N.Z. “Wellington”.
Here over 2,000 young people met fran all over the country to compete. It was great.

Monday 5th June - Senior Staff Conference: Garth, Timbo and I said our goodbyes to the buses that headed for home and we stayed on in the ruthless cold for another 3 days.
The conference we attended was for all full time staff around N.Z. and we were also
joined by a couple starting Y.F.C. in Fiji. We had two top-notch speakers ministering
to us. One was Ray Harrision who used to be the YFC N.Z. Director and was also the
Y.F.C. World Director. He hund around people like Billy Graham, and for people that
did’nt know. Billy Graham was the first full time worker for YFC in the States! WOW

Ray Harrison talked about the history of YFC and how much things have changed since
he was working with young people.

Our other speaker was Bill Hogg from Scotland Y. F. C. He spoke of the super importance
of PRAYER.


6th - 9th July: Before I knew it, I was once again down country attending our Spirit
and Soul School in Taupo. Northland took 24 keen Christian young people to this camp
designed to encourage young Christians in their faith and witness. Here young peoples
lives were touched and challenged as to where their prayer life was going.

10th - 14th July: Two van loads of our young people stayed on at Taupe Christian Camp
to help the management run a camp for 8 — l2year olds. There were 45 children and
11 of them gave their hearts to The Lord. Isn’t that worth celebrating about!

Well that’s what I ‘ve been up to. A GREAT BIG THANKYOU to all of you that are
getting behind me in my work financially and in prayer.

NEEDS:

My van is about to have a new motor put in. I have so far received $600 from my

church which is wonderful, but still need another $500 in order to get the work done.
If you can help in any way, please tear off the slip below and send to:

Scotties Motor
P.O. Box 1450
Whangarei



Choices of your support: $__________ to:
1. Scott Slykerman wages
2. New Motor for van
3. Rock Solid Club
4. Van running costs
5. Bibles for R.S. Kids
6. Info. on van sponsorship

NAME:.....................................................................
ADDRESS:..........................................................................
Please Return to: YFC Scotties Support
P.O Box 1450, Whangarei