Breckland Youth for Christ’s Megametre challenge

North Breckland Youth for Christ have been raising funds to support young people at risk of dropping out of mainstream education, and are appealing for more support.

The team undertook the challenge of collectively covering 1000kms during the month of May.  This was through running, walking, cycling or any other method of transport propelled by human effort. They called this Megametre May and, by 1 June, the total distance covered by the whole team involved was 2113 kilometres, which is double what they had been hoping for.
 
Matt Ingle, Dereham and District youth worker at North Breckland Youth for Christ, said “The team here has a vision - There are young people in our area that do not get on well with school. Maybe they are at risk of exclusion, maybe they struggle in school relationships. Whatever it is, they are at risk of lower outcomes later on in life. Our vision is to establish an alternative education provision for our young people who are disassociated with school and at risk of dropping out. Many of them face a bleak future but we want to turn this around!  Youth for Christ is all about seeing lives changed by Jesus Christ, and ultimately we know that that is to see lives saved, but we also see the need to help young people get better outcomes in education and future employment.”
 
The kernel of the idea is a new and exciting project, Alt:Ed, where the team want to actively demonstrate the love of Jesus to those young people, and hopefully help them to have altered outcomes both educationally, emotionally and spiritually. They hope to raise enough funds to run the Alt:Ed for its first year, and then, hopefully, it would become self-funding. To have a member of staff to run the project 1 day a week for a year would cost around £7000.
 
Matt concludes, “We are very thankful to our supporters who have cheered us on, come on walks with us, gone out for more runs and walks than they would normally do, and made us cakes! We are also hugely thankful to God for keeping our bodies able to do the challenge, and for giving us the beautiful Norfolk countryside in which to walk and cycle around. The weather has added some fun, one day I was putting sun cream on, and the next I was cycling through large lake-type puddles and up rivers.

“We would love folk to partner with us, to help us get this much-needed project off the ground, and to fund it for a whole year, but also in prayer, as we seek to see lives changed by Jesus in North Breckland.”
 
If anyone wishes to contribute to Alt:Ed, please click here.
 
The picture above of Matt Ingle, left, and his colleague Paul is courtesy of Matt Ingle.