West Cambridge Christian Youth Ministries (WCCYM) was established in 1992 to support a Christian youth worker for the area of West Cambridge, focusing on the catchment area of the local secondary school, Comberton Village College (CVC). The major aim of the work was that the youth worker would: “Earn the right to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ to young people in West Cambridge.”

Jon Cornwall

John Cornwall began working for WCCYM in September 1992. He was accountable to an executive committee that met twice a term. The committee consisted of representatives from the major contributing churches. By the end of John’s second year of employment (1994) it was felt that the original mission statement had been fully achieved and was accordingly changed to the statement that now exists: “WCCYM exists to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ to young people in West Cambridge.”

John trained with the YMCA and during his training he was placed at Comberton Village College (CVC). When John qualified as a youth worker he was employed by CVC for 4 days a week, this released sufficient funding to enable WCCYM to employ another youth worker.

In 1996 WCCYM employed Tim Mineard to work alongside John to develop the work and fulfil WCCYM’s aims and objectives. During this time both John and Tim worked in secular youth groups and in CVC in Hardwick village, and supporting InBetweens at Caxton. Tim developed links with CVC’s feeder primary schools through taking regular assemblies. Also in the same year the first WCCYM trip saw a group of over 60 young people, many from unchurched backgrounds enjoy a week at Spring Harvest in Skegness followed up by successful trips in 97 and 98. Another highlight of 96 was the national award gained for the best Christmas cracker project raising money through many companies bringing teams to participate in a karting competition. Also during this time regular WCCYM prayer meetings were set up and the first monthly newsletter was distributed.

The WCCYM band was established in the autumn term of 1997 and plays in all youth services, the joint church services and occasionally travels to churches in the area for their Sunday services. The first youth service named Freedom was held at Hardwick Primary School in October 1997, this has since developed into a monthly youth service called Thirst For several years, Thirst was held in the Youth Centre at CVC. In Dec 2002, Thirst moved into the Main Hall at CVC and the numbers attending increased to 70+ each month.

For two separate weeks in 97 and 98, missions were held in CVC run by Youth for Christ Operation Gideon teams where they took assemblies, RE lessons and Christian Union meetings. Also 3 Operation Gideon placements spent a year with WCCYM from September 98 to July 99. Autumn 1998 also saw WCCYM gain another youth worker as Mark Brookfield was added to the staff while he continued his studies at Ridley Hall Theological College.

John Cornwall left WCCYM in the summer of 1999 after years of superb work, and Mark took up the position vacated by him in September of that same year. September 99 also saw Dave Aarons and Richard Ledbeater arrive as the first Christians in Sport placements from the pilot CiS Academy. In January of the following year Tim Mineard left to work in Uganda with Mid-Africa Ministry.

A big change in personnel obviously brought a change in some of the activities undertaken by WCCYM. A Wednesday evening club at CVC started in October 1999 providing sport, music and discussion for the young people. The long running School Christian Union Meeting (SCUM) changed its name to Cross Over, and a termly joint church service was established to enable all the churches in the area to meet in an effort to make them more unified for the purpose of reaching others for Christ. Also, Dave Aarons was placed in the PE department at CVC working directly with all the pupils in a sporting environment.

Two new Christians in Sport placements began in September 2000, Gareth Lippiatt and Liz Pamplin . Also following the departure of Mark in July 2000, Steve Gaze took over in an official capacity in October 2000. ‘Night of Champions’, a termly multi sports event was run for the first time at CVC for sporty youngsters to hear the gospel and enjoy the thrill of competition. May 2001 also saw a group of young people from Crossover spend a weekend together at Hengrave Hall learning more about Jesus.

Ben Wallace

In the September of 2001 Ben Wallace, Rachel Atkins and Colin Wells began a year with the Christians in Sport academy in Cambridge and were placed with the WCCYM team.. Ben Wallace, a keen climber and someone competent in outdoor activities, became very involved in outdoor pursuits for the young people in the area. Colin Wells began to make contacts and get involved in sporting activities in local primary schools and Rachel Atkins took on the leadership of ‘Crossover’, the Christian Union meeting in Comberton Village College. It was agreed to have a ‘Crossover’ camp on the field behind Comberton Baptist Church which was a great success and was enjoyed by all who attended. Yasmin Walker was another new face to the WCCYM team. Being very experienced in the performing arts field, Yasmin began to use the skills she had within the Village College and the Wednesday night youth club. It was good to be able to use performing arts as another medium to reach out to the young people in the area.

Rachel Atkins

The CiS Academy moved to All Nations Christian College, Hertfordshire, in September 2002. This meant that while WCCYM retained excellent relationship with CiS, the CiS placements were no longer available to work with WCCYM as part of their academy training. In September 2002, Steve Gaze continued to head up the work (part-time) joined by Colin Wells (sport) and Anna Catley (performing arts and admin) also part time, Jo Chappell (sport, part-time gap year) as well as several very competent volunteers (including Ian Lancaster) who gave time in their spare evenings. Simon Thompsett (a student at Ridley Hall) joined the team until February 2003. Highlights of the year included baptism services of young people at Comberton Baptist Church and Hardwick Evangelical Church, and the WCCYM residential weekend at Hengrave Hall to which 35 students came, plus leader. The Wednesday night youth club grew in numbers with 70 young people attending some nights, and the older young people helped in leadership and gave some excellent short talks that were very well received. Sports Xtra was launched in the summer of 2002 by Gareth Lippiatt and Colin Wells. Sports Xtra is a business completely independent of WCCYM but there are several close friendships between WCCYM and Sports Xtra staff and several young people who are involved with WCCYM have worked for Sports Xtra in their school holidays.

The end of the academic year, 2002-03, meant yet more goodbyes as several people who had been involved with WCCYM for one or more years moved on. Liz Pamplin (Coventry University) and Ian Lancaster (Head of Youth Dept, CiS) moved away, having both initially come to the CiS Academy in Sept 2000 for one year but stayed on and played important roles in the lives of young people and WCCYM over 3 years. Anna Catley left to study at London Bible College, and Jo Chappell went to Durham University. There was also a change in role for Colin Wells who started a 2 year Diploma course at Oak Hill Theological College, doing 1 day/wk placement with WCCYM. There were also welcomes for new leaders as Jon Sanders joined on a year’s placement after graduating from Durham University, and Charlotte Collinwood joined as a CBC/WCCYM youth worker. It was also exciting to see ex-WCCYM students (eg Emma Terrell, Susie Thompson) returning to the area and wanting to get involved in volunteer leadership.

Colin Wells

Hunger was started in September 2003 and brought various discipleship groups for young people (Xtreme, Energise, Potassium, Boys Night) together into one evening. Hunger met approximately alternate Friday evenings during term times, with typically 20-30 people attending. Thirst continued to grow steadily with 70-90 people often present. The WCCYM residential weekend was the highlight for many with 50 students plus 15 leaders spending a memorable weekend at Hengrave Hall in March 2004. In fact, March was a busy month with Henry Olonga (Zimbabwean cricketer) visiting CVC and presenting a stimulating evening with Graham Daniels. WCCYM leaders continued to run the youth club on Wednesday nights(50-80 young people each evening), Crossover (about 10 people), Night of Champions, took assemblies at CVC, joined year 7on their activities week at Beaumanor Hall. A new development on the sports side was Soccer Sundays – a group of about 10 (mainly) lads meeting with a couple of leaders to play football and share their faith.

Summer 2004 and time for more change: Colin Wells moved to Bicester to join Christians in Sport, working with Ian Lancaster in the Youth Department; Jon Sanders stayed on, but reduced his hours with WCCYM in order to train for a professional youth work qualification with the Centre for Youth Ministry at Ridley Hall; group of 6th formers including Jonny Catley, Ross Webb, Mark Coulson, Jess Gordon, Laurie Kearsey, and Paul Cooper, who had all been involved with WCCYM for several years finished their A-levels and went off to University or on gap-years. Others from the same age group (eg Becky Bresnen, Andy Clarke) took work locally and stayed involved with WCCYM, helping in leadership.