October Update

Hi all

We hope that you are well.

As we've finished the first half term of  the new academic year, we wanted to give you a brief update of what has been happening with us, what God has been doing through Kings Community and what exciting things we are looking forward to this year.

As always we want to start by saying a big thank you for your continued support – through your partnership we can continue to positively impact the mental, physical and spiritual well-being of children, teenagers and adults at risk through practically demonstrating God’s love to them.

We’ve also added some prayer points and a breakdown of what times we are in schools for those who feel led to pray for us.  

Kings Community

This year has been a very busy year for Kings Community, with schools wanting to increase the number of hours that we could allocate to children and new schools seeking help because of the high need. Over the last 12 months, we have delivered Listening Ear Sessions for 40 children per week across 8 schools, equating to over 1600 hours of mental health support to children per year. The number has continued to increase so we have therefore spent a lot of this year recruiting volunteers to support us. This has consisted of initially shadowing Rachel and/or me in sessions, followed by volunteers providing supervised sessions, followed by them providing unsupervised sessions. As of October 2025, the following people are volunteering for King's Community each week:

• Holly Graham providing additional sessions in Masefield Primary and St Teresa Primary

• Haylee Keyworth providing additional sessions in St Saviour Primary

• Andrea Longworth providing additional sessions in Little Lever High School.

King's Community New Employee

Due to the continued demand for further work, we recently advertised for a 14-hour p/w Children's Practitioner post. After a recruitment process, we're delighted to inform you that Haylee Keyworth was appointed to the position and begins work on w/c Monday 3^rd November. Haylee will initially be working in St Saviour, St Matthews and Red Lane Primary Schools whilst also identifying further opportunities to help improve children's mental health outside of schools. 

Prayer Items

The last term has been arguably the most difficult in terms of the situations we've heard about in children's lives. We value your prayers and support so much. Please pray for:

·      The protection of our workers and volunteers as they take on the emotional load of listening to some of the things that worry children.

·      Rachel and myself as we navigate the logistics of managing volunteers and employees (another new thing for us to learn!)

·      The staff in school as they identify the children who could benefit from the service.

·      The children that we meet every week – that they would feel safe, happy and valued in our sessions.

• The continued link between King's Community, Schools and King's Church. This term has seen a real increase in links with more schools wanting to engage with church activity. Please pray for a further increase in this and for Joanne Clee, King's Church worker, as she takes these opportunities.

• Guidance and wisdom for the future as King's Community continues to grow.

• The current trustees, Deborah Graham, Ruth Seddon, Gracian Daniel-Sam, Andrew Lane and Clare Swann, who support John and Rachel with the governance of the charity.

• Prestolee Primary School, which Rachel will start in next term.

 Prayer Schedule.

We have been asked to provide a breakdown of when we are in schools so that those of you that pray can cover us and the children in prayer while we are working. This is very much appreciated and we cannot wait to share some of the stories of breakthroughs we have seen.

Monday PM – Rachel in Prestolee/Bowness

Tuesday AM – John and Holly in Masefield

Tuesday PM – Haylee in St Saviour

Wednesday AM – John, Rachel and Haylee in Red Lane

Wednesday PM - Rachel and Holly in St Teresa

Thursday AM – John in Ladywood

Thursday AM - Haylee in St Matthews

Friday PM – John, Rachel and Andrea in Little Lever High School

As always, we thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement.

With love,

John, Rachel, Reuben and Sophia