Rural submarine gets new captain

By JOHN BREEZE

Norfolk’s very own Yellow Submarine has a new captain. Norwich Youth for Christ’s brilliant yellow double-decker bus is used as a mobile drop-in youth centre around the county.
The bus has recently been renovated with new seats, a non-alcoholic bar and computer games and now youth worker Matt Gooch has been appointed as its new captain.
Seven years ago Matt came to Norwich from London where he worked with the Church Army. After being involved in church youth work he moved into various security jobs in the city.
“It was here that I saw a completely different view of the world,” said Matt. “You see a different side of people and how to deal with them. A whole range of problems arise that you don’t get in the sort of protected environment of the Christian scene.
“A lot of it was alcohol related,” he said. “I did that for a while and then thought that I didn’t want the rest of my life spent like this - cleaning up the mess - I wanted something much better, more constructive.

Matt Gooch, new captain of the Yellow Submarine.

“I had wanted to work with the bus project before but I doubted myself a little bit, then I had a call from someone which made me think that the job was for me. It appealed to me a lot and I applied and got the job.”
The new captain has a good idea of the course he will be steering as well: “I want it to be much more than a drop-in youth centre where young people can just call in, flake out and play computer games or other sports.
“I want to develop the electronic side to enable access to the internet and all that. But I want to help the young people develop their personal and lifestyle skills. I want to offer the facility for helping them write CVs and develop interview techniques to help them get jobs.

“I want to give the young people a sense of self-worth and value, fulfilling the vision of Youth For Christ. I want to share the love and life of Jesus with these young people too. It’s like bringing Jesus alive to these kids.”
But the captain needs some shipmates to help him with the task: “We need people who will pray, people who can drive the bus, young people to work with the project and money to keep the bus on the road and help develop its facilities.”
Further information is available from Matt Gooch on 01603 620678. Watch out for the bus in the New Year in Earlham and villages around Norwich including Acle and Rackheath.

A thoughtful milestone for station

Radio Norfolk Pause for Thought presenter John Breeze looks back over 20 years of the station.

The year 2000 was a milestone for many things, not least the 20th birthday of our local BBC radio station, Radio Norfolk.
Part of the station’s output over that 20 years has been the regular Pause for Thought slots during the morning’s schedule. There are two slots, one at about 5.45am and the other at 8.40am.
I’ve had the great privilege of being involved with the station since its very earliest days. Originally we did pre-recorded thoughts which were broadcast during the early morning

John Breeze

show and then repeated later. A few years ago we moved to the live PFT for the second slot. I reckon that in the 20 years we’ve had something over 11,000 thoughts.
In the early years there were about a couple of dozen of us but now we have a team of about 80 or so representing the complete spectrum of the Christian Church. We’ve had Thoughts covering all the great events of those years - the Falklands and Gulf Wars, the floods, the freeze-ups and that notorious hurricane.
We’ve had sad thoughts about tragedy and death, amusing pauses with a pertinent point, joyous pauses on happy occasions and to me that’s the great point of it all.

It’s in the everyday stories of Norfolk and its people, in the rough and tumble down to earth business of the day’s news, that we take a pause, a moment out to lift our hearts and minds to think of God and His world, to remember that He is involved in our lives.
He is a God who is with us, He is Emmanuel. He weeps with us in our troubles, rejoices in our joys and is there to bring comfort and strength when the going is tough.
But more than that, Christmas reminds us that He - in the person of Jesus - is not just God with us but as Saviour He comes to rescue us from our failings and brings forgiveness for our faults and can introduce us into a living relationship with Himself. Just pause and think on that.

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