Hello everybody! My name is Esther Andrews and I have newly been appointed as a Licensed Youth and Children’s Chaplain for the Denbigh and Dyffryn Clwyd Mission Areas.
I am married to Jon, who is also a Youth and Children’s Chaplain in the Aled Mission Area. We have been married for eight years and live in St. Asaph. When I am not working, I go kayaking and hiking around North Wales as often as possible. I also love reading, painting and having barbecues!
Before being licensed, I studied for two years at St. Padarns in Cardiff, the training arm of the Church in Wales. To study and to be licensed has been a dream come true for me, as I am passionate about working with children and young people. During my period of study, I have especially enjoyed the opportunity to help take groups of young people to CMC, the Christian Mountain Centre in Harlech. I also loved taking part in the school’s work at my placement church, St. Mary’s in Towyn. School’s work is very close to my heart: it is an incredible opportunity to go to where our young people are, rather than simply hoping that they will come to us.
I have only been in post since 1st July, so I am still finding my feet! My job at this stage is mostly to meet people, make connections and find out about each different place within the Mission Areas. Long term, I would like to encourage and equip you, in your individual churches, to keep on engaging young people and to find new ways of doing so. In training His disciples, most of whom would have been quite young, Jesus set us a beautiful example of what can be achieved when we invest in and take time to love young people. A part of my developing role is to form a Youth and Children’s Team for the whole MA – if you would like to be involved in this, then please do let me know if you haven’t already.
If you would like to talk to me about my work, what you are doing/would like to do, or would just like to say hello…please do drop me an email on [email protected]. I would love to hear from you!
Hopefully I will meet you soon, if I haven’t already!