GOLDDIGGER SUPPORTERS PAGE

The new season

2010-05-23T02:31:00.000-07:00

Well we've had an amazing few months. We've been busy on the road with our Media Rules Tour which took us through from January until the end of March. That was an amazing time of being able to communicate with young people, challenging values and advice so readily thrown at us by the Media. we've seen some awesome stuff happen and some lives significantly changed through that... and great to get out there to meet loads of new people. At the end of that we were thrown into a mad as ever week at Spring Harvest. We were resident in the Distinctive venue which is always amazing and such a good time of being to invest into and teach so many radical young people. Not only were we performing and leading the worship with Myspoon and teaching girls sessions daily we also got to nip out from time to time to perform in slots across the site so it was great to see what else was going on in venues like I Scape, the Encounter Cafe and the Skyline Live. Shattering and amazing... but the amazing just about outweighs the shattering part - making it an awesome week!

A couple of days after this we were over to Southport to Roots Conference. (The national Salvation Army conference) where we were headlining on their opening night. It was brilliant to be part of what looked like it promised to be a great conference... and a bit of a shame to have to head home that night and miss the rest!

Back to our little office - or 'Golddigger Land' where we are busy busy writing the rest of the album. This week we've been in the studio getting all the final drum parts recorded and I even managed to get a vocal laid down while we had a spare hour! Its so exciting to know its all coming together and we cant wait to hear and see the finished product!

A couple of days ago we also had the photo shoot which will give us the album artwork. We worked with our favorite photographer - Rosie Hardy - a day with her is always just bizarre and funny and we just love spending time with her. She is so inspiring! We had an awesome day.

Tonight we're supporting at Pete James' album launch - so right now we're getting our set together and looking forward to performing there and then having the rest of the night to hear his new stuff and enjoy his set!

Gosh, what a lot ot repert in one post... will tell you about Firm Foundations next time!

The Wonderful High Street

2009-12-15T07:49:00.000-08:00

So last week Beth and I hit town... we spent a couple of hours amongst the busy shoppers and wandered around looking at lovely things and finally collapsed in Starbucks for a coffee with shopping bags too heavy to carry and in need of a break... we ended up taking it all back to the car and heading out to get more... crazy thing about it was we didn't spend a thing!

We're so thankful to some of the Sheffield stores who have heard about our girls course and have believed that the vision is important enough to invest into. All for the sake of giving the girls a great goodie bag at the end of the time they've spent with us Lush, Starbucks, Boots, No 7 makeup and Body Shop have all generously supported GoldDigger in giving some of their top products to us to literally pack out bages to give to our girls... and most of them want to continue to do that for us!

Its so great to work on something that needs as little as 5 minutes chatting with someone and they become excited to get involved and help and support it in any way they can... much better than your regular Christmas shopping trip!

A great end to the first term

2009-12-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

Well its an issue in itself why there have been no recent posts. The GoldDigger laptop is porley and in the apple hospital so I've been stuck for what seems like ages with no way of blogging, facebooking, websiting, emailing and its been ike going back to the stone-age or something..haha not really and I've been able to use other people's and my home PC its just not as easy!

Well we're almost winding down for a break for Christmas and I suppose we've got to the end of our first season as a 2, doing GoldDigger full time, having a new work place of our fab office and it feels like its been a great few months. Beth and I are really excited about things that are coming up in 2010... we're just working out how we can get it all in... and some of the plans will be told soon!

This week we've been really blessed with finance. Thats a rare and amazing thing to say... we've just been given enough for music production to be able to record some new songs... which takes our songs from being just performable to being something people can listen to as well! Thats great and I must say that recording and being in the studio is one of my very favourite things! I love creating a piece... much like artwork... and even the process of doing the same thing over and over until its the best that it can be is exciting in a studio... so Friday thats going down and we're excited to hear how they'l sound in the new year!

We've also just recieved a grant for some equipment we've been desperately needing for some time. We're now able to buy some in ear monitors... which will be brilliant for our performance as we'll be able to hear ourselves better, hopefully will stop the occaional squeel of feedback from the monitors but as vocalists - knowing you can hear yourselves, sing properly witout straining your voice and without singing badly because you CANT hear - thats so important... much like a pair of good trainers to an athlete. This grant also means we're set up to do our roadshow in schools with media and everything we need to make that run smothly and look great!

Thank you God!

Living for the weekend...

2009-11-26T15:21:00.000-08:00

... most people are winding down for the weekend now and we're getting ready to be busy... and loving it! Tonight we had the privilege again of working with the girls on the girls course we're doing. It struck Beth and I as we arrived today that one for the reasons we love doing what we do so much is that we tend to be working with girls that are not already linked closely to a youth leader, ones that aren't churched with loads of support outside of school... and what we can help to do is link them in better but just to know that you might be the first adult this girl has opened up and chatted to honestly and openly about her choices about sex and relationships... its a huge privilege and quite a huge responsibility! Having done a gig with these girls before starting the course has been brilliant - it often works as a really good tool as we get to present ourselves obviously as people older than them but in an approachable and more exciting context... they chat to us completely as mates and I know we see them as they are and not as girls who are slightly reserved around us... which helps masses with talking about the stuff we're talking about. Tonight it both encouraged and scared me to hear one of the girls tell me that she'd thought maybe 50% of teenagers her age (13) would be having sex... thats what she gets from watching programmes like Skins... and being able to expose some statistics about actually 13% of 14-15 year olds have actually had sex... still a high percentage... but you can imagine the pressure on a 13 year old if she thinks half her year group might have already done it :(

Tomorrow night we're in Liverpool so we're just getting some bits and pieces ready for that... throwing a few new covers in that people will know so there's a bit of word learning to happen on the road trip over tomorrow afternoon!

Last night at the Joshua Project

2009-11-22T04:18:00.000-08:00

We had a great night last night trekking off to Bradford with our 'not so trusty- dodgy sat nav'. We were booked to do an acoustic set as the after dinner entertainment at the first annual fundraising meal for the Joshua Project there. They work with young people and I could tell from the presentations and from conversations from people I met there that the work going on there is really amazing... it was nice to be able to endorse another charity and another vision...but still one committed to investing young people and changing lives.
So we took Sean with us. He's the guitarist in the Gentlemen but has spent a bit of time with us learning our stuff and our current resident guitarist for acoustic gigs... so its fun to have another person to chat to and laugh with at funny things that happen along the way as well as spending time with someone who is so much futher into lots of the areas we are trying to establish ourselves into in terms of trying to get distribution deals and all the management/agent bla sort of stuff!

We filmed the night...we are filming everywhere at the moment as we don't have much footage of us as a 2 since the relaunch!

Here's one of the numbers we did... a mixed up version of Bulletproof by La Roux...

New song...

2009-11-20T14:33:00.000-08:00

... not that its an amazing recording but yesterday during a practice we decided to just record our run though of one of our newer songs 'Really Live' We love this... Beth and I wrote it together and I really love the way it expresses the way we really feel in a heartfelt way... we do a lot of trying to be clever and challenge social issues, life commentary and irony in our songwriting... this one is just bog standard, honest, simple- what its all about... would be great to do this in the studio at some time soon but until that luxury ... here's this...

Sex talk...

2009-11-19T13:40:00.001-08:00

We've finished for the day having had a 'cramming our things to do lists into a couple of hours', a practice with Sean for our gig on Saturday, a trip to buy more tuck for the lolly monsters we work with and off to spend time with those 'lolly monsters' in the girls course we're doing in the Greenhill area of Sheffield. As we were setting up today one of the volunteers, a guy from Cliffe College who comes over to help at the drop-in who came in to wonderfully present us with a cup of tea (ALWAYS a great idea) told us how he'd noticed a massive (and positive) difference in the girls we've been working with... we do find it really easy to build a good rapport with the girls we work with, even the most hostile... not because of us particularly but because we've designed the course in such a way that the environment totally diffuses a lot of the barriers young people have against structure, education and relating to adults. So its great to hear that what we're up to in our time with them on the girls course is having impact on the time they spend in the rest of the youth work available to them... :D

So todays session is all about sex... it always shocks me how little teenagers get taught about sex... considering the amount of sexual content thrown at them on TV, in music videos, films, magazines, computer games and on the internet... yet one of the girls told us the the only sex ed they get is getting taught how to put a condom on a banana... and that's not the first time I've heard that... so its ALL around them, talked about all the time but they're often not taught more than the condom on a banana... that makes no sense! This first session we lead on sex looks at just how much pressure there is on teenagers... like just how little females in the 'celebrity' industry wear, how 50% of some magazines are sexual content even with an average reader age of 14... we then get the opportunity to challenge the girls to think about what they want out of sex in their lives... to allow them to think ideals, let themselves aim for the best ...and make their choices based on what they'd really like for their lives... not let themselves go without thinking it through and then end up making a decision fueled by alcohol, a party, insecurity and the fear that they might not fit in unless this is something they are doing...

Its amazing just how much relationships effect us - as adults we wouldn't dream of making relationship choices without thinking it through for hours and hours and getting advice and processing it all with the people we know and trust... why is it that teenagers are not able to access that at school - other than in their peers, who are also trying to make sense of such an overwhelming issue with no education either. This makes me feel both incredibly excited and privilidged to be doing the job we are doing... and makes me happy that I know we've spent part of our day talking through stuff with these particular girls that they otherwise would maybe be able to talk through...but also makes me sad that that isn't the situation and experience of so many teenagers in this country :(

Taking a Risk

2009-11-18T09:32:00.001-08:00

Over the next few days we're going to be finalising details and advertising a new tour package for the new year. The idea is to lower our rates, so basically charging the least amount possible, paying ourselves less than normal (gigs and girls courses are currently the only things we get paid anything for out of our full time hours) and trying to book up probably 20 dates between Jan and the end of March... all in the name of getting ourselves out there to as many young people as we can and working with as many youth leaders and event organisers as possible. Not only is this great just for promotions sake but it's so important that we're constantly getting out there and trying out our material with young people and spending time away from all the admin to make it happen - and actually make it happen! All the songs we write, resources we write, performance we craft etc all has the heart of communicating to people... so that's where we want to see it doing!! To make this cheap we're stripping back from the full performance package of a full band and it will be Beth and I - tracked performance and loads of energy! It is a risk... we'll be living on less, of what we're already struggling on and having a stripped back performance means its harder work for the two of us ... so we're going to need God's strength massively! But hopefully it's going to be so worth it!
What I love about what we do is that we never know what part of what we say, or sing, or do will communicate something life-changing to someone and quite often is the things we don't expect it to be. This just makes every situation, random place we end up or person we meet an exciting opportunity...who knows what will happen, who will be challenged, inspired, changed by what we do... so BRING IT ON... we're excited and hopefully we'll be booked up quick... in all the right places!
If you're reading this and would like details for booking us just send an email asking for tour package info to bookings@golddigger.org.uk. xx :D

Welcome to the new phase...

2009-11-17T11:58:00.001-08:00

This 'new phase' is something we're freely banding about to represent the change of face of GoldDigger... or maybe, more realistically, the missing face perhaps as it marks Rachel leaving and a new venture of GoldDigger fronted by the duo Mandy and Beth. However, this phrase seems to have so much more wrapped up in it than that and seems to neatly summarise all that is going on. We've entered a new phase in so many ways... we've upped our dependence on God personally and as a Trust. Beth has moved over to Sheffield and both Beth and I have increased our hours and are currently working full time, without an increase of what we are paid. This has been personally testing for both of us... Beth is committed to finding her rent from somewhere and I have committed to NOT getting into anymore debt to be able to survive! Its a tough call but God has been good to us and sent envelopes of money through our doors when we've needed it the most, dumped money in our bank accounts at times and blessed us with enough to eat and a roof over our heads! GoldDigger Trust have also taken a step of faith to get us an office... this has been fantastic as it gives us space to work, be creative and store everything - not in the hallways of our houses!

So we're waiting on some big yes' at the moment... we've just had a grant through allowing us to get some desks to work at, printer, shelves etc and now we're waiting on 2 biggies! One is for our roadshow equipment. The other...we've applied for money to get us a van... something we've desperately needed for SO LONG now. We're getting by on 1 car shared between my family and GoldDigger which actually doesn't fit everything we need to transport in it and of course means if we need to go somewhere then my family are stuck without! Hopefully we'll hear soon!

Catch up - part 1

2009-07-11T03:57:00.000-07:00

It seems all I write on here is apology after apology for not blogging more often. It's just so hard to keep up with all the exciting opportunites we are getting at the moment and I find it hard to skip over things and carry on writing about current things so my list of "things i need to write on the blog" gets bigger and bigger and so I put it off and off and it just gets worse!!! So I am going to write a little catch up series of GoldDigger events that have been going on, as and when I remember them! So once again and hopefully for the last time......sorry!

SPACE - Liverpool

On May 22nd, literally hours before I dashed off on holiday, we performed a set at "Space". This was a great opportunity for us as it is a very credible and well known youth event in Liverpool run by Frontline church in connection with the message. We were supporting bandwithnoname and yfriday!
Having worked so hard to be recognised in the christian music scene, it is sooooo exciting that that door is starting to open for us! If you have facebook you can watch our performance on our GoldDigger fan page!

Emotional War! ( have a listen--->)

2009-06-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

We wrote this song based out of our own experience of various emotional wars we have been though with relationships and know that everyone goes through it; really liking someone who doesn't like you, someone liking you that you don't like at all, being dumped, being ignored, being totally led on, being cheated on, meaningless flirting being taken the wrong way and being meaninglessly flirted with and finding out it can totally mess with your head, the person you fancy always fancies your best friend etc etc.

I know I spent so long always fancying the guys who blatently said they did not want a relationship with anyone - and the annoyingly competitive side of me would always want the challenge of being the one to change them. Why did I bother? I always ended up getting upset and feeling rejected. 'Emotional War' is about how we just don't need to waste our time trying to change people to make them like us when they don't - what is the point? Our hearts are emotional, irrational sometimes, and need a bit of guarding - thats our job to do :) and its a good one because we can let ourselves hold out for 'the best' when we don't settle for 'the ok'.

Emotional War is available for download from resoundmedia.co.uk for 79p.

Mandy x

Gossip!

2009-05-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of blog posting recently...we have ben SO busy but loads has been going on so I promise to blog regularly and catch up with all that has been happening! For now, here is our lastest newsletter....

Click the link on the right to read all our latest gossip! Feel free to email this out to friends, colleagues, supporters, churches... or anyone who might be interested in reading it.

Also if you log on here regularly for a read..please leave comments! Would be great to know you are here and interesting to hear all your opinions/encouragements about what we say and think!

woo woo nearly there!!!!!

2009-05-07T06:19:00.000-07:00

As those of you who follow GoldDigger regularly will be aware, we have been after a van for nearly two years! Due to the enormous amount of equpiment we need in order to perform or run a girls course session we sometimes have to make more than four car journeys to and from venues in order to meet bookings and other times have even had to cancel bookings due to a lack of transport................................SO we very excited this week to receive a really kind donation of £3000 from a couple who believe in the work of GoldDigger! It is such an amazing answer to prayer and we are so very near being able to actually get our very own van!! All we are looking for now is another 10 people to commit to giving ten pounds a month to cover running costs and we will be fully resourced and able to fulfill all our bookings! PLEASE think about whether or not you could spare ten or even five pounds a month and help further our ministry....

If so please contact rachel@golddigger.org.uk to ask for a support form or give online by visiting www.charitygiving.org.uk and select Golddigger from the drop down menu.

Thanks :) and Thank you Lord for being our amazing provider :)

Spring Harvest 09 ROCKED!

2009-04-17T04:20:00.001-07:00

GoldDigger launch their new line up at Spring Harvest 2009. Beth Taylor, 21 from Liverpool, joins original members, Mandy Toombs and Rachel Scott, having built a well respected reputation across theUK CCM scene over the last few years. Following the departure of founding member Claire Altamura in 2008, the Sheffield based band and registered youth charity showcased their new line up and rockier sound across the Distinctive, Iscape and Base youth venues at Spring Harvest, alongside Christian rock/rap evangelists thebandwithnoname and rock trio The Steels. GoldDigger wrapped up their Spring Harvest "tour" with two surprise acoustic sets in the Skyline venue to huge crowds whilst promoting their 10/10 cross rhythms rated acoustic EP-Very Own Life."

The unseen stories.....

2009-03-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

It's funny because even though I know our course tackles really deep issues and gives the girls alot to think about and work through, I still wonder sometimes if it really helps them, if it really makes a difference to their lives, if they have really been changed and equipped to handle the pressures of life better.... I am a doubter and worrier sometimes...what can I say? And yet, I don't know why I do doubt or worry about all that, cos time after time we see changes in the girls or hear them enthusing about how different their week has been since the last session or how much better they have handled a situation that week and its really encouraging. And so it was lovely to hear the same such encouragement this week, when we bumped into one of the leaders from one of our courses recently who excitedly told us;

" I was chatting to (one of the girls who has been on our course)'s mum the other day and she said that she has seen such a marked difference in her daughter since the session on self esteem. She said that she had been having such problems with her and she never talks to her much, all she could get out of her is a grunt! But after the session on self esteem and identity, she came home and excitedly chatted away all about it and what had been said and she has been happy and chatty and really different ever since"

We were so encouraged to hear that... and so blessed to think God had used us to speak to this young person, to encourage her, to re-affirm to her who she was and who she was made to be and to help equip her to deal with the negative messages fed to her by society.... Keep going girl!!

So yes, I am encouraged once again..that the unseen stories are happening and are going on! Please continue to pray for us!

Bargain!!!

2009-03-22T06:01:00.001-07:00

GoldDigger Cd's are now available to buy at just £4 each or £6 for both....a right bargain! Doll Factory is the produced electro pop version (think Girls Aloud) and Very Own life is the acoustic chilled out version (think radio 1 live lounge!)

As a taster, I have posted one of the songs "Quite Like You", which we performed at Totley All Saints church on Sunday morning. Just hit play on the player on the right of the page--------------------------------->

Quite Like you

Flicking through the pictures in a sunday magazine

I look at all the pretty people, living out their dreams

Then I look into the mirror, start to question what I see

Start to underestimate the gifts I have in me

I can't help but compare myself (why don't I have those things?)

Cos I can't afford those clothes, (those labels, tags and diamond rings)

Then I realise it's not what you have (but more about what you bring)

And I've got my own song to sing, and it goes like this

Nobody does it quite like you, it's true,

That you are like no-one else, so just be yourself and

You can shine in everything that you do
Everybody's got their own perfect part to play

No-body does it quite like you.

Walking down the high street now summer's in the air

And I know I've got something that's way beyond compare

And I don't feel inhibited, that people stop and stare

Cos I know, that a smile is the prettiest thing that I could ever wear

No need to be insecure (or be afraid of who I am)

Cos I know that I'm loved for sure (just gonna do the best I can)

And I know that self respect won't let me down ( no.no)

I've got my very own sound and it goes like this

Nobody does it quite like you, it's true,
That you are like no-one else, so just be yourself and
You can shine in everything that you do
Everybody's got their own perfect part to play
No-body does it quite like you.

You might not be the fastest but you can still go far

You might not be the brightest but you'll always be a star

If you stand up and embrace who you are

Special from the very start

Singular and set apart

A loved creation from the heart

(From the CD Very Own Life - available for purchase for just £4.99 inc p&p from http://www.golddigger.org.uk/ )

2009-03-18T05:05:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love about GoldDigger is the way music is involved and wrapped around everything that we do.... We are youth workers and are aim, heart and mission, if you like, is to see young people's lives and hearts changed which is the reason why we wrote and are running our girls course. However our music isn't just a nice little add on, on the side, something we do as an excuse to be allowed to sing and dance on stage, but it is an integral part of what we do! Music is and has always been a way of communicating, or expressing feelings, thoughts and stories to others.... Music moves us... especially when you can completely identify with the story being told.... and that is what we try to acheive with every song we write.

We write songs to cut to the core of issues young people are facing, to move them, capture them and then guide them to God's truth and what he says about the situation... we aspire and work hard to write credible music that young people will respect and listen to and then sing to themselves, thereby singing and declaring God's truth over their lives....

We hope that they will enjoy and buy our music....so that in their lowest moments...when no youthworkers are around...God can speak and minister to them...

Please pray for our music! It is a ministry in it's own right and we long to take it into the schools and youth centres in Sheffield!!

Second Course Over!

2009-03-04T07:25:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the last session of our other girls course we have been running. I can't believe it has gone so fast...we have had really good sessions with them...and...even though they are quite a together group, there still has been some big, underlying issues going on in them, under the surface. Some have very very low self esteem and cover it up with a "pretend" confidence, some are very heavily affected by the media and are doubting their self worth, some are just learning what its like to be a teenager and questioning everything they believe, some are moving away from their christian teaching, and, due to peer and media pressure, are unsure where they stand on issues such as sex before marriage, and others are trying to stand up for their faith but not really feeling like they have the right words to say to their friends.

Sounds heavy!..... but its been great!... It's been great to challenge them, teach them, encourage them, be a positive role model for them, give them explanations to why God has laid down certain teachings and remind them of how valuable they are.

I think that the mentor times have been particularly good in this course, as the girls have been a bit reluctant to open up in front of their youth group, but have shared some personal things when talking one to one, which has given us the position to chat through and give wisdom and advice on issues they are facing.

It's been great.... I just can't believe how fast it has gone! And with another two courses booked in for the next few weeks, things dont seem to be slowing down now these two are over...

But hey....we're not complaining :)

:)

2009-02-16T05:07:00.000-08:00

Last friday was the last session of one of our girls courses that we have been running.... i can't believe it was the end already... we have had so much fun together as we have chatted through serious issues and pressures that they are facing. And i have ,as always, loved the opportunity of sharing wisdom with them that i have learnt through the years and trying to teach them how special and valuable they are and how much God loves them in a way that is real and applicable that they can understand. It's been great....here are some of the things they have said about it.....

" I shouldn't compare myself to others because we are all different and God made us very differently".

"This course has taught me that I am unique and I am beautiful"

" I have learnt to be happy with who I am and to think about relationships more."

"the best thing about this course has been relaxing and having great girly chats"

" From now on I am going to ignore pressure and make my own decisions"

" This course has taught me that I am a unique person who is worth more than I first thought"

It brings tears to my eyes just typing those out.... but we have seen these changes take place in these girls and hope and pray that God will keep in their hearts the truths they have learnt.....

..... I love my job!

So near....andyet....so far!

2009-02-12T08:59:00.001-08:00

Do you want to hear a funny story? Well, I say funny, cos you have to laugh at it, at our unbeliveable BAD luck!.......

If you have been following Golddigger news for a while, you will know that we have been desperate for a van for over a year and a half.. Having been lucky enough to be blessed with funding from grants and our regular supporters we have been able to buy enough resources to get our girls course up and running and to buy a large chunk of the pa that we need to perform at schools and youth events. This is so fantastic for us and has enabled us to reach out to loads of desperate girls in this city.

However, the journeys to and from these events are not so great! Often driving along with two ram-packed cars, pieces of equipment jutting into our heads, sometimes having to do 3 journeys to and from events just to get all our equipment there, has become a bit of a nightmare, and that without mentioning the constant loading and unloading! So we have been after a van for quite a while, knowing this would make our lives a million times easier, enabling us to do more events and courses ( some we have to turn down due to the problem of getting equipment to venues) not to mention the health and safety issues involved!

So this was the situation that we shared when at a church service recently, giving them an update about GoldDigger....we mentioned the van situation as always and made a plea for 20 people to support us in giving £10 a month, as this is all we need to be able to finally get this much needed vehicle! Then....the most amazing thing happened....after the service, a lady came up to us with the news that her next door neighbour had a transit van that he was trying to get rid of, not selling, but giving away to anyone who needed it!!!! We were VERY excited and wondered if finally God was gonna answer our prayers and give us a van!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So straight after the service, (we couldn't wait!) we rushed round to see this lady's next door neighbour.....only to find that he had got rid of the van THAT MORNING!!

Couldn't believe it! We had missed our van by literally an hour....... we did laugh about it but did feel disappointed too..... but then as Mandy said to me " God wouldn't be that mean....it MUST mean we're gonna get a van soon!"

So that's what we're hoping for! Please keep praying our van in for us!

And if you would like to become the 8th supporter please let me know by contacting me at rachel@golddigger.org.uk or calling on 07947131552!

Love your friends!

2009-02-06T03:21:00.001-08:00

WIN A GOLDDIGGER BAG FOR YOU AND YOUR BEST FRIEND!

We're offering you a chance to win a free GoldDigger bag and badge set. Just log in, to our website, www.golddigger.org.uk and go to Love Your Friends competition on the forum, and tell us the reason you most love one of your friends. On Valentines day we will pick our favourite reason posted and the winner will not only recieve a free bag and badge set but also the same for their amazing friend. xx

(and don't worry if you don't win....you can buy them from our website or by following the link from our blog on the right hand side!)

Happy Valentines day! :)

Are you the girl you want to be?

2009-02-05T03:55:00.000-08:00

I had a meeting yesterday with an organisation who has booked us in to run a course with them right after the ones we are doing now have finished, which is good, and we were chatting about the title of the course " I'm The Girl I Want To Be" and what it meant to us and what it signified.

I guess some could take it that we are trying to breed a group of "superwomen", teaching girls that it is all about self and that they can take power and control of their lives and don't need any help from anyone else and I can see how that could raise certain eyebrows in christian circles, and, I agree, that this wouldn't be something i felt comfortable with..... However,this is obviously not the case.

"I'm the girl I Want to be" is all about fighting against the constant pressure on girls to have to be and look a certain way to be "accepted" or "beautiful" or "worth something". It is SO HARD to be a teenage girl these days. Almost all believe they need to lose weight, that their bodies aren't right somehow, that they need to look or be different. They get into relationships because their friends tell them they should, the media tells them they should, advertising tells them they should, boys tell them they should.....and the ones who aren't with anyone feel that they aren't right somehow, they must be too ugly, too fat, too "different".......not who they want to be.

They aspire to images that aren't real and lifestyles that aren't real. But no-one is telling them that the fake celebrity world is just a clever, hyped up, money making spin with fat business men sitting behind it, rubbing their hands together with glee as millions of teenagers fall for their clever commercialistic plan.

Suicide is on the up, eating disorders are on the up, self harm is common, having high self esteem is not, every girl we meet can sit and tell us what they don't like about themselves but none can tell us what they do.

" I can remember every bad thing ever said to me since I was 8 but I can't remember one good thing " was the voice of one of the girls on our course recently.

Girls are struggling these days, flailing about desperately, trying to grab onto anything or anyone who will tell them that who they are is ok. That who they are is good. That who they are is beautiful. That who they are is captivating.

Should we be raising a group of girls who are who they want to be? YES WE SHOULD!

Beth Taylor!

2009-02-03T04:55:00.000-08:00

As you read in yesterday's post, Beth was performing with us at the Lantern theatre on Saturday night. This has surprised quite a few people who didnt realise we had a new member or line up but in actual fact Beth has been working alongside GoldDigger for a while.

Originally when she came on the scene it was to work with Claire in developping the stage show and choreography and events side of things. Having a background and alot of experience in event management and performance she came over to visit a couple of times and looked at how we were doing things and made a few suggestions. We were totally blessed by her, not only as she was giving up her own time and coming out of a love for this type of ministry and to bless us but also as she was talented, experienced and bought fresh insight to our performacne side of things. It was a fun weekend and we planned for her to come over again sometime.

Not long after that, Claire made the decision to leave GoldDigger due to family commitments. Me and Mandy were both really sad to see Claire go as we had all started GoldDigger from scratch together and loved working together. We understood each other really well and knew that our hearts and vision all came from the same place.... it was quite scary to offer that place up to someone else, not knowing if they would fit into our working patterns and relationship, but we trusted God that he had it all in hand and would bring the right person along.

And that's how it was for quite a while really.... we knew that for someone else to join they probably would be looking to get paid....what fools other than us would work for free! haha!... and we knew that was (and still seems) a long way off.....But......in the back of our minds was always Beth.. We knew her, knew her dancing and vocal ability was great, knew her experience, knew her heart was coming from the right place, knew she understood the ministry, knew she was a good youth worker and knew she didn't feel quite in the right job for her at that time....

I can remember one day when me and Mandy were sat talking about her in Mandy's kitchen, listing reasons why she would be good.... the conversation even carried on later that evening when we were thinking of more reasons and phoning each other to tell them!! (haha bet you didn't know that Beth!)

So just before Christmas we decided to get in touch to let her know what we had been thinking.. Amazingly, Beth had been feeling quite lost in what God was wanting her to be doing in the future and had prayed the day before " Lord please just tell me what to do....and i don't want to wait ages for you to tell me, tell me SOON!". The next day she got our email!!!

and she was very interested! yay! So she has been over to chat through stuff with us and it seems the role and areas she would need to take on within GoldDigger sums up her dream job!
We are all very excited about it and feel that God has had his hand on this in a massive way.

So...... the current situation is that Beth is continuing to work in her job in Liverpool until the funding makes it possible for her to move here. We are looking to raise the money to employ all three of us full time to be able to really raise the game of GoldDigger and take Sheffield by storm! so funding is really key to us at the moment.

Please please pray that God brings this funding to us as we and Beth are really stuck until that happens.... We believe that God has bought us together and we believe he will resource us to carry out this work for him!

ANY amount big or small will help us. If you feel you can help us please either:

hit the donate button at the top of the page and follow the instructions OR
email rachel@golddigger.org.uk to request a support form.

Ideally we are looking for 50 people to support us £10-20 a month.

Thanks so much and look out for Beth in the very near future!

Sat night at the Lantern Theatre!

2009-02-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

On Saturday night we played at The Lantern Theatre, Sheffield with Philippa Hanna and it was great! We played an acoustic set with some talented musicians to accompany us and really enjoyed performing our material.... especially as it was our debut performance with the cheeky scouser Beth! (More about her in the next blog post). It was also fab for us to have about 14 out of the 20 girls who are on our girls courses there singing along too and we hope that our songs (which teach on the same subjects as the course material) will stick with them and re-inforce the truths we are teaching them about on the course. On top of all that, the evening was a sell out and was said by one person to "good enough to have been performed on any stage." Come along next time and see if you agree!

Beautilicious!!

2009-01-24T11:03:00.000-08:00

Beautilicious: Most girls if not every single one of us have low self esteem either everyday or just on bad days. Why? We don’t need to feel so bad about ourselves! This session, the second in the course, exposes some of the pressures on us girls for what they are, asking how beauty is defined, and how our own worst enemy may well be our own mind.

This session is always a really powerful and sometimes quite difficult one for girls to sit through and think about... there are often tears as the girls share the secret things they struggle with or believe about themselves... and these group were no different. So, whilst it was heart breaking to see these gorgeous wonderful and unique children of God believing the lies thrown at them by the world that they are useless, unloveable and not good enough, it was also great to chat with them about why they feel like that and how they can feel better and believe the truth about themselves.

You have been chosen.....

2009-01-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

.... is the name of session one of our girls course which we ran on Friday last week with eight excited girls from S17!
Although a bit nervous and unsure of what to expect when they walked through the door, they quickly settled in and got chatting and we had a great time with them. The session is the first of eight and is an introductory session to the course really, giving the girls a bit of a taste of what is to come, helping them to feel settled and safe in the group and looks into their unique and individual value. It doesn't delve very deep really and normally is quite a calm but necessary session to introduce us to them and them to us...... but it always amazes me and Mandy how much God does even in this session!

The group seemed to bond straight away and open up and have fun and it has real potential for opening up with each other later on in the course about more sensitive issues. There were also several girls who really opened up to us in our one to one sessions....in a very personal way...something that normally only happens later on in the course, so we are excted to see what this course brings and we hope that God will really use us to speak into these girls lives and bring truth and light into the middle of the dark issues they are facing.

We are also beginning another course tomorrow (and will be running the same session again) with another group of girls who are mostly all christians.... please pray it goes well and the group bonds just as well as the first!

See everyone wants one!!!

2008-12-24T10:21:00.001-08:00

haha Happy Christmas Everyone! :)

What is reality?

2008-12-19T03:21:00.000-08:00

"People who are fake are often hiding something"

(Tyra Banks)

Ever thought about that?

It's really easy to write off "fake people" or feel annoyed with them or generally not have any time for them - or is that just how I feel?

I dont know if i've ever thought about the fact that they might be hiding something....some deep pain or insecurity that they can't shake off?.... some hurtful event from their past?....some negative words they can't let go of?.....a wrong view about themselves?....an unsupportive family?....a mean bully whose words still sting?....a controlling boyfriend?...an abusive friend?....some inner part of them that they are terrified to share? ...some part of who they are that they are that they are convinced will be rejected.

Are we really loving the unlovable? Or just the people who say they are?

It's Christmas time!!!

2008-12-15T09:31:00.000-08:00

I am so loving singing carols everywhere at the moment! Went to an awesome carol service last night and got so emotionally choked by these lines "Mild he lays his glory by,Born that man no more may die:Born to raise the sone of earth,Born to give them second birth" WOO! and then in another carol "No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Lord enters in!" Awesome lyrics, awesome truth, awesome God! He will accept and enter into anyone's life who is willing enough to ask him! Forgive anyone who asks forgiveness, in fact he is waiting and hoping for us to. I don't know what your view of God is.. it may be a distant, angry God who is waiting to tell us how awful and bad we are... sadly this is the view of many people... and it is wrong. GOD LOVES YOU, he is hoping and longing to be a part of your life.....so much so that he physically came to earth as a baby to be part of our world to try and show us who he really is, how he really feels about us and to offer his friendship to us....GOD! as a human! How degrading for him! How awesome for us! That is why I love Christmas! what an amazing God I have!......Have you?

(and just to celebrate a little bit more check out these cool christmas offers from our GoldDigger Shop!)

All of it offer (Both cd's, GoldDigger Bag AND GoldDigger T-shirt)

For just £22.00 inc p & p.

Visit http://golddigger.org.uk/shop.php?id=31 to order

CD's and bag offer.

For just £13.00 inc p&p

Visit http://golddigger.org.uk/shop.php?id=33 to order

T-shirt and bag offer (size, colour and t-shirt of your choice!)

For just £12.50 inc p&p

Visit http://golddigger.org.uk/shop.php?id=32 to order.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Do me a Favour?

2008-12-11T02:34:00.000-08:00

At the moment we are fundraising to find the money for myself and Mandy to be paid full-time so that we can work full-time and really be able to increase the work of GoldDigger! To do this I have to fill in a really tedious and horrible application form and to do that we have had to set up certain systems within the charity to prove we are ready to handle being employers (eek!). So it was after we had had a depressing meeting at Voluntary Action Sheffield where they had been talking to us about what we needed to do etc etc and on the way out, I was feeling a bit deflated. As I walked down the stairs out the building I just thought " How did any of these big national charities ever even get started because it is SO hard." And then I heard God quite clearly say to me, "Do you believe my favour is on you or not?"

How does God always know exactly what to say? That one question made me realise that, of course, God was on our side, we were going to achieve what He wants us to achieve because he was on our side. What, to man seems impossible, to God is possible! I felt encouraged that God was in control of Golddigger and he was telling me, he was giving us his favour.

If God's favour is on you, anything can happen. Doors fly open, resources are released, people begin to favour you. All we need from a funder is a "yes", for them to look favourably on our application form, for schools to look favourably on our literature and to book us.

I am convinced we will get the funds we need and if not this way, then another way.....God's favour....you can't fight against that.

Two's company, three's NOT a crowd!!!

2008-12-05T02:57:00.000-08:00

I was chatting with a very amazing friend of mine a couple of weeks ago about the work we do and was mentioning to her how I often struggle with the fact that we aren't out and out talking about God on our girls course and how I sometimes wonder if we're just building an army of confident girls who are full of "self" and aren't learning about their creator or coming any closer to Him - which has always been my ultimate aim in everything we do.

Don't get me wrong, I really value the course and believe God is all the way through it. Every session we have written is based on God's truth on different issues girls face and we share our testimonies and what we believe as christians in each session. As GoldDigger we have always believed that meeting young people where they are at and supporting them, and bringing light and life to them through the issues they are facing and THEN being in a place where they have relationship with us and can see that our answers have some merit to them, is the right way to position ourselves for talking to them about Jesus BUT every now and again the evangelistic side of me and who I have been made to be, goes, "aaggghhh I just want to be talking about Jesus!" and "How much closer are they actually to God?"

So, it was coming from this place that I was talking to my very loved friend (you know who you are!) and she just said to me, " Rachel, the thing is, the Bible PROMISES that when two or three are gathered in my name, THERE I AM WITH THEM!" and I was completely floored! The thing is, it takes either two or three of us to lead the girls course sessions so therefore, in each session, whether or not we are mentioning God by name.... he is there..... meeting with these young people. We are carriers of God's presence!

Maybe these girls never have come into god's presence before but just by being in our sessions...they are meeting with their Creator!, who is then free to whisper things into their hearts, to set them free, to open their eyes, to soften their hearts and to lead them into a relationship with him!

I was just blown away!

On the radio!!!

2008-12-03T14:25:00.000-08:00

So, very excitingly GoldDigger were on the radio last week!!!!!! Me and Mandy drove down to Stoke to run an hour long feature on Mike Rimmer's show on cross rhythms radio! And for the very first time in my life I felt tongue-tied! I think I just said mmhmm for the first ten minutes and nothing else! But after I stopped being so nervous it was great!! We answered questions all about what we do and why...about the girls course...about our views on sex, self esteem, wags, and much more! In between chatting Mike played various tracks off our cd's. It was great and was a sign that our profile is really being raised recently. I think me and Mandy both feel that we are on the verge of something and we're both really ready to go full hog to push GoldDigger out there, so this was a cool step for us! And after all not many people can say they've been on the radio!!

Keep checking the blog for the podcast of the show which will be uploaded soon!

Girls Courses Galore!!!!

2008-11-28T02:45:00.000-08:00

September to December is always a lovely term for us as we get to be a bit more chilled out, relaxed and less rushing about! We love to take the time just to re-focus and plan for the next two busy terms ahead. So it was in this nice chilled out frame of mind that I commented to Mandy the other day that we had nothing booked in at all for the next term and wondered and hoped we would have soon! I don't know who was listening to us or if god's sense of humour kicked in but a week and a half later and we had SIX possible girls courses, one week long conference, one all day event, and a couple of assemblies all wanting to run in the new year! So we are really looking forward to getting stuck into those especially the girls courses and we pray that God will begin preparing the hearts of the girls we are going to meet.

Hello and welcome to our blog!!

2008-11-21T07:06:00.000-08:00

We have wanted to set this up for so so long and am so pleased to have finally done it! Hopefully this will be place where we can share some of the exciting things that are happening in GoldDigger and keep you, our amazing supporters updated with all our latest news! We hope you will read and feel encouraged that God is really working in this city and hopefully He will speak to you himself about how amazingly unique he created you to be! - You have a purpose! Love GoldDigger xxx