Yesterday evening I was privileged to be part of a wonderful church service at Thornbury Baptist Church. Entitled 'Summer Overseas Mission feedback' the service was in fact an inspiring celebration of what some of our young people are getting up to as they venture out into the world and make a difference.
We had a team who went to Romania to a church that we are linked with, and through running a week of children's Bible-school activity days, and doing some sessions for the local teenagers, have helped to reignite the children and young people's work in the area: never underestimate the longer term impact of simple acts when God is involved!
We had a medical student who went out to Malawi with some of his University friends and spent 2 months getting involved in a number of projects in the Nkhata Bay area. These ranged from planned sessions with the youth group, disabled group and HIV support group, to building community compost heaps, to providing malaria nets in random acts of kindness to individuals they came across. The team also managed to get an epileptic lady reunited with her family, and got a deaf child a place at the only deaf school in the country. Some really inspiring stories of what can happen when you make yourself open to the promptings of God.
We had feedback about the Rwanda CRED trip, and what was very clear during that talk was just how strongly the genocide aspect had impacted; and how much processing had taken place post trip regarding issues of justice, ethnicity, marginalisation on ethnic grounds, the insidious onset of the genocide and how that can be seen to be replicated in many other ways, and the responsibility each of has to ensure we don't get sucked in to such ways of thinking, and also to take a stand against such ways when we meet them. A very powerful and passionately given talk that one!
Not included, because the relevant people couldn't be there, were 2 other young people who spent 2 months in Tanzania on various community projects, including supporting people suffering from leprosy, building community water tanks and toilet blocks, doing children's work etc.
And only slightly included, due to lack of time, was mention of the team who went to Ethiopia with me to work with the children of prostitutes through the Women At Risk.
On Saturday I had coffee with 2 friends who had led a team trip to Bufumbo in Uganda - the team was a group from our local anglican church, and they were visiting their church link parish in Uganda. For the first time in the history of church teams going out to Bufumbo, the team was predominantly young people, and they did some great work, made some excellent links, and brought a new dimension of parish linking to the Bufumbo residents through their energy, enthusiasm and youthfulness.
What came out of all this for me was how exciting it is to see what God is doing through our young people. And if you add in all the other young people who went on the afore-mentioned trips but weren't at our church last night but were still impacted by, and have been changed as a result of the people they met overseas and what they did, heard and saw, then it gets even more exciting.
And that is just links from one church in a little market-town called Thornbury - add to that all the other young people who went on trips from other churches around the country, and the numbers are really starting to add up!
Who knows what all the outcomes will be of these overseas trips, only God can see that; but years of experience tell me that the they will be many, varied and continue rising to the surface for months and even years after the trips.
It is such a joy and pleasure, and indeed a privilege, to be able to facilitate, equip and empower young people in some small way on these trips; to get out there and see, and get involved with, another corner of God's Kingdom, and so help them discover more about themselves, their skills, their calling, faith issues, their self-worth, and what makes them tick. Long may it continue!
We had a team who went to Romania to a church that we are linked with, and through running a week of children's Bible-school activity days, and doing some sessions for the local teenagers, have helped to reignite the children and young people's work in the area: never underestimate the longer term impact of simple acts when God is involved!
We had a medical student who went out to Malawi with some of his University friends and spent 2 months getting involved in a number of projects in the Nkhata Bay area. These ranged from planned sessions with the youth group, disabled group and HIV support group, to building community compost heaps, to providing malaria nets in random acts of kindness to individuals they came across. The team also managed to get an epileptic lady reunited with her family, and got a deaf child a place at the only deaf school in the country. Some really inspiring stories of what can happen when you make yourself open to the promptings of God.
We had feedback about the Rwanda CRED trip, and what was very clear during that talk was just how strongly the genocide aspect had impacted; and how much processing had taken place post trip regarding issues of justice, ethnicity, marginalisation on ethnic grounds, the insidious onset of the genocide and how that can be seen to be replicated in many other ways, and the responsibility each of has to ensure we don't get sucked in to such ways of thinking, and also to take a stand against such ways when we meet them. A very powerful and passionately given talk that one!
Not included, because the relevant people couldn't be there, were 2 other young people who spent 2 months in Tanzania on various community projects, including supporting people suffering from leprosy, building community water tanks and toilet blocks, doing children's work etc.
And only slightly included, due to lack of time, was mention of the team who went to Ethiopia with me to work with the children of prostitutes through the Women At Risk.
On Saturday I had coffee with 2 friends who had led a team trip to Bufumbo in Uganda - the team was a group from our local anglican church, and they were visiting their church link parish in Uganda. For the first time in the history of church teams going out to Bufumbo, the team was predominantly young people, and they did some great work, made some excellent links, and brought a new dimension of parish linking to the Bufumbo residents through their energy, enthusiasm and youthfulness.
What came out of all this for me was how exciting it is to see what God is doing through our young people. And if you add in all the other young people who went on the afore-mentioned trips but weren't at our church last night but were still impacted by, and have been changed as a result of the people they met overseas and what they did, heard and saw, then it gets even more exciting.
And that is just links from one church in a little market-town called Thornbury - add to that all the other young people who went on trips from other churches around the country, and the numbers are really starting to add up!
Who knows what all the outcomes will be of these overseas trips, only God can see that; but years of experience tell me that the they will be many, varied and continue rising to the surface for months and even years after the trips.
It is such a joy and pleasure, and indeed a privilege, to be able to facilitate, equip and empower young people in some small way on these trips; to get out there and see, and get involved with, another corner of God's Kingdom, and so help them discover more about themselves, their skills, their calling, faith issues, their self-worth, and what makes them tick. Long may it continue!
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