A number of years ago we adopted the words of Jesus from Acts 1 v 8 as our Youth Mission Strategy – “and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – starting locally (Jerusalem), then nationally (Judea and Samaria), and then internationally (to the ends of the earth).
Over the past number of years our church’s local mission has been ongoing with practical outreach projects such as ‘Love Lisburn’ at Easter; schools ministry; and our own Holiday Bible Club and SPARK programmes as an opportunity for children and young people from the area to come to us.
Last summer, a group of our young people engaged in national work to advance Christ’s kingdom by serving on a Summer team in Bannside Presbyterian and Habitat for Humanity, in Newry.
And so, in line with our mission plan, the next step of our strategy was to persue an international outreach project with young people from our congregation.
In initial planning for this, we thought it was important not to pick a random project where the team serve and then leave, but rather either build on an existing relationship, or launch something with the intention of it becoming an ongoing relationship.
Our congregation has a strong connection with Diane Cusick, the PCI mission worker to CCAP Synod of Zambia, and so, we approached her to consider if there would be an opportunity to serve in Zambia. This was met with great enthusiasm on their end, and so, we then assembled a team of 15 from our congregation, and set about preparing for our trip.
On 2nd of August we will be travelling to Lusaka, Zambia to work with children and young people in two churches. In our first week we will be working with the youth group at Mtendere. We have developed a programme relevant to Zambian culture to share with the young people which will include worship, fun games and fellowship.
On the middle Saturday we will be facilitating a Leadership Development Day at Chawama CCAP, which will include various activities as well as youth ministry training for local youth leaders.
In our second week we will be leading a kids club similar to our own church’s Holiday Bible Club programme, using the same material that we used in Hillsborough last summer with our own children, which has a sports theme, where we will use different sports to share the gospel, as well as craft, drama, worship and other activities.
We want to take this opportunity to say a big Thank you, or ‘Zikomo’ to anyone who has supported us on this journey so far, whether that’s through prayer, financially, donating items to take with us, or attending any of our fundraisers.
Updates throughout the trip will be available here, and via our social media.
We are so excited to see what God has in store for our team, and how He will use us in Zambia.
Our Team
Back: Ashley Parks, Mark Thompson, Michael Thompson, Christine Bell, Jenny Bell, Philip Best, Katie Parks, Kenny Bell
Front: Archie Moore, Alice Francey, Holly Brow, Rachel McClements, Victoria Emerson, Holly Thompson & Lyndsey Shields
Front: Archie Moore, Alice Francey, Holly Brow, Rachel McClements, Victoria Emerson, Holly Thompson & Lyndsey Shields
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