Indiana youth use activities to support Jesus for a New Generation
Recently NYI had the opportunity to conduct an email interview with Mackey Church of the Nazarene’s NYI President, Phillip Doerner and his youth group from Mackey, Indiana, USA. Here is their response as to why and how they have decided to make a difference by sponsoring Jesus for a New Generation projects.
How did you hear about Jesus for a New Generation? I found out about Jesus for a New Generation at the Third Wave Conference in Ecuador in January 2004. There were many conversations of how Youth Ministry was conducted in various world areas and how we could work together to make it more effective. In these discussions, a youth leader from Africa mentioned that support from JFANG helps because money is tight and supplies and other needs sometimes aren't available. My experiences helped me as the youth leader realize that there is so much more that we can be doing. I presented this view of the Global NYI in different ways so the youth would see there is so much more than what we have in our church, our district, and our country. We had a prayer focus in different months to pray for youth leaders and their ministries in different world areas. We also began participating in JFANG to financially assist Youth Ministry as part of a Global NYI.
How did your youth group go about choosing projects to sponsor? We wanted to choose projects that were in different categories and in different world areas. We chose to purchase musical instruments, sporting equipment, a canoe, and Youth Ministry materials. We also wanted to support the training of youth workers and church camps. We were excited to sponsor an entire church camp for about the same cost as sending two of our students to camp. Our goal was to be broad in our outreach in both type of support and world area in order to meet a variety of needs.
How did your youth group raise the funds for the ministries in Africa and the Caribbean? Our youth group raises nearly all of our operating budget through fundraisers. We make and sell pizzas, do rummage sales, and host a Valentine's banquet for the church, for which we provide dinner and entertainment. The youth are responsible for making and delivering the pizzas, helping to organize, manage, and clean for the rummage sale, and we decorate, cook, serve, perform, and clean up with the Valentine's banquet. We are blessed to have a loyal church family who generously supports our fundraisers.
After one of our fundraisers the Youth Council was considering buying some things to add to our youth room, which already had a ping-pong table, pool table, foosball, etc. We decided we had enough stuff for our youth room, so we decided the money would be better spent by sharing it with someone who really needed it.
We have also looked at the funds in our youth account from time to time and decided it was doing no good in a bank. Since we didn’t have any upcoming expenses, we decided to sponsor some projects that could meet the needs of others. God has blessed our church and youth group and we want to share that blessing... PJ Doerner Mackey NYI President Indiana, USA
CAR512 Youth Camp Assistance in Caribbean
Suriname District Youth Camp
The country of Suriname, located on the east cost of South America and part of the Caribbean Dutch Field, held its first Youth Camp in Paramaribo, Suriname from 16-20 September 2007. We had an amazing time with our young people glorifying God as one together with Rev. Eric Hitzert (District NYI President), Christina Singh (Dutch Field Representative), Rev. Bish Sewkumar (District Superintendent), and Rev. Monte Cyr (Regional NYI Coordinator for the Caribbean).
We greatly thank Rev. Monte for his ministry and blessing the lives of our young people. Our theme was: “Be real for Christ”. This theme has really blessed our campers, because it taught them that we need to stand up for this Christian life that we are leading, no matter what comes your way.
God was moving in one service in such a way that every single camper was dancing and moving in the Holy Spirit. During that service, we had an altar call, and Rev. Bish and Rev. Monte prayed for those who needed prayer, and something great happened. While they were praying, there were Youths who gave their heart to the Lord. Praise the Lord for soul winning!
Besides times of worship and learning from God's word, we swam, played games, had workshops, sang, and enjoyed being together.
At the time of quizzing, everyone was excited. Rev. Monte launched the quizzing strategy, and we will keep this going in Suriname. So keep praying for our Youths, because you will face them one day in quizzing competitions!
This is what one of Youths had to say, "We learned about things we did not know of. The camp was great. We got to know each other more and more and had so much fun together. I can't wait for the next Youth camp!"
Thanks to the Mackey, Indiana Nazarene Youth Group for partnering with us to make this camp possible!
Report submitted by Christina Singh - Dutch Field NYI Representative
