YOUTH MINISTRY
The youth ministry here at the EECT is all about progressing from where we at right now to where we need to be ultimately, in God’s great purpose. Heskias Mandefro started up the current youth ministry over 5 years ago. He was a man truly set apart to see holes that the rest of us did not see. We had a Sunday school system that was in English and a Young Adults Ministry that worshiped in Amharic, and as we got older, the gap between the two groups developed into a new mission frontier. The new group that emerged did not speak Amharic but were too old to be in Sunday school. Heskias stepped in and began to nurture them and create the foundation for a new youth ministry. His motto, and I believe it stills carries over today, was ‘Love God, Love people’.
The true goal of youth ministry is to fully develop a hunger for God and a spiritual experience, as to awaken a serious commitment that will last a lifetime. Many children come to Sunday school with their parents, but youth ministry is all about choosing for yourself to become a member of the kingdom of God. The call of the Bible is to baptize and make disciples of all people, no matter what colour, race and age. Therefore, as long as there are youth, Heskias and I have accepted the responsibility to nurture lives, so that these young people do not just come to church to be disciples but grew into fishers of men.
To that in endeavour, we have developed 4 days dedicated to the entire youth ministry in a week to harness the youthful energy into a weapon for the kingdom of God. We have a Bible Study on Wed. Nights, a youth prayer on Thurs. Nights, youth service on Fri. Nights and on Sunday, it is the English Church out in full force. Our goal with each one of these days is to develop youth to help other youth. In the last 2 years we have seen that really come to fruition as a mighty revival has been burning a path to seeing our vision and our goal come to maturity. With the support of the church, we have now an awesome worship team that leads us in the singing of praise on Sundays. We have various leaders stepping up from within the group to lead bible studies here at our church and at their schools. We have seen people step up and begin to mentor the generation behind them through one on one tutoring, Sunday school teaching and planning and so much more.
The term ‘English church’ came from a vision that Heskias had when he first started and now it has become the cry of all hearts to make it happen. Unified in spirit and mind, we are pushing to see the younger generation in our church to rise up and become a staple in the revival moment in North America. Especially in the Habesha community, where we find ourselves no matter how far we try to run away some time. We are pushing forward with the grace of God and in turn, we ask that you keep us in your prayers. There is much work to be done in the kingdom.
0 comments:
Post a Comment