WEA Youth Commission News October 2006

Greetings, fellow Youth Commission Leaders,

October is here and most of us are well into our fall schedules. Here’s the latest update. Let’s keep communicating with and praying for each other.

Africa : KidsGames Impacts Communities of All Sizes

As you know, KidsGames is a popular sports outreach event winning thousands to Christ all over Africa . Africa’s YC Coordinator, Solomon Gacece shares the view from one community: “Praise the Lord and greetings from Nairobi, . Thank you for praying. A small church organized KidsGames on Wednesday 9^th August 2006. Church and community leaders attended and gave full support. Even though the community was small, 410 youth were involved from 7 churches. A total of 16 youth received Christ as personal Savior. Many more were encouraged spiritually.”

Asia: Daryl Represents YC in and

In September, Daryl travelled to to attend a Global Day of Prayer/Transformation Summit. The main purpose of the gathering was for leaders of prayer and transformation movements to get to know each other, network and determine how to synergize future efforts. Daryl was one of several people who represented youth ministry. It was a very informative and valuable meeting. Daryl also travelled to to meet with Godfrey Yagarajah, WEA’s Asian regional director, to visit about how our Youth Commission can better serve WEA and other groups globally.

Jussi at Lausanne’s Younger Leaders Gathering in Malaysia

Jussi Miettinen was also invited to as a delegate to the Lausanne Younger Leader’s Gathering. He reports that there were 510 young leaders from 110 countries. Since Lausanne ’s heart and long-term purposes are similar to the Youth Commission in many areas, Jussi feels that we need to consider ways to engage with the efforts of this re-emerging group. A number of other familiar faces were there, including Paul Borthwick and Jacob Isaacs, from the India Youth Commission, who served as emcee of the event.

: Training Spreads throughout the Country

Just one year after the Youth Commission sponsored the India Youth Ministry Mobilization Forum, the training for youth workers appears to have multiplied! In August, the India Youth Commission held evangelistic training in New Delhi for 61 delegates from numerous churches. In September, 70 youth workers from south met in Bangalore around the theme: “Equipped to Serve the Youth.” ’s Youth Commission Coordinator, Shavez Williams, said: “Our goal was to form new youth networks, strengthen ongoing networks and make plans to hold Youth Forums like this in every district of Karnataka.” The Bangalore Youth Network plans to hold a missions mobilization program in November for 500 youth leaders. Another Forum is planned 3-6 October in Nagaland (northeast ).

South Pacific in Transition

Our South Pacific YC Coordinator, Graham Sercombe summarizes the past two years: “The situation in the South Pacific is quite a challenge.” Due to a split in the Evangelical Fellowship of the South Pacific, the Youth Commission (known as Youth Arise) needed to change its name in order to capture its new identity. The newly formed South Pacific Evangelical Fellowship (SPEF) is the WEA group in this region and will meet in in May 2007 uniting Christian leaders and rebuilding partnerships.

“It is clear that SPEF is rebuilding from the ground up after the split,” Graham said. “There is still significant confusion for those within the region! It could take years for SPEF to be recognised and respected in the region.

“After ten years of networking youth ministry, we are back to ground level, now needing to seek new country youth network leaders who will identify with the vision and values of SPEF. But we still have the same heart of networking young people together in prayer, worship and evangelism.

I agreed to act as Youth Coordinator in the region until May 2007.

“Yes, it has been a very challenging journey. However, the lines have been clearly drawn and SPEF has a great opportunity to build something good and credible that will help unite the whole church in the whole region to impact the region for Christ.” Let’s pray hard for that!

Latin American YC Plans

Jorge Zuniga’s new assistant, Eugenia, is helping to increase his communication with the Latin American Youth Commission and is assisting him in many other ways. (Her fluent English certainly helps this office!) They are gathering national reports from the Youth Commissions in Latin America in an effort to stay in touch and support each nation.

Please hold up Jorge in prayer for the following events:

· October: He travels to to meet with the national leader of the Youth Commission and to for an Iberoamerican congress. This congress will host about 300 pastors and youth leaders for 3 days. The topic is: Adolescence and the Church.

· December: Jorge travels to for the Iberoamerican Evangelical Dialogue Forum (FIDE). He will meet with the presidents of the Evangelical Alliance for Latin America . Please pray for the formation of national networks of youth leadership in the Latin American nations.

Updated Website

The international website has been updated. Please check the national coordinators for your region of the world to see if all the information is correct. Just go to www.globalyouthworkers.net.

January Youth Commission Meetings and Caribbean Consultation

God is providing funds for youth leaders to come from throughout the Caribbean . We anticipate 8-10 countries to be represented at the consultation in order to begin new Youth Commissions there. Please note the dates below and begin to make your plans to come to Orlando/Jamaica. If you are going to need financial assistance, please let us know this month. If you have a conflict or are not able to stay the entire time, please confirm that with us this month as well. We are very excited about what God intends to do through us and to us during these days together in January 2007. Please be praying!

Saturday, 13 January, 2007	Arrive in Orlando , FL
Sunday-Mon, 14-15 January	Youth Commission Meeting
Monday-Wed, 15-17 January	Youth Missions Forum
Wednesday, 17 January	Travel to Kingston ,
Wed p.m.-Sat noon , 17-20 January	Caribbean Consultation
Sunday, 21 January	Travel home

We are encouraged to be working together with you. Please let us know how we can pray for you.

Paul Fleischmann and Daryl Nuss

WEA Youth Commission