How one of our diocesan youth workers spent the summer

How one of our diocesan youth workers spent the summer

I suppose I could forgive people for thinking that I’m going to have a long, young people-free summer holiday, after all, there’s no schools’ work to be done and the majority of the church groups cease to function during the summer. So I feel the need to tell you all that I really did this summer.

July arrived with a scuffle of end of term activities at school; sports day, charities day, the ubiquitous summer fete, you name it, and my local school probably organised it. July seemed to go by so quickly that I’d barely had time to squeeze in the end of term socials for my two youth groups.  End of term... for the 10-14 group this is it until September, however the 14+ (known as Wyred) are a little more difficult to shake off.

I’ve been working for St Peter & St Paul for nearly two years now, and this summer we decided to embark on our first international mission. We held every type of fundraising initiative imaginable to hit our target of £10,000. Two days after the schools finished we loaded up our luggage and seven young people and headed for Denver, USA. Ha! I hear you say, America, not exactly roughing it were they?  However, this was the first of a two-part mission ending in Juarez, Mexico, a border city with too many social problems to list here. The trip was of the ‘off the shelf’ variety provided by YWAM (Youth With a Mission). We arrived in Denver to take part in four days of intense training before hitting the streets of Juarez. We were taught drama and dance, puppetry and even balloon modelling and face-paints all with a healthy dose of cultural orientation and spiritual input.

Armed with all this knowledge and on a spiritual ‘high’ we left for Mexico – a 12
hour drive away through Cowboy and Indian country (not a tee-pee in sight though!). Our time in Juarez was spent partly doing service projects; we concreted a church floor by hand and painted throughout. The second part was to use our new skills to ‘reach out’ in the local community. We performed our dramas in a drug rehab centre and used puppets to reach children in an orphanage. We also took part in a church service, a Sunday school and delivered food to the homeless. In every place one of the young people would give a testimony of what God had done for them. It’s at this point I must say ‘thank you’ to the young people, they worked tirelessly, performed like pro’s and didn’t moan once, even though we had to sleep on cold concrete floors.

We arrived home with four days to organise and pack again for our annual trip to the Soul Survivor youth conference in Somerset. This time with 22 young people (from 2 churches) we had the pleasure of witnessing them growing even further in their faith, experiencing God in unbelievable ways and ministering to each other and those around them.
We’ve had a great summer, watching teenagers mature in their love of God and put their faith into action, it is an awesome privilege, and the reason I do what I do, but can I have a holiday now please?!!

Lizzie Williams, Youth Worker St Peter & St Paul, Great Missenden, Bucks