For your thoughts

It was James Baldwin who wrote : "Children have never been good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."

This is a challenging thought. Why is this the case? What obligation does this place on the parents? What can they do differently that will cause children to listen?

Comments from both parents and children are welcome.

Blessings

Are there new or better ways of ministering to the Youth?

Currently, there are various (traditional) ways of providing ministry to the young people in our church viz. Friday Night Youth Club/Fellowship, Servers Guild, Happenings, Sunday School, Lads/Girls Brigade, Choir, Youth Alpha, participating in worship services, etc.

Whilst these organisations are providing good opportunities for young people to participate in the church, do they holistically provide sufficient spiritual development for a young person to "mature" as a Christian and to become actively involved in the Church and beyond as a life long vocation (and that does not only mean in full time ordained ministry)?

OR, must we provide additional or different activities/events/environments for greater maturity in Christ to take place? If so, what would you suggest? We are looking for ways to develop young people so that they will remain involved in the life of the church.

What would you suggest?

What are you doing on National Aids Day - 1st December?

Stand up and be counted. We challenge all young people to do something constructive on December 1st about the scourge of HIV/AIDS that has plagued us for so long. Here are some ideas:
* Wear the red ribbon as a sign of your identification and support for those infected and affected by the virus.
* Take a 15 minute break from work (or play) on the 1st December at 12:00 noon to pray for those infected and affected and mention them by name if you know them.
* Take time to reach out to someone infected with the disease. Share and pray with them and encourage them with the love of Jesus.
* Form or join an AIDS support team and offer your services to care for those affected by the disease.
* Form discussion groups on what we can do to PREVENT any further infections from taking place. This scourge must be stopped and we must do what is necessary to bring it to a halt. Start promoting sex only within marriage (the Biblical way) or practice abstinence.
* Visit web sites like www.anglicanaids.org.za, www.anglicanaids.net, www.beatit.co.za, etc. and find out more about the disease and how you can get involved in an existing ministry or organisation.
* Examine your own lifestyle and where necessary, bring your own life under the total submission of the Lordship of Christ - so that He can use you fully to His glory.

Whatever it takes, DO SOMETHING !

We are partnering with J-Life for youth ministry training

J-Life (Jesus Life) Ministries launched in January 2001 and it's primary focus has been training and coaching emerging leaders to implement the disciple-making model as taught through the Life of Jesus and His ministry. In order for this to be done effectively, potential leaders are journeyed with for as long as possible to transfer the character and priorities of Christ over to them. these leaders are trained/coached intensively and then released to multiply this training by coaching others in local church contexts.

The mission and vision of J-Life for the future:
We exist to train leaders to "mobilise disciple-making movements" across the world through the local Church.

We have appointed J-Life as one of our training service providers to help us to equip as many Youth leaders as possible around the Province.

Please contact us on anglicanyouthsa@gmail.com for full details or call J-Life direct on Office - 084-2400204 or Bronwyn on 082-8570275 or Warren on 083-4622156.

Special announcement : J-Life is hosting a Camp (near Johannesburg) in December which will include activities like paintball, go-carting, rip-line or fufi slide (over 150m), obstacle courses, and much more. See poster below.

Anglican Youth on Facebook

Yeh, we're on FACEBOOK ! Facebook helps you to connect with others and offers you the opportunity to share news, stories, photos, etc.
We have established a Facebook Group for Anglican Youth in Southern Africa and invite young people and adults to join.
Please forward this information to your entire email address book - we want as many Anglican young people to connect to our blog and Facebook Group.
Remember, you must be registered on Facebook in order to participate. It is a simple procedure and should take no longer than a few minutes. Go to www.facebook.com and Sign Up. Then search for Anglican Youth Southern Africa - and there you are!
Enjoy !

Drugs will steal your future and everything that goes with it !

A recent 3rdDegree programme on eTV literally made me throw up. Debra Patta herself could not contain her disgust and disbelief in the results of her investigation into the drug scene in South Africa. A recent report indicated:

• 1 in 3 boys and 1 in 5 girls have an alcohol or drug problem, and,
• collectively, they spend over 7 billion Rand (not Zim Dollars) on alcohol and drugs each year! Here is that number again:

R7 000 000 000.00 - OR - 7 Billion Rands !!!!!

Now, just think about what we could have done with money like that:

• Build 140000 RDP houses costing R50000.00 each,
• Pay the annual school fees of R1500.00 for 4,6 million learners,
• Pay the full university fees for three years for ALL matriculants in any one year (about 500000 of them every year)
• Pay for 700 million (700 000 000) plates of food at R10.00 per plate and effectively provide one meal a day for a full year for 1,9 million (starving) children!

Yet, we allow the money to literally GO UP IN SMOKE leaving tens of thousands of young people's lives in ruins.

Say, NO to drugs and alcohol, and fulfill the purpose that God has placed and invested in your life. Don't let an unnecessary adventure result in your future being stolen from you.

You are more precious than you think . . . . .

The Provincial Youth Ministry Commissioned

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba officially commissioned the Provincial Youth Ministry during a ceremony at the Growing the Church Launch in Johannesburg. Our Bishops fully endorse the ministry to young people and acknowledge the importance of this ministry throughout the Province.
Please continue to pray for the Liaison Bishop for Youth - +Bishop Fungi Mbhele, the Youth Chaplain - Rev Jack Kudumela, the chairperson for PYC - Ms Nonhlanhla Shezi, the Provincial Youth Co-ordinator - Tony Lawrence and the entire Provincial Youth Council.