6 February 2009

	Youth leaders in Kitwe.

Spreading love in Tanzania

About 300 Christians came together last year for a week-long youth workers’ conference at Kanisa la Biblia (Bible Church) in Mtwara, Tanzania. These workers came from all over southern Tanzania, and each one came with his or her pastor and two elders from their congregation.

A full range of seminars provided timely and practical training that should greatly enlarge the effectiveness of youth ministries in this nation in eastern Africa. One day a lecturer spoke on “Love your Neighbor.” The next day the conferees scattered around the city to do ministries of love: hospital and jail visitation, prayer visits with government officials, environmental clean-up, and home repairs for elderly people.

As the youth workers put what they’ve learned into practice in their churches, may the love of Jesus become visible within their groups and also through them to their communities.

A story of hope from South Africa

"We have been made aware, again, of the needs of the young people in our area and all over southern Africa," wrote Brian and Lorraine Milner, producers of a new film titled A Story of Hope. "So the message of this film is an urgent one, especially the need to accept Christ as Savior as early in life as possible."

The film, a project of Christian Outreach Media, is based on a book from Focus on the Family—Africa region. (The actors—all Zulu—used English, since most young people in the region understand that language.) A Story of Hope was filmed in late 2007, followed by a complicated editing process, as amateur actors were used to minimize costs. Public screenings were expected to begin in July 2008 in English-speaking countries all over Africa.

Training trainers for youth leaders in Zambia

No program for training youth workers! This was the situation that Sung Sik and Shin Ae Park discovered in their church in Zambia. So they began to equip youth leaders to train others to run youth discipleship groups. After more than two years of evening and weekend sessions, they saw the results.

The leaders they had trained led every aspect of a youth camp last year for more than 600 young people. So the Parks prayed to be able to expand the training program to other regions in Zambia. How could they make that happen? God took care of it by having several of the trainers transferred by their employers.

The Parks’ goal is to train 165 trainers by the end of 2008, and then to hand over all responsibility for this discipleship program to those new leaders.