October 29, 2008

Dear Friends,

Alex, Elizabeth, Emily, Hannah, Jessica, Joel, Kevin, and Megan on an educational outing with Elaine to the Ulster Folk Museum.

They're here—and already making a difference! The first week in September we welcomed eight new PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteers who will be with us for the next 11 months: Alex, Elizabeth, Emily, Hannah, Jessica, Joel, Kevin, and Megan all pictured on an educational outing with Elaine to the Ulster Folk Museum.

Each has been placed part of the week with a local congregation in need of support for youth ministry, worship leadership, visiting members in their homes, hosting lunches for senior citizens, and helping with magazine production or other administrative tasks. Last Sunday Joel was the first to preach. The other part of each volunteer’s week involves them in a wide variety of community ministries in neighborhoods which bear many of the social, economic, and spiritual scars of decades of civil conflict in Northern Ireland.

On any given day you may find Emily and Elizabeth helping to staff drop-in centers for youth; Hannah working with After-Schools Clubs for both primary and secondary level children; Jessica with parent and toddlers groups, or Alex going into local schools to assist with religious education classes. Kevin spends hours each week supervising indoor soccer with boys who have few other activities available and whose energy might otherwise not be channeled in constructive ways. Megan is helping develop a cross-community youth project between Kilmakee Presbyterian Church and St Louis House and also collecting faith stories from members to publish as part of their 50th anniversary celebration. To learn who these current YAVs are, what congregations they come from in the United States, and what their roles are here look up, there’s a pdf on my home page that gives a fuller description. You can also read periodic letters from them and other YAVs on the Mission Connections Web site YAV page.

YAV Hannah Williams helps at "Sticky Fingers" After-School Club at Dundonald Methodist Church.

With such diverse tasks, each YAV is learning rapidly to be flexible. This is perhaps truest for Alex. Less than two weeks before he arrived every room in Whitehouse Presbyterian Church, to which he is assigned, was filled with flood water from a torrential rain. The building is out of action for at least six months. New meeting space has had to be found for every activity scheduled as part of their program. Times are continually adjusted to coincide with when space can be borrowed in neighboring churches, Scout halls, schools, or private homes. Activities are undertaken without the easy accessibility to the normal equipment. It may be a blessing for Alex that he never experienced what an efficient set-up Whitehouse had before the flood!  More importantly, what a blessing it is that Whitehouse has a flexible YAV during this time to take some of the pressure off the minister and others whose workload for the next six months has been doubled.

In an evaluation I recently received for last year’s YAV at Whitehouse, Liz Hughes, the minster there wrote:

As a congregation we have been very impressed by the high quality of the young people who have served with us. At Easter 2006 our Sunday night youth group had almost disappeared as one generation had moved on and another had not yet come forward. A younger age of a few 9, 10 and 11 year olds was encouraged to meet together by Lauren Simmons 2006/07 YAV, the group was developed by Jessica 07/08 until she had about 15 meeting regularly and now our 08/09 YAV, Alex Creager, is seeing the results as he finds himself with an increasingly strong and committed youth group of around 20 plus. Each has brought to this process very different strengths but the result is a much more rounded group of young people.

Let me share two other comments about the impact of last year’s YAVs that I received as part of evaluations recently:

Our YAV gave the youth with whom we work an insight into the “bigger world” which is so valuable to these kids as they know nothing about the world outside the Greater New Lodge!

Sarah, has had a massive impact on our congregation and has brought a lot of encouragement to the members of our own congregation.  She also has really raised the profile of our church and what we do within the local community.  Lots of the young people ask after her and through her we have strengthened the links between the local schools and our church and other organizations.

YAV Lauren Simmons introduces the Girls Brigade at Whitehouse Church to "Southern cooking."

This is the sixteenth year for the YAV program operating in Northern Ireland. To date we have had 77 volunteers who by sharing their gifts have made a difference in 20 different congregations and community ministries. What has been a particular privilege for us is to have reconnected over the past two years with over 20 previous YAVs—either when we have been in the United States or when they have visited here—and hear their testimonies to the difference spending a year as a Young Adult Volunteer has made in their faith and lives since that time.

Applications are currently being sought from those who wish to serve as YAVs in one of the ten national sites or five international sites from September 2009 to July 2010. The application deadline for international sites is January 20. Full information can be found at the main YAV page on the PC(USA) Web site.

Please look around your congregation or circle of contacts and ask yourself “Who should I be encouraging to think about serving as a YAV?” and then make sure they have the necessary information to pursue this option. And please remember in your prayers both the young adults who are currently serving around the United States and the world and those of us privileged to work with them.

Faithfully yours,

 Doug and Elaine Baker

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 152