For the past 5-ish months, VicYouth has been continuing to minister in unprecedented territory! As a department, we minister to, serve and connect young people through events, which we have not been able to do in-person since lockdowns began in mid-March.
The forced lockdowns were a catalyst to build up our presence and ministry in the online space.
In a collaborative effort by the Australian Youth Director team, an e-Pathfinder (online Pathfinder) program was developed to allow Pathfinders to continue to work towards their investitures at the end of the year. We are pleased that many of our clubs here in Victoria have decided to use this curriculum, and have managed to engage their pathfinders in a range of creative activities on a regular basis. Other clubs in Victoria have continued with their pre-COVID curriculums (albeit slightly modified.) We would like to acknowledge and thank our Pathfinder leaders, who volunteer their time and energy to ensure Pathfinder ministries continues through this challenging time. They have proved themselves resilient and adaptable; able to modify their Pathfinder curriculums on an ongoing basis to adhere to ever-changing government requirements.
We are excited to see that around our state, youth have been stepping up to lead zoom Sabbath Schools, vespers nights and socials with their local church groups. Some have noticed others who haven’t been in a church building for some time attending church services and/or socials online. VicYouth has been in constant contact with Youth Leaders from around the state providing resources, pastoral care and connectivity though this season.
We have engaged with a selection of guest presenters from across the world via Instagram and Facebook. Pr Tacyana Nixon presented insightful thoughts on “Growing with God,” Pr Kevin Wilson shared his experience of sharing the gospel through tiktok, Dr Torben Bergland shared a thought-provoking Q and A session on relationships and “attachment theory,” and we have also engaged in fun interviews with a musician and the creator of @sda.memes. We will continue to engage guest presenters in meaningful interviews (as per requested by our youth) throughout the lockdown period.
#MannaOnMonday has been a series of weekly videos made by our youth, for our youth! It has helped build community and maintain connectivity between youth groups throughout this period of isolation. #ThursdayVerseday was created as an opportunity for youth to share their favourite Bible verse, reflect and share why it is their favourite.
Both #MannaOnMonday and #ThursdayVerseday can be viewed on both our Facebook and Instagram pages. If you or your youth groups would like to be involved, please send us an email at [email protected].
Our “Finding Peace in the Pandemic” panel discussion was put together after we recognised a need – many young people are finding this season challenging and we wanted to provide them with some tools to help them through. Our panel was hosted by Ms Michaela Jones (co-host of the @socialjust.us podcast) and our panellists were Mr Bryan Roberts (School Counsellor and well-being officer) and Dr Torben Bergland (Psychiatrist/Psychotherapist) and Associate Health Director of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Online viewers were given the opportunity to interact with our panellists live and we had an insightful, engaging and thought-provoking discussion on mental health and how we can help ourselves and each other through this season. Following this, we are providing youth groups (by request) with a 4-week multimedia curriculum will equip youth leaders with the tools they need to guide young people in their care, linking anxiety and depression with conversations about discipleship and faithful living. Together they’ll reflect on New Testament stories, watch Jesus enter into anxious situations with his disciples, and explore life in an anxious but hope-filled world.
Winter Recharge will be going online (Winter e-charge) this year! Although we’re sad that we can’t meet in person, Pr Nick Kross will be sharing “How to be a Worldchanger in a Pandemic” with us. His messages will be available for viewing on Youtube and will be posted on both our Facebook and Instagram pages late August.
We will endeavour to send out timely updates with regards to Summer Camps as we seek to make informed decisions with the most up-to-date information provided by local, state and Federal governments. Event plans are subject to change.
Through June and July, we moved our VicYouth storage from Nunawading to Croydon as the building we kept all of our storage in was being repurposed. This was a mammoth task spread over a few weeks as we have gear from all of our events stored here; tents, sporting equipment, signs, cooking equipment, paints, sinks, pathfinder bits and bobs (…the list goes on!) This gave us the opportunity to do a big Spring clean (in Winter!) of our gear.
The other big news, which was reported on a previous occasion, is that we have a new departmental assistant. Kasia Stekla started with us on July 15 following the completion of her university studies. Kasia’s skills and ability is timely too as we pivot our ministry more to the online arena.