Junior Youth Update

We are still working with two junior youth groups. It's incredible to witness the level of receptivity we encountered with them and their eagerness to participate.

We are finding it very challenging to get them completely started. There are two main reasons for this: one, we are have yet to meet most (all but one) of the parents and get their approval and support of the program and two, we have not found a permanent indoor location to carry out the group.

We meet in a public park where there are lots of people, noises and distractions which results in low concentration, low participation and not much progress from session-to-session, which is reducing the enthusiasm of the junior youth. Although we could easily invite them to our home, we feel that it would be inappropriate without first knowing their parents and having their consent. So although we have been meeting with them for about one month, we have not yet started any of the junior youth books and only having partial sessions related to themes such as service, friendship, unity and excellence.

This week, our main goal is to have the parental authorization forms filled in so that we can have them over and also to put more pressure on them to meet their parents. If we can achieve this, then there will be a much higher likelihood that the groups can and will continue. There are other challenges as well, but I feel that if we can surmount these ones first, the other ones will also be surmountable.

Please keep us in your prayers. We are also open and eager to consult with those who have experience in this field of service.

Getting started with junior youth in El Vendrell...

...requires A LOT of time, planning, organizing and effort!

A core group of us have been working tirelessly in the past month to open a junior youth group and every day it seems we are closer and closer.  

We started with planning at the youth conference in Madrid last month. Immediately following, we met again and created a more step by step plan of action. We invited our friends to become animators and offered a study of books 1 and 5. We invited friends from other communities to help us conduct outreach in our neighborhood to invite junior youth and help us plan/prepare for our first sessions. Now we have met with some 12 junior youth four times and we have another group of 8-10 that wants to form too, with whom we have met twice.

At the moment, Kilian and I are the only two trained animators with two more going through books 1 and 5. Our challenge will be to fortify the youth and consolidate the junior youth so that we have enough resources to have and sustain two junior youth groups. 

Every day we are learning something new about this process.