Summer Challenge
Summer Challenge has officially come to an end. The last four months have been an amazing time of adventure, challenge and growth as we led Summer Challenge. We had two months of preparation and then led two groups for three and a half weeks each. We learned how to run a team together as a couple, how to organize every adventure possible and how to take care of a group of young adults.
Our team (from left: Isak, Josef, Junia and Lucy).
Going into Summer Challenge our team had the vision of “Building faith, confidence and friendship in a fun and challenging environment.” Along with this we also set three tangible goals that we wanted to accomplish. These were for our entire team to share our testimonies with the students, to baptize five of them per session and for one of them to return for fall internship from each session. Every member of our team shared their testimonies on our camping trip and on baptism day we had exactly five people get baptized in each session. We already have two students from the first session doing fall internship and have yet to see if anybody from the second session will come.
One of the students at Feeding The Hungry.
Summer Challenge consisted of teachings on different subjects, small groups, prayer times, group discussions, Sabbath days, Worship, preachings, different outreaches like Feeding The Hungry and lots of adventures in nature. Through this we could build relationships with the students, talk to them about God and answer their questions. It was an honor to walk alongside them in this time in their lives and help them with their questions and problems. It brought us a lot of joy to help them as we want to bring God’s love to the people who need it.
The first Summer Challenge session.
Summer Challenge was a season of growth not only for our students but also for us as leaders. We were challenged in our leadership, in resolving conflict and in how to balance a straining workload with taking time for our marriage. It was cool to see how we could build strong friendships with the rest of our team and strengthen our marriage through it all. Our highlight was definitely the change we saw in the student’s lives. We are stoked to have been a part of the transformation that took place in so many of our students lives and to have gotten the privilege to see ten of them decide to get baptized.
The second Summer Challenge session.
As Summer Challenge is now over we have been placed in new departments at STN. Junia will be joining the executive team as an Executive Assistant. This is a job with a lot of responsibility and she is looking forward to the new challenges it will bring. I will be joining the marketing department as a Web Developer and look forward to getting to work in a familiar field again.
Crouching Lion hike.
Throughout the last six months here at STN we have really developed a passion to see positive change in young people's lives. Through Summer Challenge we have had the opportunity to be a direct influence in that. As we continue to volunteer here at STN we do so with a clear mission of influencing the next generation in a positive way; helping them find and strengthen their faith. In order for us to continue our work at STN we are dependant on financial support. As full time volunteers your donations go a long way to helping sustain us in our ministry here at STN. We are looking to raise $ 1000 in monthly support. If you would like to support us please see the donate page.
27th of August 2018