International Youth Project at Himmelsfels

Already four days that 13 young people from Africa, Asia and Germany are meeting in Germany in the framework of the International Youth Project. They are gathered since the 5^th of June in order to bring the youth perspective on the UEM theme which is: “Share the good news, faith and grace in action”. The gathering opened officially in Wuppertal at the UEM head office on Monday 6^th June 2016 during the usual morning devotion in the Mission House. These young people from South Africa, Botswana, Rwanda, Tanzania, Indonesia and Germany conducted the morning devotion in a very lively and creative way to the satisfaction of all.

After getting some orientation into UEM from gadgets and flyers, they then engaged into a deep reflection on the concept of good news and the different ways to understand it. This session was moderated by Rev. Claudia Währisch-Oblau, the UEM Executive Secretary in charge of Evangelism. In the evening the youth joined the Wuppertal City Kirche for the evening prayer session which was convened on the topic of refugees and migrants. Also here, they thrilled the participants with their lively and vibrant way of being, as can be expected from young people from diverse contexts.

On Tuesday, the 7^th they engaged on the journey to Himmelsfels, an intercultural church based place in the province of Hesse (www.himmelsfels.de) the final venue of the youth project for 2016. There, they experienced a number of things like drama and theater arts, practically working and sharing the good news with little children. This was a rewarding experience as more than a hundred children from Spangenberg came and were taken care of, among others by our youth. One challenge here which happened to be a rewarding experience was to share the good news with children who only know German language. It is to be noted that our participants from Africa and Asia can only use English.

The rich diversity of UEM could furthermore be made visible in the way the young people share the Gospel in their various contexts. Each participant had to share with the others the way they share the good news in their own contexts.

But in the end they are expected to come out with a movie which portrays the ways young people in UEM share the good news in the various contexts, and reflections on this is still going on. So, WAIT and SEE.