Indiana Youth Actively Supporting Jesus For A New Generation
By Kristen Bell, Global Program Coordinator Assistant
January 2008
Recently, NYI had the opportunity to conduct an email interview with Mackey Church of the Nazarene’s NYI President, Phillip Doerner and his Youth Group from Mackey, Indiana, USA. Here are their responses to why and how they have decided to make a difference by sponsoring Jesus for a New Generation projects.
How did you hear about Jesus for a New Generation?
I found out about Jesus for a New Generation at the Third Wave Conference in Ecuador in January 2004. There were many conversations of how Youth Ministry was conducted in various world areas and how we could work together to make it more effective. In these discussions, a Youth Leader from Africa mentioned that support from [Jesus for a New Generation] helps because money is tight and supplies and other needs sometimes aren't available. My experiences helped me as the Youth Leader realize that there is so much more that we can be doing. I presented this view of the Global NYI in different ways so the Youth would see there is so much more than what we have in our Church, our District, and our country. We had a prayer focus in different months to pray for Youth Leaders and their ministries in different world areas. We also began participating in [Jesus for a New Generation] to financially assist Youth Ministry as part of a Global NYI.
How did your youth group go about choosing projects to sponsor?
We wanted to choose projects that were in different categories and in different world areas. We chose to purchase musical instruments, sporting equipment, a canoe, and Youth Ministry materials. We also wanted to support the training of Youth Workers and Church camps. We were excited to sponsor an entire Church camp for about the same cost as sending two of our students to camp. Our goal was to be broad in our outreach in both type of support and world area in order to meet a variety of needs.
How did your youth group raise the funds for the ministries in Africa and the Caribbean?
Our Youth Group raises nearly all of our operating budget through fundraisers. We make and sell pizzas, do rummage sales, and host a Valentine's banquet for the Church, for which we provide dinner and entertainment. The Youth are responsible for making and delivering the pizzas, helping to organize, manage, and clean for the rummage sale, and we decorate, cook, serve, perform, and clean up with the Valentine's banquet. We are blessed to have a loyal Church family who generously supports our fundraisers.
After one of our fundraisers, the Youth Council was considering buying some things to add to our Youth room, which already had a ping-pong table, pool table, foosball, etc. We decided we had enough stuff for our Youth room, so we decided the money would be better spent by sharing it with someone who really needed it.
We have also looked at the funds in our Youth account from time to time and decided it was doing no good in a bank. Since we didn’t have any upcoming expenses, we decided to sponsor some projects that could meet the needs of others. God has blessed our Church and Youth Group and we want to share that blessing.
Used by permission. Jesus for a New Generation