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Biggest DOC Youth Leader Training Event Ever We have never tried this before - training this many people all at one time and with this kind of ongoing support. But with ICYF 2003 we are going to do a new thing. One thousand or more Disciples high school youth and their adult sponsors will gather in Atlanta, July 9-13, 2003, on the Georgia Tech campus for the biggest, most ambitious Disciples youth leader training event ever held. Designed by the General Youth Council, ICYF 2003 (International Christian Youth Fellowship) will provide CYF youth (completed grades 9-12) and sponsors with six hours of training in any of thirty Leader Development Tracks. Plus they will get hands-on mission experience with the Buy-A-Brick Project. As if that were not enough, participants will also receive a year of followup contact and support from their Leader Development Track!! ICYF has always had a strong leader training focus with past events focused on the gifts of the arts and on various missions and ministries. ICYF 2003 builds on these past models and strengthens them with the ambitious addition of a year of support. Too often leaders - young or old - receive excellent training at an event but return home to little support or understanding and not much happens with what they learned. With the help of technologies like email and internet egroups it becomes feasible for track leaders and group members to remain engaged with and support each other long after an event. And it becomes more likely the training will result in great things happening for God when participants arrive back home. The Buy-A-Brick Project will engage all participants in mission work with one of four Atlanta area Disciples churches - Shiloh Christian Church, Iglesia El Aposento Alto, Decatur-First Christian Church, and Chattahoochee Christian Church - making improvements and additions to their facilities in ways that will expand the ministries and witness of these churches. Volunteers in Mission and Vision Builders will coordinate these efforts. Of course, there will be the usual highlights of a great youth event: spirit-filling worship, concerts and storytellers and games, and new relationships galore. Randy Kuss is the
Director of Youth Ministries in Disciples Home Missions |
