Youth for Christ staff frequently engage with other ministries. Partnering with other others is a high value in Youth for Christ and we believe that doing so benefits both us and them.
Youth for Christ Italy’s National Director Ester Montefalcone found this to be the case also with Mission-Net, a bi-annual pan-European gathering of young Christians commissioned by the European Evangelical Missionary Alliance and European Evangelical Alliance. Mission-Net is primarily made for people aged between 16-30 who are willing to consider a Christian missional lifestyle which allies spiritual expressions of the faith and practical contributions to the society’s common good.
Around 250 Italian young people (aged between 16 and 35) from different Evangelical denominations participated. Many of them followed a track for the seminars in the afternoon on youthwork, which Ester translated for the Italians. This provided a great opportunity for Christians from various denominations to talk about future partnerships in Italy on youthwork training.
Following is Ester’s account of the conference:
. . .[the conference] revived a desire for Jesus and missions among the European young people and challenged them to live out a missional life.
I went as a translator, an exhibitor for YFC Italia and I also had the privilege to lead one of the Italian small groups (called family groups).
It was an amazing experience and a great time of encouragement. About 2650 people from 40 European and 15 Non-European countries came together to worship God, seek His face and will for their lives. The theme was: Transforming our world.
Great worship music, inspiring talks, amazing time of prayer for the world, a great worship celebration on New Year Eve’s night were just a few of the ingredients.
George Verwer was the speaker on the last night and he commissioned young people to go and transform the world. His love for God and missions is still inspiring so many young people after 51 of faithful service!
There was a great focus on restoring the Gospel demonstration and proclamation in our old continent, which is one of the main mission fields at the moment. Also a lot of emphasis was put on issues like social justice, human trafficking, poverty, etc … I was struck at how God is giving a passion for social issues to many in this generation.
The responsiveness of so many young ones has so much thrilled our hearts and we all left with a deep sense of encouragement. God is at work in our young people and I feel confident that He is going to use them to transform the world we live in.
A lot of our Italian young adults and especially the girls from my church, whom I encouraged to go, came back with a renewed desire to serve God and live a transformed and transforming life. . .