Chairmans Note

As the year began for the Youth and Community Development Trust I intimated that I believed that the word discernment was a key word for us this year. Through 2013 we had a goal to be able to fund four youth workers as well as contribute to Matthew Chamberlin’s work as a director of Young Life NZ. At that time we had two workers and Matt, but we knew that Kate Erikson was finishing at the end of the year. We did not have another person in our church who was in a position to replace Kate; her space has been filled by a woman from Eastgate Church.

Then recently Matt announced he was moving into a full time role as the National Youth Coordinator for the Presbyterian Church, which means our support is not needed for him. We wish Matt well in his new endeavours. There were no other youth workers from other churches to be supported, so instead of going from two to four, we have gone from two to one. Token Veloso is the sole youth worker now, who we have supported for three years. A recent conversation with Mike Williams the Principal of Pakuranga College made it clear to us that the school was not looking for more youth workers at this stage. He believes the integration of the current youth workers into the College was having a good affect on the school’s life.

Discernment needed! The Youth Trust exists to ‘enable young people to reach their all round potential in life.’ It does this primarily by fundraising so that it can support the work done by others in the community. Given enough personnel with the time and ability, the capacity is to make a lot more money than is needed to support one youth worker. So, if the need for youth workers only covers a part of the money we can earn, how will we fulfill its core objective in other ways? This question is before us. It is a matter for prayer and also of

applying some different thinking to what we are called to do. We’ll update you

through the Annual meeting which will be on the 17th of August.

As always, we appreciate your support!

Kevin

#chairman #note #progress #chairmansnote #trustwork #official