We have been at the Youth with a Mission base for just over a week now. This building is 5 stories with all the rooms full of either Discipleship Training students (DTS), staff, guests, or World Racers. The 11 female WRs are staying in one room where it looks like our packs have vomited all over. We are staying on pads on the floor and the contents of our packs are scattered all around us. The 2 boys (Michael and Ben) are staying in a room with some of the DTS guys. The Christian community has been refreshing and the amount of people living under one roof (nearly 150 people) has made me lose sight of my personal space as much.
Youth with a Mission is a Christian organization that holds a discipleship training school, for adults 18 yrs old and over, that lasts from 2 months to 4 months. After their training is finished they do outreach for 3 months to 6 months. Outreach consists of working with another Christian organization or church and doing ministry as a missionary. During our first month of the race, our ministry contacts in Serbia were part of YWAM. They did DTS, outreach, and now are starting their own ministry as a branch of YWAM. There was a group of young people staying with us in Serbia that was doing their outreach with these YWAM partners. It has been neat seeing the different stages of YWAMers. We saw the end stage first and are now we are seeing how they got there (DTS, outreach, ministry development). At the Bangalore base, we have been doing a lot of work with YWAM alum who have started up ministries nearby.
The 13 of us world racers have been split up into different ministries each day. My first ministry was Monday morning. Michael, Daniele and I went to the Study Center where we worked with children from the ages of 3 to 5. This is a school that 2 former YWAMers have started for kids in the slums. They only charge 100-200 rupees a month for this education…that’s $2 to $4 a month if they can afford it! We worked with the kids from 8:30am to noon, reviewing the ABCs with the 3 yr olds (this was my area), reviewing the ABCs and numbers and months of the year, etc. with 4 yr olds (Michael and Daniele were alone on this one), and the 5 yr olds were learning to write and read. When these kids enter primary school in the area they are expected to be handed a piece of paper, be able to read the instructions, and write a response. Therefore, Avi (the entrepreneur) and her husband have had to push the children more than they’d like into learning things at a faster pace.
This school incorporates Christian values in their teachings, they have songs and a Bible story first thing in the morning. What’s interesting though is that their parents range from Muslim to Hindu to Christian. Since these kids do not receive a lot of attention or help at home with learning, this has become one of the priorities of the school. However since the children that have graduated and moved onto primary school are struggling tremendously academically, the focus on the school has shifted to focusing on helping them learn more and having less play time.
It was so precious to go upstairs and visit the 5 yr olds. They got so excited and wanted to all stand up at once and introduce themselves. So, as the teacher told them, they jumped up one at a time, standing tall with a huge smile on their face and said, “Hi! My name is _____.” I shook their tiny hand and said, “Nice to meet you ____, my name is Staci.” It was even more precious when one little girl offered me her left hand as a greeting. I then taught them a song that we have been using in the past two countries called Oh LeiLei Ticky Tonga. It involves a lot of dance moves and yelling. Jenny brought it back from Africa. The littler kids weren’t as easy to maintain attention and they just wanted to touch you and sit in your lap, hugging you. Towards the end of the morning they decided to try it though.
Following school, we sat around while one little boy was forgot by his parents, and talked about the traditions found in different parts of India concerning religion as well as the vision for the Study Center. These people have a heart for God’s kingdom and this is a place in need of more missionaries.
