Transform Team - Stirling Baptist Church

A youth team ready for action: But why?

Statistics tell us that one in three people around the world live on less than $1 a day. According to UNICEF 25,000 children die per day due to poverty. 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation. These facts can leave us, as Christians, feeling saddened and powerless yet moved to bring about some form of change however small. We see God's heart for justice throughout the Bible and desire to fulfil the 'Micah challenge' – to 'act justly, love mercifully and walk humbly' – but what can we, as young people living in Scotland really do?

Tearfund is an example of one organisation seeking to equip and empower young Christians to make a difference through partnership with local churches. Their 10 year vision is to see 50 million people released from spiritual and material poverty through a worldwide network of 100,000 churches. Tearfund work with more than 300 Christian partners in more than 40 countries to focus on five priority areas; defeating disease, improving basic services, tackling disasters, climate change and resolving injustice. This is where we can be involved: By becoming part of Tearfund's Connected Church programme, we in the UK can become partners with churches overseas and together we can engage with poverty and injustice. We can start to bring about change in our world through the power of God and His people.

A youth team ready to go: But how?

Tearfund is passionate about empowering radical young disciples to raise their voices and make dramatic, counter-cultural choices to benefit people in poverty. They work with young people, students and youth leaders from right across Scotland; journeying to encounter more of God's heart for people affected by poverty and injustice, discovering how we can respond with our whole lives.

A key part of that journey can be to visit and work with one of Tearfund's church-based partners, as part of a Transform Team. We as a youth team at Stirling Baptist Church are really excited about the possibility of our young people seeing how God's love can transform people's lives, practically and spiritually. Our youth are at a stage where they are asking key questions about their relationship with Jesus: Am I ready to lay my life on the line? Am I ready to have pretty much all of my preconceptions challenged and my life and world views shattered in vibrant and testing circumstances? We believe that taking our youth on a Transform team will give them all they need to get on the journey of changing and helping others in practical and spiritual ways.

And so…this summer a team of 12 leave from Stirling Baptist Church to go to Zambia to work along side one of the Scripture Union teams already there. Transform have organised our visas, set up our accommodation, coordinated our transfers within Zambia and provided us with training to give us an idea of what to expect while in the country. We will be in Zambia from the 10th to 28th July and will be involved in prayer work and running children's day camps. It's sure to be an exciting way to spend part of the summer and we hope this will be the start of a great partnership between the local church in Stirling and within Zambia.

Please pray for us!

Jo, Connor and the rest of the SBC Team.