Robbie, the youth worker at Willowfield Church in Belfast, recently shared about the continued impact he has seen since his teens participated in an Exodus team.
When the church first decided to do a mission trip for teens, Robbie wasn’t sure how many young people would sign up, because none of them had done anything like this before. He shares, “We had nine young people sign up pretty much straight away, and they were from a range of different faith levels, different backgrounds and different life experiences. It was a cool group coming together.”
The transformation really began through the weekly team meetings and discipleship journey. “The Exodus journey, where you meet and build into your team, was critical for our guys. It was probably somewhat awkward the first week, but then, as we kept meeting, friendships definitely started to form and grow.” He adds, “We were an Ex-change team, trading 'my way for His way'. The journey itself was class, especially seeing the faith development of nine young people.”
Robbie shared that their church played a key role in the journey, supporting the team financially and praying for them. He reflects, “Whilst it was 11 people going away to Hungary, the whole church was engaged in it.” The support they received from their church was vital to the success of their Exodus journey.
The team had an incredible time away. Robbie remembers that they connected well with their local partners, and his teens were able to really step up and lead well. He says, “It was a really good partnership throughout the week, and we did the majority of the leading in terms of organising the games, the talks, the stories.”
However, the part that struck him the most was how his teens were given a glimpse of life as a Christian in another country. He reflects, “Our guys were able to see a church in a different country and experience a different culture. One of the things we talk a lot about within Willowfield is the global church. They got to experience and witness and see that God is at work, not just in Belfast, but a four hour flight away in a different country, in a different time zone.”
Once the team arrived home, the teens did not just settle back into life as usual. The impact of their Exodus journey continued. Robbie summed it up like this, “The young people grew massively, and I've seen the impact of that over the last year.” Teens have stepped into leadership roles in the worship ministry, kids camps, and missions. Robbie comments, “It's made them engage in church in a way that I couldn't have imagined, and that can only be God moving in their life, and calling them into something better than what it was they were doing.” He adds, “It's benefited us as a church, just seeing some young people step into the roles of leadership here.”
After seeing the impact that being on an Exodus team had on his own teens, Robbie is an advocate of others doing Exodus teams as well. He concludes, “To any youth worker or youth leader considering a church team, do it! The benefits that we have seen for our young people, for our church, for me, have been class, and I would encourage anybody to consider it.”
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