How can youth groups within the Illinois South Conference participate in the Ecuador Partnership Ministries?
This is an interesting question. We are delighted that you asked this question and we will try to answer it. There are a variety of ways that you can participate:
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Learn about the activities and goals of these ministries and talk about what these ministries are seeking to accomplish at your youth group meetings. You can read about these ministries on the ISC Ecuador Partnership internet site. Perhaps you will identify one of these ministries that you would like to support in some way and you could select someone from your youth group to interact with the Ecuador Partnership Committee talk about how your youth group could participate.
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Read the bulletin inserts that are being mailed every two months about the current activities of these 6 partnerships to each of the churches in ISC. If you have not seen these in your Sunday bulletins, perhaps the youth group could ask the Pastor about them and could offer to copy them and stuff them in the bulletins one Sunday every two months when they arrive.
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Invite someone from the Ecuador Partnership Committee to attend one of your youth group meetings to share some videos or power point presentations that contain information about what these partnerships are doing and how they impact people like you in a different culture.
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Learn more about the culture in Latin America and about the issues that affect people in the hemisphere that we share with millions of people who have similar interests and similar ways of thinking about things but find themselves in a very different culture. Learn about the similarities and contrasts of these cultures.
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Consider allocating a portion of the funds that you raise for youth group activities to one of these ministries that you learn about. Many of these ministries are addressing issues that you might have faced in the past or that someone you know is facing now.
You may find that the portion of your group's resources that you direct toward this ministry will make a very big difference to someone in Ecuador who in many ways is just like you but speaks and thinks in a different language. Many of these young people in Ecuador care about the same things that you value.
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It is very likely that if you think about it, discuss it among yourselves and agree to pray about it collectively and individually, that you will discover ways of participating and making a profound difference that have not yet occurred to the members of the Ecuador Partnership Committee. It is these types of new ideas that are the `fuel' that enable the church to be effective in sharing the love of Jesus with a world that needs this love.