News & Views

Forty-five young people and seven DNAers met up to be trained for a few days' residential to equip and prepare them for the action days which would take place in 6 different towns over 6 days.

The action days consisted of a Family Fun Day and then an evening event at which the gospel was preached. During the fun days we would ask people questions on who they thought God was. Through the questionnaires one person gave was saved.

The evening event was church outdoors i.e. worship and a preach, but with the added bonus of testimonies and a fantastic dance routine which some of the Re:Act trainees had learnt. The best thing about the dance and testimonies was that it showed how much confidence the young people had gained in just a few days because they all wanted to speak/ dance in their town as a stand for what they believe in. After the preach it was our responsibility (along with members from the local churches) to go up to the people who had responded to the gospel and pray with them/ answer any questions they may have etc. I think that that was such a fantastic learning opportunity as well as a huge bolstering to our faith because we were seeing God do so much in others as well as in us.

 

For me Re:Act was a time of being stretched and challenged but it was also a time when the things I have learnt on DNA were really put into practice. Discipleship was probably one of the first words we heard as scared and nervous new DNA trainees. Suddenly at Re:Act it became real. I was responsible, along with my co-leader, for a group of nine 14-18 year olds. Not just responsible for what they did but also for helping them grow spiritually over the 11 days we were together and for me this was one of my first opportunities to really get into discipling young people. It was brilliant, and in discipling them I was stretched and challenged in more was than I thought possible. I was forced to confront them on issues that were brought up over the 11 days, forced to step out of my comfort zone, to leave behind the want to be liked and be faithful enough to challenge them. And while I was faithful to them God was amazingly faithful to me. I found myself actually being able to advise the guys I was talking to with wisdom that couldn’t have been from me. But I also found myself jumping for joy when I saw the changes that God could make in their lives. On reflection God have changed my life as much if not more than the lives of the people I was responsible for and I have found myself coming home with a mew passion and hunger to se my life and the lives of those around me more and more focused on God and the plans he has for all of us.

Kate Hadjipateras and Ben Snowdon