Ministry helps teens bring God’s love to the poor
EDMONTON, AB—In early July, a Christian teenager and two of his buddies combined what they love doing with a passion to help the poor—and longboarded across Alberta.
"These three guys started from Lloydminster and longboarded all the way through to Banff," says Graeme Watt, the founder and director of loveworks, the Edmonton-based youth ministry that sponsored the trio. A longboard is similar to a skateboard, but longer and wider.
They raised $10,000 toward a medical clinic in Busiga, a village in Burundi, being built in partnership with Harvest for Christ Burundi. They also wanted to raise awareness of the Batwa people who live there, one of the world's most marginalized people groups.
"It was about the most exciting thing they've done in years. They felt a real sense of purpose in that," says Watt.
In the past few months, according to Watt, over 100 Batwa in and around Busiga have given their lives to Jesus. "All of the work that's done in that community where all these people are coming to know the Lord is all funded by teenagers in Canada," he says.
Launched in 2010, loveworks grew out of Watt's work as a youth pastor. As he led 25 teenagers to discover for themselves what it means to follow Jesus, they started asking tough questions about what this might look like in their lives.
Unable to find any resources that could help them figure that out, Watt instead challenged them to use their own unique gifts to develop and undertake fundraising projects, with all of the proceeds going to a partner aid agency.
But that was just the start. Last year, loveworks developed a comprehensive strategy to motivate and engage young people in carrying out biblical justice on a global scale.
"We really want them to be engaged in such a way that their lives shift to where they are in whatever they're doing, giving their lives to the pursuit of justice," says logistics and events coordinator Michelle Moody.
Moody recently spent three weeks with 13 young people working on projects in Burundi that they had helped fund in Canada—and more importantly, becoming friends with the Batwa.
"It's not just us coming in and building things for them. We're coming in and building relationships with them," she says. "That's why we've committed to being there for the next five years."
"We want to emphasize depth," says Watt, "that it's not just about doing a fundraising campaign. This is about living out of this place of knowing God's heart for the poor, and it's authentic. That's why for us it's so critical that the motivation for all this is love."
Moody and Watt, who speak to thousands of high school students across the country every year, are both convinced that God is stirring among young Canadians.
"We're growing very quickly, we're adding more staff, and we have more campaigns running right now than ever," she says. "We're seeing our engagement numbers grow."
"Young people—younger and younger now—are comfortable stepping out and engaging in things before they really know what they're doing," says Watt. "We come alongside them and help to anchor what they're doing in sound practices and solid teaching.
"I think the timing is perfect."
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