Welcome!
We are a gathering of youth and children’s workers from Baptist Churches and Unions from the length and breadth of Europe, who share a passion for sharing the good news of Jesus with children and young people. In order to make this possible we intend to support youth and children’s workers through providing access to relevant resources, training and support. Please explore the pages and find out about our projects, aims, training and events. Whether this is your first visit to this website, or you are a regular visitor we hope this website will be a useful resource to you.
Volkmar Hamp
Our World vs. Their World: Studies in EBF Children & Youth
In the line of the above statement youth and children workers from the EBF family gathered together in Elstal (Germany) for their annual conference for mutual encouragement and sharing. It was a great chance to learn in community and to speak into each other’s ministry and lives from our various and wide perspectives, get a sense of the greater Baptist family. There were 42 participants representing 25 different counties. We were delighted to see that more and more youth and children national departments are now reconnecting with the EBF youth and children department. It was the first time representatives from Uzbekistan and Iraq managed to join the conference. Actually, 1/3 of the conference participants were new.
The theme of the conference was Our World vs. Their World: Studies in EBF Children & Youth. Four countries (from different EBF regions) were invited to conduct a small research of the lifestyle of the young people in their countries and present the findings to the conference. In order to better understand and effectively share the good News of Jesus with children and young people, we explored their world in terms of values, morality, attitude towards media and technology, and religious behaviour, among others.
The findings showed that no matter which country you minister in, young people are not that different. They long to belong; they crave for relationship; they search for a meaning in life; they face the same struggles and challenges. For example, alcohol and drug abuse among young people in Ukraine is reaching close the epidemic levels. However, the Ukrainian Baptist Youth Federation is actively involved in addressing these issues and helping those young people to cope with their problems.
The findings also confirmed that we as youth and children leaders must give our Christian young people a solid foundation to their faith – in prayer, in reading, understanding and applying the Bible, in giving them opportunities to serve. We must encourage and equip the EBF youth and children leaders to think missionally.
At the end of the conference all youth and children workers produced what they called the 10 Commitments, brief declarations of what we want see happening among the young people in Europe, Middle East, and Central Asia.
We were glad that the EBF General Secretary Tony Peck and Helle Liht from the EBF office managed to be take part in the conference, share the latest news from the wider EBF family and lead a communion service.
A new EBF Y&C Executive committee was elected. There were three positions for election: vice-chair, treasurer, and a member at large. Svjetlana Mraz (Croatia) was re-elected as vice-chair, Pille Havakats (Estonia) was elected as treasurer, and Rostyslav Semikov (Ukraine) was elected as member at large. Volkmar Hamp and Vasil Vasilev continuing their term of office till the next conference.
The Ukrainian Baptist Youth Federation invited the conference in Ukraine and we are happy to announce that the next conference will be held near Kyiv (Ukraine).
Vasil Vasilev
We offer HORIZONS in:
ENGLISH
RUSSIAN
ARABIC
To visit the website go to www.ebfhorizons.com