Wesleyan Church held Youth Bible Week

The Youth Bible Week held by Wesleyan Holiness Church together with visiting missionaries from St. Stephen’s Baptist Church in La Puente, California, ended with a touching show Friday evening. This was reported in The Daily Herald. During the week, visiting facilitators received an outpour of support from parents and community members, who brought them food or gave their time, such as Nurse Joyce Smith. They appreciated the support received from Body, Mind and Spirit Foundation in the form of crafts supplies and tried to incorporate some of the topics suggested by the organization. Youth self-esteem featured prominently with the chosen themes of “God’s royalty” and “The armour of faith.” Ranging from kindergarten to secondary school ages, the majority of participants were very young, which meant that the workshops had to be adapted to an age-appropriate level and attention span. Instead of presenting a skit, the pre-teens participated in crafts and learnt songs, which they performed Friday evening. The organizers listened carefully to what the teens wanted to do and adapted the workshops to their needs. They talked about dating, tattoos, piercing, self-esteem and bullying, issues which the organizers believed should also be discussed within the church to support its parishioners. The teenagers also participated in prayer walks, journal writing and poetry walks in nature. They went on nature trails on which they spoke to each other in Haiku poems to connect, not only with the lush beauty around them, but also with their feelings. Aureana Nation, Berline Germain and Seth Liburd read their touching poems and Haikus during the evening show, to the delight of those gathered. The group also created selfesteem origami boxes out of craft materials, which they gave to family and community members to write words that describe them, so that the young could understand how they are viewed by different people.