Scottie & Renate Mission Report Incedo/YouthZone/ Rock Solid
For the Year October 2007 to October 2008A Big thanks to our big church family at WCBC for supporting us in our mission to Northland young people through prayer and in finance over the years, especially now that we are raising a lovely young family with our children Jesse and Anya. We have seen many changes in our mission over the years. Many different faces have served alongside us over the past 14 years. Young people we first shared Jesus with are now running groups of their own, sharing their lives and Jesus with young people in their communities. Our mission stays constant and the same young people more than ever need to come into a life changing encounter with Jesus. And more and more have not heard this message.
In 2005 all YFC mission bases dissolved their local incorporated society status to come under one nationwide movement. YFC was reborn as a mission order in which we hold these six values close to the heart beat of what we do and who we are as missionaries.
When it comes to describing who we are, the clearest answer is found in the 6 values by which we collectively attempt to live.
A. JESUS CENTERED
We are committed to following and imitating Jesus.
Hebrews 1: 1- 3
B. MISSION THROUGH SERVICE
We have the privilege of being co-laborers of the servant Jesus, bringing Good News to lost young people.
Luke 4:18 – 19, Romans 10:14 – 15.
C. PEOPLE FOCUSED.
We are committed to the God given dignity of all people.
1 Corinthians 12:13 – 30.
D. PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS
All of us are called to serve God in mission.
Ephesians 4:11-16, 1 Peter 2:9.
E. GENEROSITY
We will generously commit all we have to Jesus and His mission.
1 Corinthians 8:7 – 15, 1 John 3:17.
F. CREATIVITY
We honour our creative God with the best of our expression.
Mathew 25:14 - 30
To finish off the change process Youth for Christ in NZ changed its name to Incedo ... what?
Incedo, pronounced "in-see-dough" is loosely based on a Latin word that means "to wake up ... to go ... to move forward" which kind of describes the journey we've been on over the past few years; taking on a new start and becoming an outward looking mission.
After a few years of robust dialogue, reflection, and research, we decided to start again as a missional community. We are grateful for our past but not bound by it. Change, while sometimes painful, needs to be welcomed. We are continually excited and surprised by where God is leading us.
You may ask, as a missionary, what do you do? Do you need to go overseas? As a follower of Jesus our main call is to serve Jesus and share Jesus. What Jesus has got for us was never intended to just be held on to but to be shared and given away. So we look for opportunities where we can get alongside unchurched young people and families and share our love and faith. And no you don't need to go overseas to find mission. Its right here on our own back door step. More and more, NZ as a Nation is turning away from God. That's why we do what we do. We want to give every young person the opportunity in Northland and NZ to become a follower of Jesus. We are committed followers of Jesus inviting all young people to join our faith adventure.
How do we fill up our time?
Rock Solid Club
Weekly on Tuesday's for intermediate aged young people held at our new venue at St Andrews Youth Hall. We were excited to hear that some of our young people now have started joining in with the St Andrews youth Group, they followed one of our leaders back to his church which is very exciting. At Rock solid we have had very interesting discussions about fear, thankfulness, love etc as well as those young people that were part of our discovering Jesus course after Y-One came through the schools. Now these young people are the core of a new Breakfast Club discipleship group that will start up after Summer Harvest this year. The most exciting bit is young people that have never read a bible before, asking for us to read more to them about Jesus. Thats so awesome.
Incedo NZ - SURGE WEEKEND APRIL
We run a weekend called SURGE where we head to a NZ town each year. In 2008 we went to Blenheim. I headed up a team and we went to the Riding for the disabled. We were there to do up their gardens and shovel horse poop. Yes thats right, our young people got so stuck in that from hating the poop at the start they jumped in it at the end. The favourite bit was when the lady who ran the centre came to see how we had gone, we bagged that much manure they ran out of bags and had lots to sell as a fundraiser. She had a tear in her eye and a smile on her face. She appreciated our generosity. Thats whats it's all about.
Camps
We hold 3 main camps in our Year.
Ontheroad camp held in April Holidays where we take 50 x 11-14 year olds all around Northland to see the beauty that's in their own back yard. We go to Dargaville, Kai Iwi lakes, Opononi, Kaitaia, Cape Reinga and Bay of Islands.
Spring Breakaway Camp held in the October School holidays. We take 70 on camp for a fun filled week of games, challenges like high ropes course and rock climbing, kayaking, shooting, 4wheel bikes, to chapel times where we have a reflective look into the person of Jesus and the young people have an interactive faith journey of discovery along the way. This year our theme was "Narnia" where we opened up the story of Narnia and that it was a parallel story to the gospel of Jesus. It was great to see the lights go on in these young peoples lives. One of our leaders LeeAnn and her cabin was always last to go to sleep - not because they where naughty but the opposite. They read some stories about Jesus from a devotional book called "Gods Blogs" and her girls were so full of questions.
Summer Harvest Camp
This is our high school aged camp, run over New Years from the 28th to 2nd Jan out at Whangarei Heads. On our last camp we had such awesome weather. Young people got a massive touch from God, and we can't wait for what's happening this year being the 25th year of Summer Harvest.
We also run events called YouthZone events. Events designed to give youth groups from all over Northland a chance to participate. Events we have run this year:
Alabaster box concert (March)
Y-One Roadshow (May) through all schools around Whangarei, Dargaville and Kaitaia. We played and spoke to just over 5000 over two weeks. And the combined amount of 1000 at the night family concerts.
Expressions Talent Quest (May) We had record entries and had new youth groups enter. It was great to see the combined talent of young people all around Northland. A big thanks to our sponsors 'Holiday shoppe' and 'Tear fund' who helped us with our costs.
Fuse Nationwide talent scan. We took a group of our older Rock Solid young people to Wellington in June over Queens Birthday weekend, including youth from Kaitaia and Kaikohe.
Watoto Childrens Choir Uganda- YouthZone - Incedo partnered with Tear fund and St Johns Kamo in September to bring this choir to Whangarei . There was an awesome turn out. To the point of overflowing. People were even standing outside to just hear the passion of the group. In all 300 turned up and 100 were turned away. What an awesome memorable night.
Rainbows End Rampage - Rock Solid
Rock Solid has 900 young people each year heading to Rainbows End from Rock Solid Clubs from Northland down to Rotorua. Where we take over Rainbows End. At the end of the night wee use local talent beat boxes, bands and dances to present a gospel music to the mainly non church audience. Its always been a great way to finish our Rock Solid year.
Youth Zone Ball 2008
We sold out and had a very packed night. Our theme this year was Narnia. The team did an awesome job. We were still going at 4am packing down at the end. A memorable time was when I asked everyone to sit where they were and we read a story from the Narnia book, and related that our life is an adventure following christ. We challenged the young people to take this seriously. We couldn't believe how well behaved they were and how much they listened to every word. We've been told by many that our ball is way better than the schools balls and they have more fun in a safer environment. We don't need police at the doors with breathalisers. Just read our bebo site comments to get a feel for the youth all over Northland, and their feelings for the night. They travel from as far North as Kaitaia and south from Warkworth.
As a mission we all are faith supported missionaries and we are not PAID Youth Workers.
We have some amazing stories of Gods provision. When we were starting to think 'right now we're down to our last $27', we had to ask God - what do we do now?. God answers you, just trust in me. Easier said than done. When we moved into our offices at 94 Maunu Rd we had the dream of doing up the building. Painting etc was a little rough around the edges. We had three teams over 4 years fall through to come and help. Then finally I wrote away to a Mission group called MMM Mobile Mission Maintenance. Their application process is very thorough. The team leader who came said that all of them look over applications as to where they go. They chose us because of our community focus, and because where it said 'and how will you pay for the material we need?', I had replied 'I don't know, but it's never stopped us before'. How's this - the day the team arrived we had a cheque for $6000 in the mail that perfectly covered it all. God our provider.
We have loads of those stories on a personal level as well. One of them was the need for us to upgrade our Suzuki alto to a family car. Over 10 years of saving a little every month we had barely half the amount we needed to get into the car which suited our needs. During our searching we found the car that fitted our needs perfectly. When we got home that night one of our supporters in Wellington said he would pay most of the difference we needed to get into the car. And with the help of some people from Whangarei, we now have a family car. Thank you so much for your help.
OUR MISSION TEAM at incedo Northland
Our offices are very full this year with:
Scott Slykerman (Team Leader)
LeeAnn and Preston McBrayer from USA serving with YFCUSA. LeeAnn is a youth pastor from her church and Preston is a construction worker. Both of them are working in our offices.
Christine from Germany who was with us from October 2007 and went back in Sept 2008
Tabea Wakler (Germany) has just arrived and leaves in June.
Also we have had scripture union working out of our offices at Youth Zone, February through to October. Annette has decided to move back to Auckland to continue her studies.
We also have James Franklin and Joel from GJ Productions using office and storage space for their business, helping us out by paying rent for their space.
The Future
2009 we plan to start a Breakfast Club again in the new year.
This year will be the last Summer harvest EVER after 25 years. The team has identified the need to start a new mission camp for 11 - 15 year olds. This age group has been identified for many years as being at a very critical stage in their life. So we are wanting older christian young people to help be mentors for the younger ones. Also it's going to be aimed at young people that have not experienced a good old fashioned camping holiday, and also designed for 16 year olds and up to develop leadership skills. So you still get to be involved! We're thinking and dreaming about the new camp and we hope you'll be as keen as us to make it happen.
Surge - Whangarei 2009
Young people from all over NZ from Incedo will be heading to Whangarei in April. They will be rolling up their sleeves and helping in our community. Anything from painting roofs, picking up rubbish, concreting, etc If you have any ideas of groups or people that need a helping hand let us know. As Whangarei hosts this project we need about 40 projects to do.
To find out more about what we get up to look at our web page and blogs www.scottie4renate.com and also youthzone.org.nz
Thank you to Whangarei Central Baptist Church for your love, care and support as we continue our faith adventure into the future.
Our dream is to see multiple groups of highly motivated young missionaries following Jesus
* interacting with a wide range of youth communities
*leading young people into dynamic lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ
"Because One Matters Forever" . The ONE is precious to God and Matters. We want to see one more for Jesus.
God Bless You,
Scottie, Renate, Jesse and Anya Slykerman
Serving youth as Missionaries with Incedo Northland
We pulled off a great Surge weekend and just got home for some much needed rest. We worked on about 14 or 15 projects all around Whangarei and were able to finish each and everyone of them. All of the teams were extremely happy and felt great about the work they were able to complete. The organizations and individuals we worked for were blown away to see the young people (as well as the not so young people) working with such diligence and care. Thanks for all of the support and prayers. We are going to be around the office and home today trying to get ready for our week long camp with 40 middle school aged kids. With only a day to "rest", we have our hands full to get ready to go on the road. We are extremely excited about camp and ask that you continue to pray for us. Thank you guys!!
