Equipping Me for Ministry

ICY-UK focuses on the heart of youth ministry. They value catching hold of a passion for young people as well as teaching students how to have a healthy life-long ministry.  At one conference, we followed the theme of “Work, Rest, Play” – all about learning how to balance life both as students now and also as people who will someday have families and other commitments.  We really bashed out issues like “Is it wrong to see young people as just a job?” and “How is it possible to honestly care but still switch off the phone on days off?” and “Where does God fit into this?”

ICY-UK also really encouraged having a vision for the youth ministry.  We had specific times to come up with mission statements where we spent time seeking God and asking him what he wants to see happen in our cities, in young peoples lives, and in our personal lives.  Once I could see God’s heart for my town, I found I had so much more direction and was a lot more intentional with my mentoring commitments.  ICY-UK taught us to ask these and other good questions.

ICY-UK also provided short-term mission opportunities.  I helped on a weekend festival in Austria for children, which was an amazing chance to work alongside other students and transfer the ideas and principles I was learning to my local placement.  This was really the time I got out of my comfort zone in ministry by preaching for the first time in front of 100 teenagers, being in a musical, and diving into cold lakes.  I really saw how caring for young people is the same in every cultural context.  The skills I learned at ICY-UK can be applied to all of life’s situations, whether in employed ministry or in a family context.

—Annie Dahl