Sad to say, it’s rare to see churches from different backgrounds working together, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen!
This summer, eight different churches in Chichicastenango, Guatemala are stepping outside their own buildings and working together to develop their youth leaders and hold an evangelistic concert that will have an impact on the entire mountain community.
Under the coordination of ASELSI–a ministry that has been in Chichicastenango for nearly 20 years–a team of eight students from Oral Roberts University has been teaching and training the youth leaders of churches across town three times a week.
Entitled “Cords” the youth leader training, is focused on unity along with related concepts such as integrity, trust, vulnerability, and more.
“I’ve never seen leaders from different churches working together like this before,” said one of the youth leaders.
Through applicable teachings and many examples of teambuilding exercise and interactive games, the ORU students taught the youth leaders how they can use new techniques, ideas, and activities to support the heart of the message they are teaching their own youth groups from the Word of God.
At a special Saturday activity, there were 45 participants who came out for a two-hour rally that focused on interactive challenge games and obstacles that they had to overcome together as the unity theme continued through the event.
There was a rope spider web element where participants had to pass their entire team through the web without touching the rope. If they touched the web they had to name the hole after a personal challenge or fear they had and then work together to “overcome” it by getting several team members through without touching.
A blindfolded trust walk challenged the leaders of these churches to follow another leader without being able to see why they were being led and built communication between each participant.
The three weeks of training in unity, dramas, teachings, and activities, culminates in a youth-focused evangelistic concert that focuses on reaching out beyond the church groups into the community where there are thousands of youth who still need to know Christ for themselves.
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“A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.” Eccl. 4:12 (NLT)
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