Theos In My Home Town

By myself I don’t think I could ever have the same impact on the young people in my community. It’s nice to have the Theos team come, it feels like you’re working together with others to do something good.

When I was younger I went to the Theos program at St Arnaud. It gave me connections to other young people who were Christians and helped me through some tough times. When I turned 18, Georgie, one of the directors, asked me to join the team. I had seen the impact that Theos was having on the young people in St Arnaud over the summer, and wanted to be part of that so I said “Yes!” Being a local I thought I could bring something to the team and could use my knowledge and experience of the people in the town to help the mission.

As a leader, Theos helped build my understanding of how God was working in the community, and how to connect young people with the church. It’s really nice to be able to bounce ideas around and talk about God with other people around my age, especially when most members of my church are elderly. The highlight of my first summer on team was when one of the participants was interested in reading the Bible and I was able to talk to her about that. I still see her around town and she sometimes comes to the youth program that we started this year. She hasn’t come to church yet, but she’s still interested, and that’s a good start.

Theos has definitely had an impact on the young people in St Arnaud. By the end of the last Theos mission some kids were interested in going to church, which was amazing. I really hope that through our monthly youth program, and the returning Theos teams, we can keep building on this impact and seeing change.