IT Club

He has showed you, O humanity, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8 (NIV, adapted)

The themes of Micah - God’s concern for justice, mercy and humility - have been core to the times we have shared with the young people at IT club this year. Topics covered have included human trafficking, fair, trade, war, peace and social justice. Discussions have been wide-ranging, deep and often quite personal as the young people would bring their personal frustrations and concerns relating to the topics. It has been a great privilege to see the young people really getting involved in discussion and responding in ways both creative and practical. I personally hope to see more development in the area of social action with this group in the future.

Special events and trips have included cinema trips, bowling, nature trails, meals out and a Narnia themed Christmas Party. The highlight of last Summer was a Photo Safari competition, that took us on a journey of discovery around the Old Town. We really enjoyed having David and Agnes Nemeshegyi acting as our special guest judges for the competition. We have also enjoyed sharing in a walk up Arthur’s Seat and film nights with the ‘iFriends’ group and others from the church family.

We have a core group of ten teenagers in the club, mainly girls in year 5 at high school. It has been good to see Francesco, one of the teen-aged school-leavers, take on more responsibility in the group since the summer. Our coaches this year have been Tanya Alexeeva, James Trimble, Pedro Gonzalez, Adam Connell, Richard Allison and Matt Baines.

We have also received support on occasion from Sveta Barclay as well as Sally and Sam Kawamura. We are very grateful as a group for their availability and friendship. We were sad to have seen Katy Cracknell and David Purves leave us in the Autumn, but pleased to receive correspondence from Katy - as well as a stuffed toy wombat! - and to see David upon his visits. This summer we will be sad to see Tanya and Pedro leave us. We will miss all their hard work and friendly faces.

We would be grateful for your prayers as we seek the way forward for it club. Big changes are on the horizon. I will be looking for new adults to join us as coaches on a regular basis. Most of the group will be finishing high school in the coming year. Pray that this will be a fruitful year and that the teens will continue to take on deepening levels of responsibility in the group, and that they will be challenged to respond in increasingly deeper ways to the call to follow Jesus. Pray for wisdom for the adults in the group to lead the group forward in the most God-honouring way possible.

Matt Baines