Alpha Friends

Jono is our Youth Alpha National Coordinator in Australia and he spends his days taming wild kangaroos and wrestling crocs. Whenever he gets the chance he stops to help out young people who want to run Youth Alpha, and does a spot of training here and there. He recently went gallivanting off to Thailand and Indonesia to do some training there. Here's what happened.. (the flaming galah!) A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to run some Youth Alpha training in Thailand and Indonesia. This training was a part of a wider strategy of Alpha Australia and Alpha globally, to inspire, train, equip and mobilise churches all around the world into more effective evangelism through the Alpha Course. In Thailand around 70 young people and youth workers turned up to a campsite by the beach (half our luck) on the Friday night and settled into their dorms. We started the weekend off with a sample session ('How can we have faith?') and some worship. The next day we kicked off the training and in true Youth Alpha style, managed to tell a lot of corny jokes. That night we did the sample session on 'How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?' and had a wonderful response from those present. There was a real sense of the Holy Spirit moving amongst the participants. On the Sunday we finished off the rest of the training and listened (there was no point in talking over it!) as the tropical rain pelted down on the roof and all around us. Just a few short days later, and after some meetings in Thailand and Malaysia, we touched down in Indonesia where we were running two streams of Youth Alpha training. Stream 1 was the same as the training in Thailand - for those who were new to running Youth Alpha. Stream 2 was for those who have run Youth Alpha many times and are looking for new ideas and tips for how to run a really great course. The training kicked off with an Alpha celebration that had about 600 people attend and featured some great music, dance and acts, as well as a message from the local Pastor. Over the following two days we had about 50 people attend the two streams of training and we had a great time teaching them how to run Youth Alpha for young people in their community. During the time I was in Thailand and Indonesia, running Youth Alpha training, I made a number of observations: 1. When you are being translated, never try to work out how long a session will take before hand, it will always be longer 2. Always look 5 times each way when crossing a road in Thailand or Indonesia, unless you plan to extend your stay (in a hospital or a morgue). 3. When you start sweating (because of the tropical heat) don't bother changing t-shirts, you will be soaking again within 5 minutes! 4. Everything is spicy 5. Youth Alpha and evangelism is most effective through the local church and the more we can seek to inspire, train, equip and mobilise the local church, the better! I would encourage anyone reading this to consider taking a 'Global Alpha Training' (GAT) trip to another country to train the local church and broaden their own faith and experience of mission. Contact your local Alpha office for more information on 'GAT' trips.