New Horizons...FSJ

This June marked the end of our one year working together with FSJ Caritas Hildesheim (FSJ translated as voluntary social work). It was indeed an amazing experience working with young people outside the normal Christian circle which we are familiar with. We had various opportunities to introduce our faith and talk about life, in a way that connects with our journey with God.

These young people have taken one year off from their studies or jobs to have an experience of working in social circles as a volunteer, either as a bridge before deciding what to study or simply as an exposure.

As Caritas Hildesheim organises 5 weeks in the year for them to gather and talk about their experiences at their places of work, we were asked to help facilatate those meetings and help them discover their potentials where they can eventually move on in deciding what's next. In each team, there were 3 staff facilitating the group. Derek was working with a group of 16 men while Bea had a group of 25 women.

In 1 of the 5 weeks, they were given the opportunity to choose a particular theme for their seminar. Two of those theme seminars happened here in Allerheiligen, namely a seminar on Creative Communication and a seminar on International Kitchen. Bea was involved in organising the International Kitchen seminar which includes an International evening where the FSJ group was able to have a taste of both different cultures and different types of food. More than food & culture, I guess, they had a great experience of being around a community of faith and were very happy to have had the experience of living with us as a community for a week.

Since the School of Mission was happening here at that time, the participants of the school also made a big impact on the FSJ group as they shared their conversion stories on an evangelistic night that was organised especially for the school and the FSJ group.

Derek was with another seminar which organised a bike tour from Hildesheim to Cuxhafen in the North of Germany. It was in the little conversation that happened on the way that brought many questions to the young people and an opportunity to share about God and what He is doing is our lives.

We definitely saw this as a new horizon opening for us to share about our faith in a very different way from what we would normally do. This one year with the FSJ had enriched our experience and opened our eyes to see the needs of the young people in this nation. We made new friends, learned a bit about the social system in this country and began to understand a little bit more of the questions and the daily cries of their hearts.