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Youth Column: The Power of Invitation

Monday June 13 2022

Twin sisters Kim and Fiona Halliday share their faith journeys.


Kim
Both of us grew up going to Baljaffray Parish Church in Bearsden. Over the years we have seen how powerful invitations are when it comes to knowing God. My neighbour invited us to go to church and a friend invited us to Girls’ Brigade at the age of five; two invitations that led me to know the love of Jesus. In my teenage and young adult years I volunteered with children and youth in churches and the GB which led me to the job I love doing today. People have shared their stories of faith, journeyed beside me, given their time to share the love of Jesus with me. I decided to follow Jesus, and was baptised when I was 17. I knew then I wanted to share God’s love with others.

God led me to Toronto for a year of mission with a charity working with children, young people, and their families living in community housing. My faith grew, as did my passion for ministry. I learned the importance of being relational, valuing people over material things, buildings or structures, serving and loving others, different ways of serving a local community, taking time to hear people’s life stories, and working together toward a collective purpose to share Jesus’ love and engage in a mission of sharing who Jesus is with other people.

Today I’m a youth worker at Lenzie Union and the years of volunteering and year in mission all help in my role today. In six years my job has adapted and changed in how we do children, youth, and family ministry but why we do it has never changed – living my life to share who Jesus is and God’s love across the generations.

Fiona
I have also seen God’s work through invitations. I was invited to volunteer weekly on the youth team at Stirling Baptist Church by the Youth and Student Pastor when I was at university. It was here that I truly encountered God in my life serving on the youth team, church and attending training events like Deep Impact. I remember my cardboard testimony read – “Know of God - Now I Know God”. Seeing how amazing God is in my life gave me the passion to share this with others in all the youth/church work I’ve done over the years since then. It was all because people took the time to invite me to church or onto a team.

Throughout my years of youth work I have got to see young people hear talks about Jesus, ask questions, journey through Youth Alpha courses, encounter God and come back and share their testimonies of how awesome God is to the adults in the church and to their friends at school. All because someone took the time to invite them to know who God is. I just started a new job in January as Youth and Outreach Worker at Kelvinbridge Parish Church and I can’t wait to see God’s plans for his church in the West End of Glasgow.

God is at work in all our lives, young and old and we all praise God for how amazing he is and the work that God has done for us and we can all share these stories with each other and our friends and invite people into this amazing truth with us. It all starts with an invitation. Who will you invite?


If you are under 30 and involved with the Church of Scotland, and would like to write for this page, please get in touch with us on magazine@lifeandwork.org 


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