November 2ndA Global Youth Summit Experience
In January 2022, I was sitting around a bonfire chatting with Andrew Klassen Brown, fellow representative at the Global Youth Summit (GYS), we talked about the likelihood we would actually end up in Indonesia this summer. I was a skeptic. A mix between the bitterness from the cold and feeling disheartened from COVID, I was stubbornly keeping my hopes low.
To my surprise, seven months later I found myself on a bus in Indonesia with a bunch of strangers all with one thing in common, we’re Mennonite. I along with the other GYS representatives from the Mennonite Church Canada regional churches: Ashley Rempel (BC), Nora Pederberg (SK), Andrew Klassen Brown (MB), and Christen Kong (ON) as our delegate, were trying to wrap our heads around what was in store for us.
July 1-4, 2022, young adult delegates and participants from around the world met together at the GYS prior to the Mennonite World Conference General Assembly. In these few days we got to share in worship, participate in workshops, and most importantly just hang out together.
Though the worship, workshops, and times of prayer planned for us were meaningful parts of the experience, over the course of the GYS, and extending into the Mennonite World Conference, the best part of the experience was the down time.
This was time for me to hang out and talk with my friends. Through laughter, playing, explorating our surroundings, and conversations we got to learn so much about one another. It was in these times we could debrief together the events of the day. We could compare how our cultures shaped our experiences and perspectives of what was going on around us, and we could learn from our miscommunications along the way.
Workshops teaching about colonialism, sustainability, the work of the Indonesian church, and so much more lead us to our own conversations in the lulls and evenings.
I had the opportunity to learn more about how churches from Hong Kong and Columbia are creating spaces for grief and support to their congregations during politically tense times. As well, I got to share about Canadian Residential Schools, sharing about the ways in which the Church has been a place of harm for many, and sharing the importance of reconciliation in Canada.
As well, the scheduled evening worship would lead to our own worship back at the hotel. Sitting around with only a guitar and many voices, which would then somehow lead to salsa lessons.
Laughter, jokes, and stories from home laced throughout the whole experience. All of these things, both the joys and hard conversations, are examples of our church body joining together.
It’s easy to forget the vastness of our global church community when we are geographically so removed from one another. And it can be daunting when we are confronted with linguistic, cultural and theological differences. But if there’s one thing I left Indonesia wanting more of, it was time together and more opportunities to learn from my church family.
