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Fellowship

The first-ever Youth Summer Gathering (YSG) was held on August 22-24, 2024, at Camp-des-Îles, Québec. The YSG was an event organized by young people for young people. Young people could come to meet and encourage one another. As the theme of the YSG was fellowship, our prayer from this gathering was for young Christians who desire to grow in their relationship with God and with one another.

God made the YSG possible when young people met online for the 2024 Canadian Disciples Conference. Following this conference, God put it in the hearts of young people to have another event where they could meet in person instead of online. Beginning with a team of a few young people who took ownership of this idea, this team worked for five months and planned the first-ever Youth Summer Gathering.

The theme of the YSG was fellowship. The Lord gave us Acts 2:42 as the key verse: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” This verse teaches us that fellowship consists of being devoted to 4 things: the apostles’ teaching (the word of God), fellowship (games and activities), the breaking of bread (eating together), and prayer. Each element was included in the program to teach us fellowship.

As this was the first time the team had organized such an event, it was a concern: what to prepare and not having enough time to plan. So, two things that were unique to the program were having lots of fellowship and not having any Bible messages. But even though there was no message, it does not mean there would not be any word of God. The planning team felt it was absolutely necessary to have the Word of God by ensuring Bible study and reflection time on the Word of God. Bible study focused on what Christian fellowship is and what it looks like. Bible study on 1 John 1 taught that true fellowship begins with our most important relationship, which is fellowship with God through the blood of Jesus. We could learn what this fellowship looks like by studying the fellowship the early Church practiced in Acts 2:42-47.
One highlight was a foot-washing ceremony. This activity was not announced until the last minute, and the planning team was not sure how people would react.

However, following the teaching of our Lord Jesus to love one another, almost everyone participated in washing each other’s feet, to the surprise of the planning team. It was such a beautiful scene.

A total of 28 people attended from chapters from Ontario and Quebec. Although this event was open to all Canadian chapters, it was difficult for students in Western Canada to make such a huge trip to the East. Because of this, plans are already in the works to include students from the West to join to make it truly a Canadian event.
Thank God for blessing the Youth Summer Gathering. I pray that each person who attended will be blessed and encouraged in their relationship with and faith in God, especially as they begin the new school year.