The youth ministry stream will feature two sessions that will form part of a larger unit called "Christian Leadership and Management."

To find out more about the the Christian Leadership and Management Course, please email youthworker@pyv.org.au

To download the FUELLED flyer, please click here.

Click on the image to see the invitation

• Big Plug Promo Video (.mov 4.7mb)
• Big Plug letter to Ministers (.pdf 155kb)
• Big Plug Suggested Script (.doc 461kb)
• Big Plug Poster (.jpg 292kb)
• PYV 2008 Calendar (.jpg 340kb)
• PYV General Information Flyer (.pdf 1.0mb)

Our main expectation for this mission trip was to undertake work in the a girls’ orphanage, which is run by one of the Presbyterian Congregations in Cairo. The first time we met the girls, they were a bit hesitant to meet all of these strangers, but they were curious as to why we were there, and soon we formed good, solid relationships with them. Manual labour was to be one of our tasks, which included sorting out their library, organising their computer lab, and also renewing some old cupboards. Being in one place for 3-4 hours every day might not be your cup of tea, but for us the chipping away of old paint, filling, sanding and painting were in perfect balance with ’20-Questions’ and of course the poignant tunes of Coldplay. Something that we all found challenging was the English tuition with the girls, almost every afternoon for a couple of hours. For the best part, I was tutoring Grade 4 girls, who were certainly a handful, but they were so eager to learn, so consistent with their work, that they soaked up everything said like sponges! Sister Mary, who is the administrator of orphanage, has been there for 10 years now, and the girls look to her to be their mother, with respect and fierce affection. We consistently heard of the benefits that Sister Mary has brought the girls and their home, and it’s easy to see; the 75 girls (aged 4-21) are clean and well-fed, they have tidy rooms, and they all take care of one other, especially the older girls. I know one of our most treasured visits (there were many!) to the orphanage, was the night in which we had planned to play soccer after the nightly bedtime Bible story, but Sister Mary had other ideas. We soon found ourselves amongst the girls, sitting down on a long table in the hallway peeling 50kg (that’s a year’s supply) of garlic! But it turned out to be one of the best nights of our trip, filled with a constant burst of song, hand slapping, befriending one another, and lots of chitchat.

We had the pleasure of visiting our Christian brothers and sisters in places such as the Evangelical Theological Seminary, the Middle East Reformed Fellowship and in also in the local Cairo churches. This gave us a chance to talk to those studying, teaching, or spreading God’s word, and it was incredible to be able to pray together and to see the power of the gospel transforming lives in Egypt! Worshipping in church was amazing, and it was surprisingly similar to services in Australia, except for the whole language barrier, in which our translators helped substantially. The music was beautiful, usually aided by piano, guitar and electronic drums, and occasionally we heard a melody we recognised so the congregation would receive a complementary English version of their hymn. We actually got the opportunity to sing in front of our host church a couple of times, which was certainly a learning curve. ‘Blessed be your Name’ and ‘Amazing Grace’ we sang in English, and we had rehearsed the Arabic version of ‘King of Kings’ numerous times, and whilst we may have sometimes been a wee bit out of whack, we sang our hearts out to God and received thanks from the congregation. Yay!

There were some opportunities to be tourists in Egypt, and so we used that time to visit the Cairo Museum, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and when we travelled south to Luxor, the Valley of the Kings and a couple of the temples. We also went camel riding one evening after our tour of the Pyramids, and that was just a laugh! Josie and I had tears in our eyes from laughing so hard, but we all had a ball for that half an hour, just merely casually plodding around Cairo’s streets looking on at the locals and their day-to-day doings.

One of my favourite memories of being in Egypt was when we took our cruise on the Nile one evening. It was absolutely perfect, the sky was clear, the water was calm and we had this lovely boat to ourselves, (except for the guy who was steering, thankfully!) We just sailed around for two hours taking endless photos which required many model poses, dipping our feet in the water, and finally watching the sunset over the city skyline. I had a blast that night, it was nice to have a night off to just relax. Of course, in saying this, after the nice relaxing cruise we moved onto Khan-al-Khalili Bazaar, which was quite the opposite! The bazaars were so full of energy, I’m sure it was that hectic environment that motivated us to bargain down the sales of various items, or maybe it was just Adel? We all purchased many things, from colourful scarfs to perfume bottles, from burqas to...long, brass sword-shaped objects. Of course these were all paraded around later, much to everyone’s delight or annoyance, depended on how tired we were!

All of us have returned to Australia excited, and I know thirsty for more. 6 young girls gave their life to Christ on our recent trip to Cairo, and we like to think that it hasn’t stopped there. We’ve just dipped our toes into the missionary pool, and having those couple of weeks where we had the chance to help, and also encourage others in their walk to Christ has really motivated us to spread the gospel even more. Amen!

Kate Misso

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Cheltenham Presyterian is running a series of free composers workshops on Saturdays: May 3rd, June 14th, July 26th, September 6th.

Click the image for more information.