New Campus Bridge Under Construction!Many of you may remember the news of our suspension bridge (on SIFAT’s campus in Lineville, AL) collapsing this past July during our Learn & Serve Summer Experience. We continue to thank God for his protection of our participants and his provision for our organization after the event. We now have reason to celebrate — a new bridge is under way! A new suspension bridge is being built on our Galilee Campus. The bridge will span Mad Indian Creek connecting our campus once again. This bridge is not only functional, it will also serve as an example of a monumental bridge project SIFAT implemented in Quesimpuco, Bolivia in 2008.  This bridge, in Quesimpuco, Bolivia, is the inspiration for the new suspension bridge on SIFAT’s Lineville, Alabama campus. Learn & Serve: New Retreat Programs Now Offered!Learn & Serve is excited to announce two new programming options for retreats! To continue to provide a diverse range of experiences connecting our participants to our brothers and sisters around the world, Learn & Serve has begun offering participants the opportunity to participate in a Refugee Camp Overnight and an Urban Slum Prayer Experience. Learn & Serve: Fall 2012 RetreatsFall 2012 is shaping up to be a busy season for the Learn & Serve staff! We have over thirty retreats and events scheduled for this fall for a wide variety of groups. These groups are coming from all over the southeast to spend time on our campus and experience Learn & Serve (L&S) programming. This fall, we will be hosting groups for more than fifteen Urban Slum Experiences and more than ten Global Village Overnights! Along with these programs, groups will also be participating in times of worship and devotion led by SIFAT staff, appropriate technology trainings, challenge course elements, and more. Through these retreat programs, participants have an opportunity to experience how the majority of our brothers and sisters around the world live every day, and then leave with an understanding of what they can do to respond to what they have learned. The most recent L&S retreat was held for Rome First Baptist Church (RFBC) of Rome, Georgia. The wonderful participants from RFBC participated in a range of activities throughout their weekend retreat. They spent time fellowshipping with each other, worshiping, and diving into our programming. The group spent majority of their time at SIFAT in our Urban Slum and Global Village.  Students from Rome First Baptist Church experience worship during their first night on the SIFAT campus. Learn & Serve: Summer 2012 Worship, from Abstract to ConcreteLearn & Serve Summer 2013 Worship Leader Becca Griffin tells her perspective on how worship at Learn & Serve this past summer provided a bridge for students between concrete and abstract expressions of faith:
Many of the words that are used in singing/teaching/talking about faith tend to be abstract and make it difficult for youth to connect. There is no more lack of desire or devotion for them than anyone else, but a lack of concrete example when it comes to living out the faith that they sing about/learn about/profess. Perhaps connecting the ideas of faith with reality is not a struggle for youth alone, but abstract concepts like love, justice, and following Christ, when only spoken about and not experienced or lived out, make it hard for youth to really learn, practice, or live out those things that they affirm, or have been taught in word to do as Christians.  Learn & Serve students singing in worship at SIFAT’s Quonset Hut. 48: A Slum Experience
By 2011, one-sixth of the people alive will be living in an urban slum. By 2030, that number is expected to double. Imagine, a third of our world living in a slum village somewhere around the world. As more people move from rural villages of our world into dense cityscapes, they face many challenges while seeking the life-giving opportunities that a city can afford them. Where will they find work? Where will they find food? Where will they sleep? SIFAT invites you to experience how millions in the world are living today. They have names. They have faces. They are real. Their stories are much like ours…we are just in different places…until now. Your youth or college group can spend 48 hours in our urban slum on Jan. 15-17, 2011 (MLK, Jr. holiday weekend). The retreat costs $48 per person and includes a t-shirt. For more information or to register your group, please e-mail Mary MacInnis at learnandserve@sifat.org. Connect with Comments: Did you attend 48: A Slum Experience last year? If so, how did it impact you? What parts of the experience stood out the most? |
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