Learn & Serve: 48 A Slum Experience 2014 RetreatAbuja, the gleaming capitol of Nigeria, is filled with neatly landscaped roads and extravagant buildings. It’s wealth, however, is matched by its poverty. The creation of the capitol city of Abuja in the 1980’s displaced many people from the area as well as created an attraction for newcomers. The majority of the new citizens cannot afford the expensive housing in the city, and urban slums have sprung up to house these families. It is into this environment that participants stepped during Learn & Serve’s fifth-annual “48: A Slum Experience.” Seventy-five youth and adult leaders participated in the event, which was hosted on SIFAT’s campus January 18-20, 2014. During the event, youth and leaders were invited to live as the citizens of urban slums of Abuja to experience the material poverty of these communities first-hand. Participants lived in Learn & Serve’s simulated urban slum for approximately 48 hours while working to provide food, water, and shelter for themselves and their family groups.  75 participants and 30 staff and volunteers participated in this year’s 48: A Slum Experience Retreat! Learn & Serve: Fall 2013 Retreats Wrap-Up!It’s been a busy fall for Learn & Serve at SIFAT! We have had so many wonderful groups from across the southeast come to our campus in Lineville, AL for L&S programming. As we slow down for the winter season, we wanted to share a glimpse of this past season with you! During Fall 2013, we had 1,903 participants experience a variety of Learn & Serve retreat programs. This is a 37% increase from participation in Fall 2012 Retreats! Here are a couple of highlights from our fall retreat groups: Learn & Serve: Birmingham Youth Support SIFAT Training Graduate in Nigeria!Pastor Ogbatabo is a pseudonym for one of our SIFAT graduates and trainers in Nigeria. Because of his work in a violent area, we want to protect his identity for his safety. Pastor Ogbatabo submitted a proposal to SIFAT, which was approved as a SIFAT international project. SIFAT’s Learn & Serve department pledged to help Pastor Ogbatabo fund his project through educating North American youth on the issue of smoke inhalation around the world and allowing them the chance to partner with SIFAT through financial contributions. Several L&S staff members and leaders from various participating groups have contributed. One inspiring story of a group committing to fund Pastor Ogbatabo’s project comes from Canterbury United Methodist Church of Birmingham, Alabama. When students from Canterbury UMC met Pastor Ogbatabo while at SIFAT during Summer 2013, they decided they wanted to sponsor his project in Nigeria. After telling their friends and parents about Pastor Ogbatabo and his work, they decided to take up an offering once a month at their Sunday night youth program.  Canterbury UMC students keep a tally of the amount raised each month on their prayer (chalkboard) wall in a drawing of the rocket stove. Learn & Serve: Summer 2013 Spaces Still Available!
There are still remaining spaces at SIFAT’s Learn & Serve Summer 2013 Experience! This summer at Learn & Serve, the topic of “Missions” is being discussed. Missions is an increasingly popular topic in today’s churches and youth groups. We are all interested in how to foster more “missions-minded” congregations and empower people to serve others. SIFAT was founded for this purpose– to help empower leaders from developing countries to meet their basic human needs. This summer at Learn & Serve, we will dive into the idea of missions from a Biblical perspective to examine our motivation behind service. God’s incredible love for us is why we are called to serve those around us. This idea should be at the forefront of our missions, but we sometimes forget the connection. By reexamining this connection our view of missions may change– loving those around us may mean those in material poverty around the world or members of our own family, or both! We will look at these ideas through the lens of our experiential learning activities to not only examine our view on missions, but also challenge students to step into the lives of people around the world to better understand the needs and feelings of those we seek to serve. The 4-day, 5-night Learn & Serve Summer Experience takes place each week during the summer (excluding 4th of July week), see our upcoming session dates below:
Please email learnandserve@sifat.org to learn about pricing information for each of these weeks, or visit our Learn & Serve page to learn more! Due to a large number of SIFAT summer staff, we are able to offer a better adult:student ratio requirement. This summer, we ask for a minimum of 1 adult for every 15 students for group registrants. Please note that we also offer individual registration, so anyone interested in participating can attend!
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if there is anything we can do to assist in making this opportunity a possibility for you! We are willing to help in any way we can. WOW 2013 starts May 26!
Each summer, SIFAT sponsors a casual worship services at Lakeside Marina on Lake Wedowee. Different speakers and musicians – most from the local area – lead Worship on the Water (WOW) under the pine trees. As WOW’s motto says, “Come by boat, come by car, come as you are!” Memorial Day Weekend kicks off the summer season. Services continue each Sunday at 9 a.m. through Labor Day Weekend. We’ll see you there!
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