Council for World Mission

Journey of a lifetime

Thursday, 20 November 2008 05:38

They started out in Johannesburg back in February and now their journey has come to an end. As the latest Training in Mission students prepare to head home after their 10 month training period shared between Johannesburg in South Africa and Madurai in India, CWM's Mission Education programme assistant Zsuzsanna Holtsuk reports back from their graduation to share some of the experiences these students have had along the way.

"It is very difficult to imagine what these young people must have gone through in the past 10 months. Not only was it the first time for most to be away from their families and in a different country and culture, they had to deal with the difficulties of living in a close and very varied community group as well as being exposed to theological lectures. This year’s 11 students came from nine different countries, representing all six regions within CWM.

The TIM programme is a life-changing experience for participantsTheir placements were really testing, as they had to deal with new environments, and face issues thus far unknown to them (health, HIV and AIDS, juveniles, children’s work, homeless work, interfaith dialogue, etc).

Also for most of them living conditions in India took some getting used to with the different types of food and culture. Additionally, they had to overcome the language barrier.

Life-changing experience

The TIM programme is a life-changing experience for all participants. They all arrive with different concepts of mission in their mind and go through a 10-month programme of theological lectures on the topic as well as a total of four placements of the duration of five weeks each.

During these placements they get involved in the work of Christian organisations, being exposed to a variety of fields from HIV and AIDS to rural development, to interfaith dialogue. Reflecting on their own local contexts, they travel back home ready to initiate changes and new programmes within their churches. Some decide to pursue further theological studies, others find practical ways to live out their broadened understanding of mission.

I have great respect for all participants for coping with all this and still being able to deliver good work in their placements and solving problems arising between individual members of the group as well as within the whole group generally.

The coordinators in both countries invested a lot of time and energy into making the students welcome and organising everything for them. One can feel their passion for this work and their desire to help the students grow in their personalities and spiritual life.

Read what the TIM students had to say about their experience