2022 Annual Report
Youth Ministry
Youth Report ／ Pastor Joseph Lo
2022 has been a year of many transitions for the FECDB’s youth group. The youth said goodbye to their beloved youth leader, Albert Tang, while welcoming their new youth pastor into the community. The youth were coming out of isolation and they just started to gather in–person for Sunday Worship, Sunday School and Friday fellowship. They were getting reacquainted with each other and had to rebuild relationships.
This year, Friday night fellowships has been a great place for students to reconnect. Our small groups and socials were spaces for students to share more deeply, support each other in prayer and to just have fun together. Some of the most memorable and unifying events for this past year was our lock-in, bowling party, beach day and cooking contest. More recently, we have been thankful to see a lot of junior high students come out on Fridays. Last year, the junior high group was just a handful of students. After the summer, the junior high makes up almost half of our group. In response, we have been intentional about recruiting more leaders to care for and to disciple our students.
The youth group also ran an Alpha course for the first time. Alpha is a space for our non-Christian friends to come and explore faith, life and meaning. We saw some new friends consistently participate and become a part of our community. Alpha was not only good for our non-Christian friends, but it was also meaningful for our whole youth group. Running Alphas was a good challenge for our regular students to prayerfully invite friends to church and to welcome all our new visitors. We also challenged one of seniors to lead a junior high discussion group and she did an amazing job. It was rewarding to see students reaching out to friends and ministering to their younger brothers and sisters. We look forward to running Alpha again next year.
We also started a new Sunday School program in late 2021. This year we covered topics like apologetics, core doctrines and the study of Scripture. Although Sunday School can be a little challenging for some of our students, I believe it meets a need that would be hard to fulfill through other programs. It is a unique time for instruction and education about the Christian faith.
We are also thankful for our partnership with Anchor Community Church. Over the past year, Anchor has provided several returning and new leaders (2 Sunday School teachers and 8 small group leaders). There are also more Anchor brothers/sisters that are interested in getting involved with a discipleship program that we are hoping to start in the Winter. We recently welcomed our new leaders with a team-building and training day. Our team is excited for the 2022-2023 academic year. With so many caring leaders, ready to reach out to our students, I anticipate a year of significant spiritual growth.
青少年事工
青少年事工報告 ／ Pastor Joseph Lo
2022 年對於 FECDB 的青少年來說是許多轉變的一年。青少年告別了他們敬愛的青少年領袖Albert Tang，同時亦歡迎了他們的新青少年牧師加入社區。青少年從孤立中走出來，他們重新開始參加主日崇拜實体聚會、主日學和週五的團契。他們彼此重新認識及重建關係。
今年，週五晚上的團契是學生重新聯繫的好地方。我們的小組和社交活動讓學生們有更深入地分享、在祈禱中互相支持以及一起玩樂的空間。在過去的一年裡，一些最令人難忘和合一的活動是我們的Lock-In、保齡球活動、海灘日和烹飪比賽。最近，我們很高興看到很多初中生在星期五來到我們中間。去年，初中組的學生屈指可數。暑假過後，初中生幾乎佔了我們全組的一半。因應這情況，我們一直有意招募更多的領袖來關心和牧養我們的學生。
青少年組還首次開設了 Alpha 課程。 Alpha 是幫助我們的非基督徒朋友來探索信仰、生活和意義的空間。我們看到一些新朋友不斷參與並成為我們社區的一部分。Alpha不僅對我們的非基督徒朋友有益處，而且對我們整個青少年群組也很有意義。推行 Alpha 對我們一般的學生來說是一個很好的挑戰，可以在禱告操練中邀請朋友到教會並歡迎我們所有的新訪客。我們還邀請一位高年級學生帶領一個初中討論小組，她做得非常出色。看到學生們接觸關顧朋友並牧養他們的弟兄姊妹是一件很有意義的事情。我們期待明年再次推行 Alpha。
我們還在 2021 年底開始了一個新的主日學課程。今年我們涵蓋了護教學、核心教義和聖經研究等主題。雖然主日學對我們的一些學生來說可能會有點挑戰，但我相信主日學所能付予的滿足是其他課程難以達到的。這是對基督教信仰進行指導和教育的獨有時刻。
我們也感謝我們與 Anchor Community Church 的合作。在過去的一年裡，Anchor 提供了數位回歸和新任的領袖（2 名主日學教師和 8 名小組領袖）。還有更多的 Anchor 兄弟/姐妹有興趣參與我們希望在冬季開始的門徒訓練計劃。我們最近為歡迎我們的新領袖而舉行了一個團隊建立和培訓日。我們的團隊為 2022-2023 學年感到興奮。有這麼多有愛心的領導者準備接觸我們的學生，我預計這一年會有顯著的靈命成長。