Eighty young people are delving into matters of faith at a Youth Alpha course organised by volunteers from Korumburra Baptist Church (KBC) and 11 other churches in the nearby area.

During Term 1, an average of 40-50 young people attended each weekly session at a hall in Leongatha, with 39 attending the “Alpha Weekend” camp in March.

KBC Youth Alpha Administrator Kelly Brumley said it had been “very exciting seeing God at work in the lives of the youths.”

“On the camp, the discussions went really deep and there was a lot of time for prayer and listening to God. It was amazing to see a group of Year 9, 10 and 11 boys spontaneously start praying for each other and the leaders. That was pretty special because it’s not something the leaders suggested or started – we were a bit blown away! I’ve heard that at least one family has started coming to church through their young person attending. A couple of youths also accepted Bibles even though earlier they had felt that perhaps attending Alpha was just something their parents wanted them to do. So, we’ve definitely seen a softening of their hearts towards God.”

The idea to run Alpha came after KBC started fortnightly youth group events, alternating with a church in Leongatha, which led to running a joint youth Bible study last year. Participants are between 12-18 years old from Korumburra, Leongatha, Inverloch, Foster and Wonthaggi. Some are from Christian backgrounds, but many are not. Hosts and helpers who lead the discussion tables are aged 18 to 80 years.

“With such a broad range of ages and stages volunteering, there is more life experience being shared and it has meant that the atmosphere has been a bit more reflective than you might expect at a youth event, although there’s still plenty of fun and games. The youth get different perspectives to what they would hear if people were all around the same age. At the start, it was quiet because it took time for people to warm up, but over time they have really started to open up, engage with the material and have some interesting discussions. It’s exciting to see how God has worked in the lives of the leaders too – one lady just started doing a youth ministry course because she discovered this was a passion and wanted to keep going.”

With so many churches collaborating, an extra blessing has been the many fruitful partnerships built as churches contributed food, meal coordinators, roster facilitators, discussion leaders and prayer warriors.

“It’s wonderful to be covered by an army of prayer volunteers. This is key to running Alpha. We had a prayer team in place early on who regularly receive updates on how everything is going. It’s a lot of work to run a youth Alpha – there is a lot that needs to be done behind the scenes to make it possible.”

The Alpha course will continue partway through Term 2.