All too often, Gisele Baribeau hears stories that only reinforce her passion to offer Christian teenagers some solid instruction that will help them stand firm in their faith once they leave high school.
“A pastor who used to teach at a secular university told me that his atheist colleagues were delighted when they would come across Christian students, because they were just relishing the opportunity to ‘set these kids straight,’ ” she told Today’s Family News. “It’s just wrong.”
A home-schooling mother of five, Baribeau is also the executive director of Christian Youth Worldview and Leadership (CYWAL). It exists to help parents make sure their children will continue in their walk of faith as they enter adulthood and begin assuming responsibility for their own lives.
“We challenge them to worship God with their mind,” she said. “We want to increase their confidence. They’re not going to be attacked on their heartfelt response to their faith, but they will be challenged intellectually.”
This summer, as in the past two summers, CYWAL will be offering a week-long camp for older teens. It will be held at the Crieff Hills Conference Centre near Cambridge, Ontario, from July 20th to 25th.
Students will learn about different worldviews, as well as Christian apologetics, evangelism and leadership. But more than that, said Baribeau, “it’s to take these students outside of their comfort zones where they’ve been raised, for the most part, and put them in a new place.” In other words, give them a glimpse of the challenges awaiting them in a post-Christian society.
They will also be taught leadership tools such as conflict resolution and strategy development, and how to protect themselves from the underlying negative messaging in a lot of contemporary music, music videos and movies.
One “celebrity” instructor this year will be Jude St. John with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL, who will speak on leadership in the marketplace.
Last year’s camp drew about 15 young people, most of them 16 or 17 years old. “The whole week was excellent. The students participated fully and loved it,” said Baribeau. “The comments I got talked almost as much about the relationships that they developed with the other people who were there as talking about the instruction they received.”
Baribeau is hopeful this year’s camp will attract 20 students. “That’s a nice classroom size, but it’s such a drop in the bucket considering the size of our country,” she said. “It’s a little disappointing that it’s such a hard push. But I’m not discouraged, because I know how necessary it is. I know it’s worthwhile, so I’ll keep pushing.”
Meanwhile, on September 27, Focus on the Family Canada will be presenting The Truth Project Simulcast Training Event. It too seeks to train Christians on how to live according to a Biblical worldview and how to make a Christ-centred difference in their community
Source: http://www.fotf.ca/tfn/culture/stories/2008/080528.html