A Moment for Mission
Pharaoh’s daughter . . . saw the basket among the reeds, and . . . when she opened it, she saw the child. The boy was crying, and she felt sorry for him. She said, “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then the baby’s sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Would you like me to go and find one of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” —Exodus 2:5-7, CEB
In Moses’s origin story, Pharaoh’s daughter and Moses’s sister cross cultures and form a bond to protect baby Moses. As young people, they have a vision for addressing injustice and claim their power to create strategies.
United Methodist youth today continue that tradition with projects and ministries developed and funded through the Youth Service Fund. This fund provides stewardship education and mission support of youth within The United Methodist Church. Youth raise the money, decide which projects their gifts will support and donate the money to those projects.
Seventy percent of any funds raised for YSF by an annual conference goes to projects selected by youth in leadership from the region of the church. That usually means that the Conference Council on Youth Ministries (CCYM) can identify awesome projects that meet the needs of their context. The remaining 30 percent of the total collected is sent to the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA), and this amount is used to fund projects that a team of youth from around the world select. Most important, the projects supported are designed and led by youth, for the benefit of their peers (Book of Discipline 2012, ¶649. 3. i-k; 1208).
For example, the Global Youth Service Fund supports A Second Chance for Girls in Mabon in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The ministry educates young women about the benefits of education. The DRC has extremely low literacy levels for girls and women. The project encourages and trains different communities to provide high-quality education for girl students.
Children’s Message
Read or paraphrase the story of Moses from Exodus 1:8–2:10 and highlight key points: Moses’s mother’s plan to save Moses in a basket on the Nile River, Miriam watching over Moses and suggesting their mother as a nurse, Pharaoh’s daughter finding Moses and deciding to raise him as her own.
Just like Moses’s sister, Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter, you and other youth in The United Methodist Church also have a role to play in supporting and helping others through the Youth Service Fund. YSF allows youth to create projects and ministries–I wonder what kind of projects or ministries you would develop to help other kids?
What are some ways we can raise money for the YSF in the future?
Offertory Prayer (From Discipleship Ministries)
Loving and generous God: As we offer our gifts this day, we confess that when confronted with Jesus’s question, “Who do you say that I am?” our answer is ambivalent at best. Even when we get the words right, we know our lives give a different answer. We turn away from the suffering and oppression of your children. We accumulate wealth and prestige and ignore the poor and powerless. You give and hold nothing back, and we give from our excess and resent being asked to do more. Help us to respond with the answer that comes from the center of our being and that is demonstrated in our living. In Christ, we pray. Amen (Matt 16:13-20).
Newsletter Nugget
What is the Youth Service Fund? It is a means of stewardship education and mission support of youth within The United Methodist Church. Much more than a simple drive for funds, the YSF is one way United Methodist youth respond to God’s command to be good caretakers of all that God has given. It’s also a way to engage in the mission of the church as young people strive to live as disciples of Jesus Christ and work to transform the world around them.
Youth can contribute individually or through their church or district. Some youth groups tithe 10 percent to the Youth Service Fund when they raise money for other causes such as mission trips or conference-wide events.
The Book of Discipline (2016) (Par. 1208.1) explains, “As a part of the Fund’s cultivation, youth shall be challenged to assume their financial responsibilities in connection with the total program and budget of the church of which they are members.” Thank you for your support!
—Adapted from Dakotas and Tennessee annual conferences and Tree of Life Ministry websites