Some more information...

This is an email from the guy incharge of ICY. My friend Becca (one of my students from last summer in Scotland, who went on another Royal Servants trip this year and found out about ICY over the summer when the met Darin and his wife. She was the one that brought it to my attention and has also been looking into it) forwarded this to me so I could see what answers to her questions he gave. I'm planning on sending him an email from myself in the next few days to answer some of my own questions.

> Hi Becca!
> Glad to hear that you are back home and that you are
> interested in chatting
> some more about ICY. Whooohooo!
>
> I'm sure it was weird the first morning you woke up at
> home without 40 other
> teammates around you? I remember those days were not fun
> to re-adjust.
>
> ICY...you can always go to the website (www.icy.org.uk) to
> get more info but
> the UK specific stuff is a few clicks away. (we¹re still
> working on a UK
> specific website) To make it easier, here is a simple
> breakdown:
>
> It's for people who want to train in youth ministry and
> who have a heart to
> work with teenagers in a local church context. Much of the
> ministry will be
> aimed at non-Christian teenagers because less than 1% of
> teens here in the
> UK go to church. Can you say mission field?!
> * Trainees can undertake a 3 year Bachelors degree in
> practical theology
> or an MA in Missional Leadership
> * the courses are taught at 6 different week-long
> conferences throughout
> the year (approx every 2 months)
> * This allows the trainees to work in a local church
> setting in a nearly
> full-time setup whilst doing their degree
> * In between conferences you read and write essays on
> your own with
> feedback available from tutors
> * Much of the degree is earned by doing practical youth
> ministry
> * The church covers room, board, ministry expenses, and
> a bit of pocket
> money
> * Students have to pay £2200/year (approx $4400)
> tuition fees and
> purchase their plane ticket over here
> * Trainees are placed in a Œcluster¹ of trainees in
> the same
> geographical area who are doing the same thing
> * A cluster leader oversees the support and training
> development
> * Students apply and churches apply. Churches
> interview accepted
> applicants and we try to match up with Œbest fit¹
>
> Your specific question about Œhow do you know if you will
> get put with a
> host family or a place of your own?¹ is a good one. You
> can¹t really
> dictate that. Each church makes their own decision on
> this. Most of the
> trainees live with a host family. And the question about
> allowance is good
> too. This money is in addition to your food budget. So
> the church covers
> your housing and food and gives you some pocket money on
> top of that.
> (usually around $200-$250/month) You will not get rich, but
> at least you
> will not come out with big debts from a degree.
>
> What would you do in a church?
> Most of the churches we work with take on a trainee because
> they really have
> a heart to reach young people, but do not have a lot of
> money to put towards
> paying someone (youth ministry as a profession is fairly
> new here) and do
> not have the expertise to raise somebody up. So most in
> our ICY family are
> pioneering youth ministry in churches that do not have a
> large existing
> youth group. So if you think missionary to a jungle tribe
> that hasn¹t been
> reached before it¹s probably a lot closer to reality than
> American church
> youth pastor...well, without the snakes and strange
> diseases!
> You can do ministry in schools here as a Christian youth
> worker. So most of
> the trainees spend a few hours a week in the school,
> building relationships
> through outreach groups or mentoring. Then if there are a
> few teenagers in
> the church, it¹s starting to bring them together to grow
> in their faith and
> form a group identity. Usually it¹s helping out on a
> Sunday morning with
> youth or slightly younger than youth. Then finding ways to
> start groups for
> kids from the schools-work to come and hear the gospel and
> transitioning
> those who make commitments into small groups that will help
> them keep
> growing in their faith.
> Our vision is to raise up the next generation of youth
> ministers who will
> build youth disciple-making movements...so raising up young
> people and
> creating ministries who will make disciples...who make
> disciples...who make
> disciples...which should sound pretty familiar from your
> summer and is the
> only way the huge population of non-Christian young people
> here will ever
> encounter Jesus!
>
> Hope this helps and shows you the opportunities for God to
> use you here and
> get some good training at the same time.
>
> Let¹s keep talking and keep asking questions,
> - darin

I know it's a lot to think about (I'm a little overwhelmed myself) but I just wanted to give you the same information that I was getting. If you have any questions let me know so that I can possibly put them in my email to Darin. This really means a lot to me to get the input of my family and friends... and the prayer support too!