SU Inspire Mag 2019

SCRIPTURE UNION & ALPHA IRELAND
PARTNERSHIP
Over 8 years ago SU and Alpha began a
collaborative approach to youth ministry. SU
agreed to second our Youth Worker Jonny
Somerville to take on the role of Youth Alpha
Coordinator and develop the Youth Alpha
ministry in schools and parishes around Ireland.
We started with around 5 Youth Alpha courses
but within a two-year period Jonny made
significant in-roads and this grew significantly to
over 20 and now there are some 40 courses.
As we experienced more growth in schools,
we worked together on the employment of a
Midlands Youth Alpha worker and Annette Evans
was appointed and later Teresa Cronin in Cork.
We have also continued this collaboration
where both the Youth Alpha and NUA Film
series are promoted as excellent tools for
evangelization among youth and in schools.
Also, an exciting part of this collaboration has
been the use of Ovoca Manor for Youth Alpha
Holy Spirit Days and overnights and we have
heard wonderful testimonies of young people
8
coming into a personal encounter with Jesus at
these events, here is an example below;
Anticipation mounts as the students board the
bus and talk excitedly to each other about what
to expect on the Alpha Retreat in Ovoca Manor.
“I was expecting to be met with older
people on this retreat who were going to
try and prove to us that we should have
faith. I was also expecting to have activities
exercising trust. I am very happy that my
expectations were wrong and the people
talking to us about faith were around our
age and they didn’t force anything upon us
but just talked to us about their experiences.
The main thing I’m taking away is that I
want to actively and openly search for
the Holy Spirit. I also found that I do
really enjoy the outdoors and outdoor
activities which I didn’t think I did before.”
4th Year Student