Julie Young

Hi. In 2010 my husband and I shifted our family to Christchurch so we could do the internship components of our Vision College Diploma in Leadership. I then finished my Laidlaw Graduate Diploma in Theology which I’d been chipping away at since having kids. When asked to help our church with evangelism, I sought out others from other churches so I could learn what to do. I had run Every Girls Rally and Scripture Union Cycling Camps for years while training to be a teacher and had led mainly music for 3.5 years once I had kids, but I felt there was so much more to learn. This was the same time that the pastors of Christchurch were forming a network (after the earthquakes) and were encouraging other networks to start also. I requested an Evangelism network and a group of keen pastors and evangelists met to form the Christchurch Evangelism Network and became the steering team. I have remained on the steering team since its inception, and have collated the newsletters and done the Network admin. I have become more and more passionate about every Christian having God’s heart for those who don’t know him, fulfilling the Great Commission, and being confident to share their story and God’s story. Since being in Christchurch it has been exciting to see many kids and a couple of parents decide to be friends of Jesus through running IFG (Girls Brigade), after exploring how to take the families on a faith journey as well as the girls. In recent times God has taken me on a journey to consider what smaller missional communities/churches can look like.