Every second summer for the last 20 years or so Alongside has hosted a six-week youth missions project in Europe. Far more than a conference or a short term mission trip, these “Discovery Conferences” integrate study, community, spirituality, reflection and service. This year’s project is going to be a new and interesting twist on our former projects.
This year the goal of AD2010 is to “discover our identity as disciples of Christ called to proclaim his glory as a transcultural community.” Our banner theme for the year is “Building Bridges” and so we are exploring many ways that Christians in Europe are building or seeking to build bridges to extend the Kingdom of God over borders and boundaries.
The Discovery (AD) project will last a total of three weeks. The first two weeks will be spent in community, service and study in either France or Estonia. The final week we will meet up in Berlin to share our discoveries and solidify the lessons learned over our first two weeks.
In Estonia, our two weeks are built around a unique evangelistic project in which youth from Russian, Estonian and Swedish communities will join together to reach out to the ethnically Russian population of North Eastern Estonia.