Youth to Youth Program a Success

CRWRC News | September 2, 2009

Culture can be a big barrier between people from very different places. That is, unless, God makes the introduction.

Stephanie Dykstra (foreground) cooks with her friends in Kabale

"For anything like that to happen, God has to be involved,” says Stephanie Dykstra, 19, a participant in Youth to Youth, a cross cultural and community development learning tour in Uganda this past July. “We all got along so well, and in a way that’s not supposed to happen. We’re from totally different cultures, and we think differently, but God put us together. He orchestrated the entire thing.”

Dykstra, a student at Heritage College and Seminary in Cambridge, Ontario was one of six North American students chosen to participate in the four week-long tour organized by the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC). Youth to Youth brought the North American students and six Ugandan students together to learn about community development and more importantly, to learn from each other.

Students from North America and Uganda were in the southeast African country for four weeks, spending one week in the capital city of Kampala and nearly three weeks in Kabale. The students also spent three days in Rwanda to learn more about the 1994 genocide.

"The most humbling thing was seeing the amount of forgiveness and reconciliation in Rwanda," says Derek Drenth, 17, of Dundas, Ontario. "It is so incredible how far the country has come and it humbled me when I thought of my own lack of forgiveness in some areas."

"It was a really overwhelming day," adds Dykstra, who along with the other Youth to Youth participants, visited two different genocide memorial sites. "It was probably one of the days I'll remember most."

Stephanie Dykstra and Derek Drenth help build a mud church.

Trekking to Rwanda and around Uganda for three weeks together helped squash a lot of the preconceptions the students had before leaving home. "The culture difference was not as big as most people would expect, especially among youth," says Drenth. "This is more true of people who live in the cities, where there is a lot of western influence, but even in more rural areas the people are not as different as one would expect."

Dykstra agrees. "Just because they're Ugandan, doesn't mean they know how to cook over a clay pot stove. These students were from Kampala; sure there were mud huts, but it wasn't everywhere."

But being in Uganda also meant living life a little differently than back home, a fact that the visiting students embraced. "We didn't care that we had squat toilets or bucket showers," Dykstra continues. "If you're going to a village in Uganda can you expect running water?"

What Dykstra didn't expect, and was pleasantly surprised by, was the Ugandans commitment to one another. "I don't understand how our country can't be more engrossed in our communities. It didn't matter [if people] were Christian or not. [The Ugandans] were just there to help [others]. They cared about their well being. That's what we're called to be: God's hands and feet."

The Ugandan approach says Dykstra, may not be the North American way, but it should be. "The Ugandans say that that's one of their weaknesses, that they can't get as much done as they'd like to, but I think it's more a strength. Relationships are more important than events."

All that time together led to many new friendships. "We had a lot of God moments together," says Dykstra of her new Ugandan friend, Joan. "She challenged me a lot in my relationship with God in how I thought."

Youth to Youth participants also had plenty of opportunities to meet kids their own age whose lives were much different than their own. Edson, 15, lives alone with HIV. "He was born with AIDS. He was very sick for awhile. When we met him he was getting stronger, and he wants to go back to school," says Dykstra, noting that the local church and CRWRC were helping Edson set up a beekeeping business to help pay school fees.

Dykstra left the trip with new friends and more personal concern for those living in poverty, yet she knew where to draw her comfort. "God brought us there, and God will do it again. You realize you're a very small person in that big plan. It's just cool that I got to be a part of it."

For more information about upcoming tour and volunteer opportunities with CRWRC, click here.