Engaging Young Adults: A Longing for Community

This is part two in a five-part series about Resonate Global Mission’s work of engaging young adults in mission. Read part one and subscribe to CRC News to read future articles as they come out.

“Growing up, I always had a longing for community,” said Rachel Kodde.

That’s why she decided to move into a big house with 13 roommates and spend a year with Act Five, a Resonate Global Mission partner in Hamilton, Ont.

Act Five is a discipleship community that offers a gap-year program for 18- to 20-year-olds and a residency program for 21- to 30-year-olds based in a community home they’ve made out of a big, brick house.

After graduating from high school, Kodde participated in Act Five’s gap-year program. She knew that she wanted to continue her schooling at some point and become a nurse, but she also felt it was important first to spend a year growing in her faith with Act Five.

“When I heard about 10 to 20 young adults living together and going on all of these crazy adventures and learning about Jesus, that really intrigued me,” said Kodde.

She moved into Act Five’s house and learned how to live with 13 roommates. They cooked together, ate meals together, and did dishes together. They went on walks and shared quiet moments reading and listening to podcasts. They also dove into the Bible and learned about living as Christians in today’s world.

“A big focus is living in the ordinary and doing ordinary things like dishes and figuring out everybody’s schedule and how that works. And arguments. And doing all of the sometimes mundane, not-so-fun ordinary things as a group. That doesn’t make it necessarily easier – but more meaningful,” said Kodde.

They also traveled together. As part of the Act Five experience, Kodde and several other members of her cohort traveled with Resonate to spend three weeks in El Salvador. In addition to connecting with Resonate’s partner Casa Semillas there, they saw what daily life looked like for communities on another continent.

“Our students learn through their participation with Resonate to be on the lookout for where God is in different places, different communities, and in different people – which is significant even for their lives back here at home in Hamilton and beyond,” said Alyssa Zilney, Act Five program manager.

As an international mission agency with missionaries and relationships with partners throughout the world, Resonate is able to provide guidance for cross-cultural mission work.

“I think what really stood out to me was that in partnering with Resonate, it was really clear that we weren’t going to El Salvador as Canadians being plopped into their country and trying to convince them of all these things we needed to change about them. It was the opposite. It was that we were going as a group to walk alongside the El Salvadorian people and learn from them, and that they might learn from us too,” said Kodde.

One of Kodde’s favorite memories in El Salvador, she said, was something seemingly mundane and ordinary. Her experience with Act Five had been teaching her about the importance of small gestures, hospitality, and intention in daily rhythms. So when they visited a family in a village, the experience stood out to her: “Every single door was wide open, and people were walking from one house to the other . . . and they welcomed us. And one woman poured us a cold Coke on a burning hot day.”

While Kodde’s experience with Resonate in El Salvador and with Act Five in Ontario was only for a short time, she said it equipped her to live out her faith today.

“I was challenged in my faith and got to ask a lot of questions and learn how God works in different communities,” said Kodde. “In this past year I’ve been able to take what I learned about God and a relationship with Christ and about how to live a good, faithful life . . . and I’ve really been able to put that into practice.”