Youth trips abroad

When Bill Hebner who is Canadian by birth was working in St Asaph in the early days of LlCF he was keen to encourage our young people to travel to difficult parts of the world to see what life was like there. He had run such trips from Canada working with an American organisation called Amor Ministries and it was with Amor that we worked when the first such trip went in 2003 to Mexico. It was a great success as those who went were able to build a house for a needy family in Tijuana near the US border. Since then there have been further trips back to Mexico in 2004 and 2007 which enjoyed similar successes.

In 2005 and 2006 the trip was to Romania where they went to Constanta on the Black Sea, again building houses for both Mark and Violeta Waddington our links there and the needy poor people.

For the last 4 years now there have been trips to Johannesburg in South Africa where we have worked building houses for the most needy there. There are photos of the 2008 trip on the photos section of our web site. We hope to return to South Africa yet again in future years and get involved in building yet more houses. The bright orange baseball cap those on the trip in 2008 wore said 'Building hope one house at a time' and that sums up the philosophy.

All those who have been on any of these trips come back changed both in their attitude to poverty and to each other and they also feel good about themselves as they can clearly see the good which they have done. The trips also include some fun and educational aspects such as going shopping, going to church at a very lively African church (with a zulu background), visiting sites related to the apartheid years in Soweto and also sports stadia such as Ellis Park and Soccer City where the soccer World Cup Final was played in 2010. We have even seen matches at some of these stadia. It should also be made clear that the living conditions on the trips are far from luxury with no hot showers and sleeping on airbeds on the floor in a large church hall, but everyone 'mucks in' and enjoys them. Regarding the cost they are relatively expensive - in 2011 it was £975 for 12 days away from the UK with 10 in South Africa itself but that is still cheap when you consider that the air fare alone was almost £800 and it includes most of the food and trips whilst out there. We do fund raising such as bag packing at supermarkets before we go to reduce the cost and ask for sponsorship from any individuals or organisations who support what we are trying to do and usually we can raise at least half the cost..