Make the most of your life

For Bevan Sanders a desire to help people make the most out of their lives led him to working with at-risk Wellington young people.

I’ve always had a heart for wanting to help people. Since I was late teens and early 20s, when I saw things happening with young people and families my heart kind of broke for them. After school I studied and did different jobs before I found an outdoor education course run through Bible College New Zealand (now Laidlaw College). Then I worked at Blue Mountain Adventure Centre (BMAC) for seven years.

The BMAC slogan of helping people achieve their God-given potential through the outdoors, for me that was what I was all about. While I was there we were involved in a youth programme called Project K, which got me interested in youth work. Then when I was looking to move on a job came up at Wellington Youth Services.

I’ve been here two years. I work with teens from Wellington High School and do leadership training for students at Capital Training—a training institute in Wellington and Upper and Lower Hutt for young people who have left school early. I also support mentors working in Education and Employment classes around the country as part of our new Kiwi Next Generation programme.

But mainly I work with the guys from the Wellington Youth Services transitional housing. We do a weekly youth meal with games and a short Bible message with teens from our guys and girls houses and the wider community.

Every now and then I do a supervising shift at the boy’s home, cook dinner with them, hang out and stay overnight. We might watch a movie, play PlayStation or board games, and in that time you get to have really good chats with them about where they are in life. My work is in trying to find out where they’re at, what they want to do with their life and offer help, rather than telling them they have to do this and that.

There are lots of issues that affect young people that can completely mess them up. It can be drugs, alcohol, mental health, domestic violence. For some, you’re the only stable person in their life.

Youth work can be frustrating sometimes, but it’s about whether they’re ready to change. We had one young guy who was with us; drugs and alcohol were taking over his life. He dropped out of a course and we had to ask him to leave. He moved away then eventually got to a point where he was back in Wellington and homeless. He found faith and asked to come back to us, as he was ready to get clean and turn his life around and he knew Wellington Youth Services could help. Another guy had lots of background issues, but in his time with us he’s going to course again. He’s got into dancing and recently went to a competition, so he’s been able to get some direction in his life.

I want to help people make the most out of their lives, and with these young people 99 per cent of them have never had the chance. What I do is a small part of helping them get that chance. It’s really exciting to see these young people grow in themselves.

---

By Bevan Sanders (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 6 August 2016, pp 9
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.