“Today, Christine mentors 40 young people through
the UCC youth mentorship program.”
On Wednesday afternoons, a group of young people come together to do something simple and powerful. They talk. These gatherings are part of a mentorship and mental health program through the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK). For many of the youth who take part, it’s one of the few places where they feel safe enough to share what they’re thinking and experiencing. Christine now leads these conversations as a mentor, but her journey to this moment began in a similar circle, as someone seeking support herself.
In Kenya, young people are expected to grow up fast. By age 15, they may be seen as old enough to handle life on their own. But the reality is hard—youth may not get the encouragement or support they need. Some may leave school early, often because of teen pregnancy, the need to work, or lack of access to education in general. And showing emotion—crying, opening up—can be seen as weakness. Christine knows this reality firsthand. When struggles go unspoken, young people can feel completely alone. Youth suicide is a real and painful reality. She once carried burdens in silence, feeling the weight of expectations without a safe space to share what she was experiencing.
When she found the NCCK mentorship program. In those Wednesday gatherings, Christine discovered something she had been missing: a place where she could speak freely, where her thoughts and feelings mattered. “Mental health means feeling safe enough to express your thoughts and feelings,” she now explains with the clarity of someone who has lived it. “Talking it out is the best way out.” The support she received didn’t just help her survive—it transformed her. “It’s been one of my dreams to be there for someone,” she shares. That dream became her reality.
Today, Christine mentors 40 young people through the UCC youth mentorship program. She brings to each session the understanding of someone who has sat in their seats, who knows what it means to need someone to listen. As a mother, she practices intentional parenting—encouraging confidence, conversation, and honesty with her own daughter. She’s become the person she once needed. Her advice to the young people she mentors comes from experience: “Embrace the support if you have someone.” Christine envisions building a community of young people who can support one another, breaking the cycles of silence that too often lead to isolation and despair. Through her journey from mentee to mentor, she’s proving that healing isn’t just personal—it multiplies.
Through Mission and Service partner the National Council of Churches of Kenya, Christine and her community are creating spaces for young people to be heard and reminding them that they matter. When we support Mission and Service, we are helping make spaces like this possible—places where listening leads to hope, and where young people don’t have to face everything alone. Let’s be the community that shows up. By giving to Mission and Service, we stand with young people in Kenya and around the world, helping ensure that safe circles continue, mentors are trained, and hope keeps multiplying.
– Thank you –
Refugee Project
Nov 17, 2022
As we watch with disbelief a war waging in the Ukraine and over 600,000 being displaced in under one week fleeing the bombs, we appreciate the greater need that exists to welcome refugees. Our faith calls us to respond and through this ministry, we try to answer this call. Our Lenten Project for this year was our St. Paul’s Refugee Campaign, to raise funds for our work with refugees. As you know, we are working with St. Mark’s Anglican/Lutheran Church to sponsor a family from Syria who just last week arrived here in Canada. We are also working with a local Afghani family in co–sponsoring six members of their family who have fled Afghanistan and the have now arrived. With the invasion of Ukraine, we know that there are now many more refugees who have fled their homes and we have no idea if they will be able to safely return to their own country or not.
To donate to our Refugee fund, please make your cheque payable to St. Paul’s United Church and clearly mark on the memo line of the cheque that is for the Refugee Fund. If you are making an e–transfer or donation online through our website, then please indicate that it is for this fund. Thank you
Scott Warnock, Executive Director of the Huronia Community Foundation, presents a cheque for $2,000 to Ken Woods, of St. Paul’s Refugee Committee.
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St. Paul’s United Church in Midland is in the process of sponsoring a family from Afganistan, and is also assisting St. Mark’s Anglican – Lutheran church as they are sponsoring a family from Syria.
St. Paul’s has a long history of sponsoring refugees going back to the 70s with the sponsorship of a family fleeing Vietnam after the war.
All funds raised will be used to cover the costs of supporting the refugee families once they arrive in Canada, for the sponsorship period of 12 months.
Refugee Programs
We asked Rev Martin Giebel, from St. Mark’s, for an update on the Ismail and Maghrebi families which is included here.
The Ismail family (from Syria): all the children are in school, enjoying it and making progress both in English and academically. The father is employed. Regarding the son who is still in Germany, his application is now at the Vienna visa office – it’s progressing.
The Maghrebi family (from the Ukraine): everyone doing well. They are now in their own apartment.
The Maghrebi family are in touch with the Ismail family and Rev. Martin visits both regularly. The two mothers, Jihan and Svitlana, are forming a friendship even though both hardly speak any English – they ‘understand’ each other.
Everyone takes ESL lessons. Rev Martin is trying to establish in-person ESL in Midland.
We have a Travel Date for the family from Afghanistan; for now, it is for late October (no names and dates are included for their safety). We are making efforts to bring them to Canada as soon as possible as the situation where they are is very dangerous; we are very concerned.
We are all grateful for the safe arrival of all refugees; please pray for those who are still waiting to travel to Canada, and safety.
This family has arrived and more information will be forth coming.