Volunteers are essential to Youth Encounters vision and mission of unleashing and releasing the potential in young people to encounter the real them who God incredibly created them to be. We are truely blessed to have such a variety of skills and expertise amongst our volunteers staff who dedicate so much to the organisation. It was awesome to celebrate another successful year together with some gokart racing thanks to Ian Chew at Off Road NZ in Rotorua.
Being a competitive bunch the racing was seriously on. Tracey had talked some banter leading up to the event and with the prestigious gopher award 🏆 up for grabs the crew were ready and brought their a-game.
Thanks to the electronic lap timer there was no disputing Joel dominance, taking the first ever Youth Encounter Gopher award away with a smile because right behind him was his lovely wife and she was not happy with a second place! Clayton got himself into third position early on but then binned it letting Liam by who took third place for a podium finish.
While a lot of organisations struggle to find volunteers to support their cause, we have been truely blessed over the years with so many eager to contribute their time and energy. It does help that we have a lot of fun most of the time and a culture of acceptance for all our people involved. With more than half the volunteer staff coming through from once being a participant, it shows the leadership development and value they have found from their involvement in Youth Encounter.
So a huge thanks to those who made it to celebrate and to those who didn’t, thank you also for your commitment and contribution to Youth Encounter. We are grateful for all you do and look forward to another year of trusting God in what he has for us to do as we live life wide open.