Hub104 during Ten8

Ten8 is a missional week for students involved in local churches across Edinburgh. Their vision is to share the love, goodness and gospel of Jesus Christ with the local community through evangelism and charity work. This year at Ten8, I (Suzanne) had the joy and privilege to co-lead the Hub104 team, a weekly youth outreach cafe run by King’s Church on Friday afternoons. God values young people and we as Christians are called to invest in the next generation – the future leaders that will grow the Church and the kingdom of God.

Before the week of Ten8 began, I felt God remind me of this important truth, leading me to His word in 1 Timothy 4:12: ‘Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the leaders in speech, in life, in love, in faith and purity’. This call for the young is an encouragement to young people and a
gentle urge towards those of us who are no longer in our teen years, that we should not dismiss the younger generations, but set them up to be ambassadors of Christ. I believe that Hub104 provides a gateway for this to be done. During Ten8 we enjoyed getting to know the young people, gradually creating a safe space in which they felt happy asking us questions about our faith if they were interested, and ultimately the love of God was shown through the events and activities that were organised.​

We put on various events throughout the week that differed from the usual Friday afternoon set up. This included mural painting, pizza making, a drama workshop and a Nerf battle. The purpose of this was to encourage new faces from the local high school to come along, with the intention of growing Hub104.. Alongside this, one of our goals for the week was also to further build relationships with the young people who regularly attend Hub – many of whom were interested in why so many students wearing red Ten8 t-shirts were giving up a week of their time to run these extra events for them. It was a joy to see some new young people who were encouraged by friends or our flyers to come along, as well as the regular faces from Hub, who were excited to be there and to engage with the activities. I felt this particularly with the mural on the staircase leading down to the Hub, which was excellently painted by different groups of kids and is something that the young people and the team will remember from the week of Ten8 as they continue to come along to Hub104 on Friday afternoons, as it has transformed a drab stairwell into something exciting!

Author

Article written by Suzanne Smith, a member of the Hub104 team.