• 28 July 2015

JIMS Project 6.8 makes a positive impact in the community

A team from JIMS Youth Centre has just completed another successful ‘Project 6.8’ in Kilkeel, Co Down. Armed with spades, shovels, wheelbarrows, marquees, lawnmowers and a sense of humour, the 32–strong team, including 6 American leaders and a South African, invaded the town’s Hillside Drive housing community with a mission: to embody and live out the Bible verse found in Micah from which the project derives its name.

Throughout the 8 day project, the young volunteers slept and had team times in JIMS while delivering a daily detached youth work programme to over 60 kids from to 4 years old to late teens. And if the endless games, silly songs, crafts and early morning rises weren’t enough for the team to contend with, they also served the residents of the housing estate by weeding pathways, cutting grass, painting fences and anything else in between that allowed them to demonstrate their love for God and the people of Kilkeel.

Alan McCann, JIMS Youth Centre youth worker and Project 6.8 facilitator, commented on what proved to be another successful year for the initiative:

“Every year we invite young people locally and internationally to apply and be interviewed for Project 6.8 with the ambition to equip them to serve their local communities in a powerful way that transcends the 8 days we’re on the ground. In an age where media outlets don’t always do young people justice, I can honestly say that all of the team members I have encountered during my time with JIMS do their families, communities and faith proud by their selfless commitment and actions”.

Throughout the Kids Club, parents and local residents from Hillside Drive and surrounding housing estates gathered at the community ‘green space’ as the sea of purple Project 6.8 tee shirts marched into the area at 9.30 am each morning cheerily chanting the day’s warm up song. On the Friday afternoon all tools were downed as members of Kilkeel Fire and Rescue Station arrived in one of their Fire Engines to facilitate one of the messiest but irreplaceable parts of the week.

“What do you get if you add sheets of black plastic pegged on a grassy bank and a large fire engine equipped with a vast quantity of water and fire retardant foam,” asks Alan? “One of the best ‘Slip’n’Slides’ Kilkeel and County Down has to offer!”

Coming up…

From 30 July – 2 August, JIMS (Kilkeel Parish Bridge Association) will host ‘Souled Out in the Country’ – 4 days of worship, teaching prayer and fellowship with the option to camp out. This year’s theme is ‘God’s Not Dead’. Find out more here.