How to bring teenagers to the Gurdwara Sahib

[AK-47]

Today was the first event for this years SYCC Youth Forum based at smethwick gurdwara birmingham...

see http://www.boss-uk.org for details.

The basic format for this is that every week or fortnight as it is this yr, an event is held on wednesday afternoon, the event is aimed at teenagers aged 16-19 giving them the chance to express their views within their own age group.

There is usually presentations on the topic given by the singhs, followed by group discussion or activity... ends with samose and j2o's!

Last year there would be a regular attendance of 100 teenagers, both girls and boys, the majority from a non-practicing background. In fact usually the only singhs in the room would be some of the ones giving the presentations!!

And keep in mind that wednesday afternoon's is seen as daytimmer gig - time!!

(For those of u who dnt know what this is... basically in the uk most colleges finish midday on weds to give students chance to do sports... but a lot of punjabi's see this as a chance to hold gigs and attend since their parents believe that their at college!! )

So it would appear that these kids giving up gigs for the gurdwara! Staying for 2 maybe 3 hours, and then getting involved in panthic seva when and where arranged!

I personally know of 2 boys who have kept their kesh from attending this forum where they said they finally got answers and sangat! :nihungsmile: <

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You guys remember the 'tarkan Vs jatts video.. that was part of this forum too.... many of u in the uk will have seen just how funny but to the point many of these forum videos are and continue to be!

If you want any advice on how to set and fund such a group or just ideas on talks (last yr they did one a week.... so around 36 talks!!!) give the guys an email (their details are on the above website) i'm sure they'll be able to help you, if your local pop in and lend a hand or just check it out!! better still give them some tips!!! :nihungsmile:

We should definetly have something like this everywhere, these guys are good at what they do, so lets work together and add a new dimension to our parchar!

[joga singh]

Do Ardaas , Then , Lungar , Gatka.

[Independent Sevadar]

brilliant stuff jio. Its good that this type of parchaar is being done.

I would suggest story-telling too - telling the story of our Gurus by people who talk really soft and clearly and with pictures on a projector relating to the story. That would be wicked! N even i'd come for something like that.

Keep up the good seva

[AK-47]

The Smethwick Youth and Community Centre have put up their latest pictures from their trip to Belgium (Brusells) in Europe.

http://www.boss-uk.org/photos/

Around 70 teenagers (15-20) were accompanied by sevadaars to a weekend away in belgium. They stayed at the gurdwara sahib in brusells for two nights. While they were there the children were involved in all seva such as langar, keertan, parachar, cleaning the gurdwara sahib up etc. As well as sikhi being practiced in the gurdwara sahib, they were allowed to wander around the city of brussels accompanied by a sevadar for one of their days out, the other day included a trip to flanders war museum which was in memory of many soldiers who dies in ww2 at those particular fields including many sikhs.

on sunday morning the youth ran the morning darbar sahib doing keertan etc for guru ji and the local sangat. most who do not come during the week due to work and distnace, but all the sangat will come gurdwara sahi on sunday as can be seen from the photos.

overall the youth did a lot of parchar both amongst themselves and to the sangat of belgium who were delighted on seeing so many youth into sikhi and travelling around to do parchar of it.

the youth themselves loved the trip, saying that it was a brillaint mix of fun and sikhi, mny of the sevadars returned with sore throats from having to answer so many questions!

as has been suggested before SYCC is doing a brillaint job, with many innovative ideas on methods of parhcra which are clearly working, children who otherwise would never go gurdwara sahib are now meeting with their friends and attending gurdwara sahib together.

Please see the boss events section for the other events done by SYCC this month and please contact the sevadars there for advise on similar events or ideas.

PS, please also see the new Gurdwara List/Map on the front of the Boss website, if u click on the regions it shows u the gurdwara within it! pretty cool stuff!