Up Close … with spiritual youth group Joshua Generation-Helping the youths to grow spiritually |04 October 2011

This group of hard-working and dedicated youths call themselves the Joshua Generation and is under the St. Paul’s Cathedral parish umbrella. Joshua Generation is headed by David Jean-Baptiste, an energetic, young man who seems to me just about ready to dedicate his life to the cause.

“To clear up a lot of misconception about our group, I would first like to say that we are not a religious but a spiritual group,” says David.

“In fact, my belief is that religion is all into tradition and into what we call works – rituals and repetitions of several texts or phrases. We, on the other hand, emphasise more on spiritual aspects of Christianity, or in other words, we are a spiritual Christian group.

Father Daniel Kallee was the first person to come up with the idea of Joshua Generation here in Seychelles. On a visit to Jerusalem in 2009, he chanced upon a youth group with the name Joshua Generation (it is a worldwide group) and he later got the idea to start one in Seychelles.

The aim behind Joshua Generation, David tells me, is to help the youth grow spiritually and become closer to Jesus Christ so that they can have a personal relationship with him.

“The reason we have chosen the name Joshua Generation is because Joshua (from the Bible) was a youth chosen by God to complete the work that he had entrusted to Moses which the latter had not been able to accomplish,” David remarks.

“Now, Joshua was a youngster chosen to complete the work that the adults should have been able to complete and we the Joshua Generation are a group of youths who believe that God wants to recruit a group of young people to do the job that others have not been able to do.

“The job itself is of course the will of God,” explains David. “That is, to bring more people to salvation than ever before and help others in becoming more spiritual people. This is the will of God.”

David says the ages of people in the group range between 12 and well into the late thirties.

“We have various training programmes that focuses mostly on the Bible and the reason being basically because we want to know the Word of God and to do that and become closer to him, we must be able to obey Him; and the only way to obey Him is to know the Word; and the only way to know the Word is to read the Bible.”

David says the Joshua Generation has allowed him to become more acquainted with God’s work.
“Having been saved, however, the work does not end there.

“I feel the need to do something more for the cause; to do something spiritually to help others,” he says.
“You come to realise that there really are others out there who need the help.”
David is encouraging others to join, no matter how affected by sin they think they might be and he gives me a little anecdote to explain his point:

“There was once a King in the Bible named David. This guy was a man of God, blessed, spirit-filled and had a whole lot of things going for him. He was one of God’s favourite children. Yet, David still committed adultery. Despite this, however, he turned to repentance and wrote Psalm 51 which asks God to cleanse him and remove all that is not supposed to be inside him. In other words, remove his sins so that he may start afresh. And this is exactly what I mean by anybody and everybody should join. Because no matter how many times you think you’ve failed, He will always give you another chance and a way to start over. However, we should also bear in mind that even though we have grace, it does not give us a license to continually sin and repent, otherwise we really are getting nowhere.”

Joshua Generation not only deals with learning about the Bible and worship but also has different sections within the group which is beneficial to society.

This includes an Outreach programme, headed by Nichole Bareau, Witnessing, headed by Lilianne Dailoo and Praise and Worship, headed by Iris Vel. Guillaian Didon is the assistant leader of the group.

Lilianne Dailoo says Witnessing is all about encouraging others to know more about God.

“In other words, you are bringing God’s word into their lives and telling them God loves them. If, for example, somebody is going through a really tough time, be it with family, work or relationships, we encourage them through God’s word. We are ambassadors of His work and words and this is our mission,” she says.

“As for the way Joshua Generation has affected me personally, all I can say is my views on what having fun should be have definitely changed. Many young people think that to have fun, drinking or even recreational drugs should be employed. Through Joshua Generation, you learn that this is not the case. You can also have fun through worship, reading the Bible and coming together as a group and sharing experiences. To me, this is what fun should be.”

Nichole Barreau, from the Outreach Programme, explains that what they are planning is to assist the youths that are being affected by social ills.

“We are also planning on reaching out to the more outcast members of society like the sex workers, teaching them to have a more positive outlook on life,” she says.

David adds that the team not only spends time in worship and Bible studies.

“We also find ways to spend time together as members, sometimes going to the beach for a picnic or hosting different sports activities in which we take part. We try to have as much fun as possible, while doing God’s work,” he says.

The official launch of Joshua Generation will be held at the St Paul’s Cathedral on October 14, where members will be introduced and commissioned and where the group’s logo will be presented.

The following day, October 15, will see a great number of spiritual groups coming together for a joint sports day.
Joshua Generation meets twice a week: once for debriefing and another day for spiritual training.

“We have saved Fridays for worship and it is in the works to make this a regular event throughout the week,” says David.

By Rebecca Chang-Tave