Every young person that will come to the Mennonite World Conference Global Youth Summit (GYS) in Paraguay 2009 brings an important voice. GYS is a place where these voices mingle in order to speak to the larger church about the concerns and recommendations of youth for the Mennonite church globally. To be most effective, representation at GYS must reflect the church's population. The majority of the church population lives in the global South. In order to make sure the voices from the global South are at the table, youth in the global North have to work extremely hard to burst through structural inequalities in our world and our church that favor those with more material resources. Although these structural inequalities were not made by our generation, it is up to us to be creative enough to find ways to change these inequalities. This bike ride IS one of those creative and innovative methods of raising awareness and funds.
Awareness was raised by young adults all across the country as we engaged in conversation about our experiences in the church. The funds that are raised will be used to correct these pervasive structural inequalities through making it possible for youth from the global South to attend the GYS. We are confident and enthusiastic that we will have ample representation of youth from the global North. It is important that youth from the global South have access to attend GYS because they also bring important historical and contemporary perspectives on the Mennonite church and Anabaptism in general. The church in the global North has had the dominant voice in church issues for a long time (since our great-great-great-great-grandparent's generation) and in order to become truly global, the voice of church members all around the world must be heard.
Raising funds and awareness is only one step of the process of justice. The AMIGOS group works at coordinating these efforts and presenting them before the broader church after we discuss our issues together in Paraguay and through networks afterwards such as the MWC amigos listserv.
---Sarah Thompson, AMIGOS