TeenStreet (TS) is an international community of young Jesus followers that focuses on inspiring and equipping teenage Jesus-followers to catch God’s heart for the least reached. In the Middle East and North Africa, this has many unique contexts – and God is working in each one.
The following is an interview with the TeenStreet Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Director, and three MENA countries with TS. All names are changed and the countries are referred to as ‘Country A’, ‘Country B’ and ‘Country C; due to their sensitivity:
MENA TS Director: TeenStreet began as an event only in Europe in 1993 with 53 teenagers. Now thousands of teens from close to 50 countries meet in small groups in a year-round discipleship journey in their own countries. The aim is for teens to grow in their faith, have fun and live boldly as they represent Jesus in their everyday lives.
Officially, TS began in one country in MENA in 2014. Today, it is in six of the 20+ countries in our area, all in differing stages of development. Some countries have groups that meet twice a month and occasional training for group leaders (coaches). In other countries, TS is in its infancy stage. The goal is to have TS in most countries in MENA by 2028.
The key in the TS discipleship journey is the small groups of three-to-seven teens of the same gender, led by a coach. MENA TS Director, Bek* explained, “This is a place where the groups can go deep and be vulnerable with each other.” Because each group needs a leader of the same gender, TS focuses on training coaches, equipping them to lead the year-long Bible study curriculum. There are still big events in TS, but those are not the heart of the programme.
What has been amazing to see is that some teens who attended TS early on in that first country are now being trained as coaches,” Bek shared. “Those we once served are serving together with us now. We want to continue to train TS alumni to serve alongside the next generation.
As TS is for teens who are already followers of Jesus, TS MENA specifically focuses on both the personal discipleship of the students, as well as how to share their faith in their cultural context, which, for the majority of the countries in MENA, is Muslim.
Please tell us about TS in your country.
Country A: We meet in five different cities and over 220 students attend overall. Our TS events are always fun. The teens feel joy, because the coaches do their best to help the students enjoy their time after coming from school, work and stresses in life. The coaches encourage them, study the Bible with them and pray with them, so the teens always look forward to the next meeting. They often bring friends, some of whom are Muslim. It is amazing to see how the students feel like this is a safe place to be together.
Country B: TS began in our country in 2014, but in a way, now is like it is starting all over again. It is a new season. In the past, we did events, and during the pandemic, we held virtual events. Afterwards, some small groups continued meeting regularly with alumni who are now young adults. In 2022, we hosted the first small group leaders’ training for all of MENA.
Our new in-country TS director sees the urgency of reaching teenagers now, as churches have Sunday school for kids and even adults, but not teenagers. She hosted a small group leader training event in her home. The small group leaders are equipped in talking with young people about courage, faith and relevant topics to being disciples of Jesus. These small group leaders, as well as some new ones, were also invited to a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) training to be empowered more in how to do that well. Some of these leaders now meet with small groups directly; some have bigger group meetings that then split up into small groups for Bible study.
Country C: We have been part of TS since 2019, first going to a big, international event in Europe, and then meeting virtually during the pandemic. In 2022, we began meeting twice a month. We study the Bible together, worship and talk together and after two regular meetings, we have a fun event like a movie night, an outing like hiking, etc. Most of the teens were the kids of either our team members or our ministry partners, meaning they were more third-culture kids (TCKs) than nationals.
Now, we are also in a new season, as many students either graduated or left the country recently. We have two regular attendees who are both nationals. There are other teenagers who attend our bigger events, but they live farther away so they cannot come on a normal basis.
Please share a story of TS impact in a teenager’s life.
Country A: A girl, Aisha*, attended TS regularly and was discouraged because her family spoke to her negatively, saying things like, ‘You are not good at school; you are stupid.’ She believed she could not do anything good because of this. One day, she shared with a group that after the last meeting she went home and shared with her family what she had learnt. “At first, they laughed at me, but I kept speaking until I finished my point,” she shared with her group. “At the end, they said to me, ‘You are a different girl. You have confidence to say a lot of things to us.’”
From that day on, Aisha told herself she could not be so shy again. “I need to share the Word of God with everyone, not just my family. This is my desire now. I share with everyone.”
Country B: TS in our country is also adapting the curriculum so it can be used in a social/cultural outreach to Muslim teenagers, teaching ‘good life’ values based on the Bible without using directly Christian language. This is a new, challenging venture that is in its beginning stages, but already there has been a small impact by a group doing this in one city.
The students here are from a difficult area. Their parents push them to marry as young as age fifteen. Because of this, I challenged the leaders to share a Bible verse at the end of each lesson, which they call ‘statements’, about living a good life, verses about topics like forgiveness, inner healing, identity, etc. The groups began memorising these statements each week.
It was so exciting to see changes in the students’ lives month after month. They had not heard yet about Jesus or knew that these good life lessons and statements were from the Bible, but month after month, they were inviting others to join this group. Now, over 30 students attend.
Country C: Because so many of the teens who first attended were TCKs, they still attended youth groups at their local congregations but did not fully fit in. They found a safe place in TS where they could open up and be themselves. This has continued with our new students. One of them has grown in confidence in doing new things, like praying out loud in our group. Another student, a boy of mixed-race who was being bullied at school, after coming once to TS told his mother, “TeenStreet should be every week, not every other week!” Both of these students are the two who now attend regularly.
Last fall we had an overnight event where 18 of us went to another city. We did various activities like hiking, visiting a prayer center and performing small acts of kindness for people we met. The focus of the weekend was learning about prayer. We created a devotional just for the event and planned for group prayer times, small group prayer times and personal prayer times. When we debriefed them later, the many of the students said their favourite time was the quiet time with God.
What are your prayers for TS in your country?
Country A: We want to see TS in every part of our country. We also want to host another training event for small group leaders. If we can do this, then we can have different TS teams in different areas.
Country B: TeenStreet is about young people being discipled in small groups. If they can get that from a young age, reaching out to the least reached around them becomes natural at a young age. We would love to see an organic movement of small groups – that coaches train others to coach small groups, who teach their students to reach out to their Muslim friends and hold their own groups. We want the teens to really get a vision; it’s not just about me and Jesus. It’s about those around me and Jesus, and God can use me in that.
We also want to train more small group leaders, especially from the majority-culture in our country.
Country C: We want to see groups of teens of different races meeting together in unity and sharing this with their families and friends. We also would love to see alumni return and be trained as future group leaders. Our focus is seeing the students grow in their faith so they can be future leaders in their own congregations and communities in the future.