By Jesse Graham
YARRA Glen’s [Glen.] Youth Group has held its final meeting, winding up after 10 years of parties, events and gatherings in town.
[Glen.] was started by Heartland Church in Yarra Glen in 2006, by Sally and Andrew Marshall, when the church was set up in town.
Sally told the Mail on Friday, 18 November, before the final meeting of the group, that she felt like she needed to start up the group in town, and turned to God for answers.
“As I was driving into Yarra Glen … I was having all of these emotions and feelings about it – it felt like there hadn’t been a youth group in Yarra Glen for 10 years,” she said.
“When I was in the car, I said, ‘Well, God, if this is it, if this is what you want me to do, let me know today’.
“That afternoon, I went back to Lilydale for a training session and our youth pastor came up to me and said, ‘I’ve been praying for you today – God says yes, what are we talking about?’.”
Though the group had a slow start after its first party, as more and more events went by, regular attendees started to gather at the Gary Cooper Pavilion each Friday for the youth group.
Andrew said that by the time the group finished up, there were about 250 regular attendees – along with people who attended the larger events.
“It’d be a cold winter’s night and 100 kids coming into a shed that’s got no heating,” Sally said.
Sally said the group gave children in town a place to go on Friday nights that was easy to get to, with sporadic public transport making it hard for to visit friends in other towns.
“I know, from my experience of growing up here and going to school in Lilydale, I just made friends down there, and that’s where my social life was and it was an effort to get down there,” she said.
“With a youth group in town, you can say, ‘I can’t get to my friend’s house, at least I can get down to the shed’, and hang out with us.”
Ten years on from the beginning of the group and two daughters later, Sally and Andrew said the time was right to wind up the group, and hope someone comes in to start up their own in its wake.
“It was very emotional at the start, because we’ve invested so much into running youth group and we really want to see change and improvement and help kids know who they are meant to be, rather than running around and going by instinct,” Sally said.
“It was a huge shock, detaching ourselves from these kids – we’ve had an emotional year separating- but now, it feels right.
“Today’s the last day and it’s like, yep, it’s okay.”
When asked if they had advice for someone else coming into the space to start up a youth group, Andrew said it came down to faith.
“If they’re coming from a perspective we’re coming from, I’d say trust in God,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff they can have,” Sally added.
