The Junior Youth group of Wishart serve their local community at successful fundraising event.
JY Stars, an enthusiastic group of Junior Youth from Wishart and Redlands, held a JY Fundraising 'cafe' over the school holiday weekend to raise awareness and funds for important charity, Lifeline.
JY Stars Café Fundraiser
The Junior Youth Spritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP) is a group movement inspiring young people, parents and community members to work together toward a better world. The junior youth are aged between 11 and 15 years of age, which is a crucial period, and in this group they enhance their power of expression, sharpening their spiritual perceptions and analysing the constructive and desconstructive forces of society.
The group study texts which include stories of junior youth from around the world, which the junior youth can relate to, and apply certain concepts to their own lives and local communities.
The junior youth group become agents of change and one way they seek to help their communities is through service projects.
The junior youth group explored the meaning of spiritual excellence, pondering on the following quote:
"Strain every nerve to acquire both inner and outer perfections, for the fruit of the human tree hath ever been and will ever be perfections both within and without. It is not desirable that a man be left without knowledge or skills, for he is then but a barren tree. Then, so much as capacity and capability allow, ye needs must deck the tree of beingwith fruits such as knowledge, wisdom, spiritual perception and eloquent speech"
- Baha'u'llah, A Compilation of Baha'i Education, p. 3
By exploring these 'fruits' of the tree of the human soul, one can discover the hidden jewels that lie within. The Junior Youth group used their spiritual perceptions and powers of expression and consulted on the innumerable "fruits" that are part of the human tree, such as nobility, honesty, kindness, forgiveness, courage, justice and knowledge. They then created a beautiful, colourful tree, complete with its excellent "fruits".
The Junior Youth group meet regulary on Sunday mornings.