Ilana Lobbezoo
Missions Mobilizer and Youth Catalyst
A Little History ...
In 2022 at our District Retreat a number of youth pastors gathered to discuss the options of mobilizing our youth on mission once again. This set in motion the plans for a vision trip to Ecuador with Inca Link, which took place in the Spring of 2023. As this group of 11 pastors and leaders travelled and visited three Inca Link ministry sites in Ecuador a new plan was birthed to collaborate together in planning and executing a missions trip experience for youth in partnership with Inca Link; and so was birthed our Central District bi-annual summer Global Outreach Trips, or GOT as it has become known as by our church group participants. It was decided that each church group that signed up would be committing to collaborating together both in training and on-the-ground ministry. Since the vision for this particular experience was that to utilize it as a discipleship tool, each leader and participant would be asked to commit to a training and discipleship experience of several months leading up to the trip, beginning in the Fall and continuing until late June departure, with regular monthly team gatherings for the purpose of training, mentoring, prayer and preparation. By October local church teams would be recruited, and beginning in November, the teams would begin to meet together for hybrid online/in person meetings with training led by Inca Link coaches during the online portion of the meeting. This plan offered several benefits including: support and comradery for and among leaders, and the opportunity for smaller groups to participate and form a larger cohort for ministry.
The 2025/26 Cohort ...
This year we sent out our second cohort which was comprised of 6 church teams, totaling 77 students and adult leaders. Promotions began late Spring of 2025 with participants recruited and teams formed by early Fall. We began meeting for online training in November, followed by monthly meetings and gatherings to plan and fund raise too. The monthly, scheduled and required-to-attend training sessions meant that participants were committed to meeting together, fostering a sense of team in preparation to serve together.
The Inca Link training material is an excellent resource – Charlotte Lennox
The preparation time was so important and valuable - Calvin Sloss
These teams, of various sizes, were deployed to 2 locations - Ecuador and Peru; all departing within a few hours of each other on June 26, 2026. The Ecuador cohort came from Midland Alliance, Owen Sound Alliance, and our St. Catharines churches – Westburne Alliance and St. Catharines Chinese Alliance. The Peru cohort consisted of teams from Bramalea Alliance, Mississauga Chinese Alliance, and West London Alliance.
Both Ecuador and Peru cohorts were skillfully hosted in Quito and Trujillo by a team of Inca Link coaches and housed at Inca Link facilities designed specifically to provide hospitality for visiting teams from Canada and the U.S. Many spoke highly of the level of care and hospitality they received. The 10 day trip afforded participants a variety of service and ministry opportunities as they stepped in to serve alongside local ministry and church leaders in each location.
I loved participating in the worship at the Peruvian churches - Joshua Birley
In Trujillo, Peru the participating church teams rotated around fulfilling construction and grounds upkeep tasks and teaching Bible lessons at various community-based ministries reaching children, youth and their families and the community living at the garbage dump site.
I appreciated the partnership between church teams and the opportunity to mix and mingle - Toan Vo
Teams arrived prepared to share the love of Jesus through songs, skits, games and crafts, which included the gift of string backpacks featuring the artwork of their new owners based on principles learned from the story of the Good Samaritan. While we celebrated our Canada Day holiday here, their coaches treated them to a famous, unique Trujillo excursion – sand boarding. That day finished off with a fireworks display and the usual evening debrief session and impromptu worship around the campfire.
In Quito, Ecuador their days looked quite similar. There they were busy cleaning and tidying up the Casa Elizabeth grounds and facilities and spending time with the moms and children that are served by that ministry, culminating in a graduation celebration. Honoring these young, unwed mothers who had completed high school studies was a highlight for our visiting teams.
When they weren’t serving there they were either helping with the refurbishment of a local school building and grounds - the location of a partner community ministry; or church teams were leading daily VBS programming for the children and youth in the surrounding community of a local church.
Of course, a visit to Quito is not complete without an excursion to visit the equator monument site which they were also treated to during their stay.
For many visiting either Peru or Ecuador the experience afforded valuable life and faith lessons in flexibility and trust, servanthood, learning a tiny bit of a new culture and language, and partnering together in ministry.
We invite you to explore more of the teams’ adventures by following the Central District Youth Network Global Outreach Trips on Instagram, and Mission Peru
