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New Kairos GAP Base in Glasgow

 

by PM Graham

Intro: The GAP program is a Kairos initiative for people aged 18 to 22.  It has proven to be an effective tool in training and forming young Christians for mission. People from all over the world come to the GAP base in Glasgow, Scotland for a year of service – through evangelism, student outreach, youth work, or media and publications projects. As Gappers, they get the opportunity to live in "households," a small community of young people who pray together, live together and do mission work. PM Graham is a former gapper, now serving as the Kairos Europe and the Middle East GAP Director.

There's a hill in my neighborhood around which Glasgow spreads out like an old rug; patterns, lumps and stains in places, distant mountain ranges like curled up edges. It's a good place to pray. From the top, I'm able to take in the entire city in an eyeful. To change this place, to carry Christ's transforming love into every corner - for a moment, it seems achievable. Up there, I feel like I am standing in the space between heaven and my city: standing in the gap.

The Kairos GAP Year seeks to make that sense a reality in a young person's life. It is a time to draw close to God and to be available to the world that needs Him. In September, Kairos partnered with the Community of the Risen Christ (CRC) to establish a GAP base in Glasgow, Scotland. Six men and women, aged 18-22, have chosen that together they will sacrifice money, comfort and time, and make a daily decision to embrace a life of servanthood and mission as "gappers".

Some time on a GAP year is spent enjoying the adventure of living in a new country and culture. Some is spent receiving formational training, learning about the Lord and how to do his work in a rhythm of prayer, Scripture study and workshops. This builds a close connection to God that allows gappers to pass on a current of grace to the lives they touch in the varied service and mission they spend the rest of their time doing. In youth work and student evangelism, in outreach to the poor and needy, in the new friendships that are made with foreigners that become family, grace flows. My city is being changed by gappers.

And in the process, they too are being changed. The GAP Program is for young men and women; it’s a chance to experience a lot of ‘firsts’. The unique challenges and opportunities they are embracing in this year are forming their character and equipping them to return home, or wherever the Lord calls them next, more ready to build the kingdom. GAP is ultimately a source of hope. Glasgow is being changed; where next?

PM Graham is the GAP Director for Kairos Europe and the Middle East. PM and his wife Niamh live in Glasgow, Scotland, and run the new Kairos GAP Base program there. PM grew up in the Community of the Risen Christ in Glasgow and Niamh grew up in Charis Community in Belfast, Northern Ireland.