church army gap year
Gap Year provides a year-long training and mission experience aimed at people aged 18-25. You will undertake cutting edge mission training (earning you a Certificate IV in Local Mission) and a practical placement in a mission project in Australia.
The focus of Gap Year is to prepare you to reach people in your community whose culture and world-view place them outside the sphere of existing churches. The course content looks at your own personal development as well as exploring what it means to live in community, and how to approach mission in a local, Australian context. Along with core subjects covering 'Kingdom foundations', 'self and spirit', 'community' and 'mission', you will also get to choose three electives that tailor training towards your mission field.
Through our partnership with other training providers, you can pick up introductory skills in areas such as children's work, drug and alcohol recovery, indigenous work and pastoral care.
Practical Placements
During the first few weeks of Gap, students are given information about available placements and will then work with staff, praying to discern the appropriate place for them to serve their internship. At present placements are available at Berkeley, Airds, Lawson, North Forbes and Blackwater, Qld. Read more about these local mission bases... Placements each year are selected based on availability of accommodation, adequate supervision and mentoring. Students are usually placed with a host family or with other young people and have will have experienced supervisors and mentors available to them.
Important Dates for 2010
Starting March 1, you will spend four weeks at Church Army's national headquarters, Kihilla, in the beautiful Blue Mountains (Lawson, NSW) participating in introduction activities, joining in local mission and completing some initial units of the course. You will then move out into a placement where you will be based for the next eight months, returning to Kihilla at various times during the year for intensives study periods.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| March 1 | Gap begins at Kihilla |
| April 1 | Gap Students leave for placement |
| May 14-24 | Second intensive at Kihilla |
| July 23-Aug 2 | Third intensive at Kihilla |
| Sept 10-20 | Fourth intensive at Kihilla |
| Nov 29-Dec 4 | Debrief and graduation at Kihilla |
Save the Date!
Saturday Dec 4 will be the Graduation for Gap students and students completing their Certificate IV by flexible study.
Try before you buy…
At any time during the year, prospective students are encouraged to come up to Kihilla, and chat with the training staff. However, for those thinking about Gap Year in 2011 we have a 28-hour Gap taster from Friday Dec 3 until 8.30pm Saturday 4, 2010. Why not come and check it out before signing up! Join us and experience a typical day in the life of Gap, meet graduating students, get a taste of the learning you will do, hear about placement options, be involved in a mission activity and enjoy the Graduation feast!
Course Fees
The total course cost is $5,500. A deposit of $500.00 is payable February 15, two weeks prior to commencement on March 1, 2010. Scheduled payments of $250.00 will then be due each fortnight for 20 fortnights beginning two weeks after commencement. These are payable by automated payments.
