Young people’s spiritual hunger presents urgent challenge to Church

“My generation wants to see something different from what we know. There is so much hunger to connect with a higher power, but they don’t know how to do it in the right way, the Jesus way.”

Bukho Miti

Bukho Miti’s first-ever encounter with the Holy Spirit happened at a youth camp, when she was 14-years-old.

“I didn’t know what was happening, I didn’t have a relationship with the Holy Spirit but after the leader prayed, the presence of God came. All the kids started groaning. I didn’t know what I was saying.”

She laughs at the memory and quotes Romans 8:26, “but I believe whatever I was praying, it grounded me in my faith. That encounter was significant.”

Inspired by the stories of God moving in schools in East London, I wanted to track down some of the learners and young people who have had powerful God-encounters. Bukho Miti is my first interview. Raised by God-fearing parents, and having sensed a call to ministry when she was 15, Bukho has just turned 20 and is in full-time Bible school.  

Around the time of her initial encounter at the youth camp, she started grade 8 at a high school in East London; here she met a teacher who she describes as a woman “on fire for God”.

“I didn’t believe in myself in terms of my relationship with God; I couldn’t see myself impacting others” but her teacher did and was constantly reminding her of who she was and of the impact she had on those around her.

During those formative high school years, the teacher exposed the SCA to young on-fire missionaries who moved powerfully in signs, wonders and miracles.

“They would just allow the Holy Spirit to move. I heard stories about how they would pray for the sick and see them healed and they would teach us how to operate in the prophetic.”

She tells me that this kind of thing was new to her, but their hunger and zeal ignited something in her, “it was so impactful.”

Listening to Bukho, I wonder how other children had reacted; if it was all new to her, how did the religious react, and those peers who had had little or no exposure to the gospel? “My generation is hungry for the supernatural. We want to see something different from what we know.” 

What she tells me next confirms what intercessors and prophets have been identifying all over the Eastern Cape in recent years – an increase in traditional practices of ancestral worship; and more and more school-aged children being initiated as sangomas.

Sangomas and searchers
“In my matric year [2021] especially I saw ancestral worship on the rise,” but at the same time the growth in interest in traditional practices and the supernatural would bring them to the SCA meetings. There were meetings where so many learners would show up that “we would run out of chairs. Kids would tell their friends and they would bring others.

“There is so much hunger to connect with a higher power, but they don’t know how to do it in the right way, the Jesus way.”

She tells me how she and her friends would take these moments to speak openly about the sin of mixing Christianity with traditional African ancestral practices. In words that strike me as not just her own plea, but a cry on behalf of her generation she says: “I wish the Church would feed into people’s hunger in the right way.”

I cannot dismiss what she has said because it inspires a question I can almost hear Jesus asking of us; is the Gospel we preach the same Gospel that He fed the people with? Like Jesus, are we demonstrating the Kingdom in all its power to deliver, save and heal, or are we stuck in our powerless traditions, programmes and judgements that are encouraging a seeking and desperate generation to look for answers elsewhere?

“These kids in my school made a lot of noise, but they were empty inside. There’s a love vacuum. I believe my generation is crying out for God’s love.

“They want freedom. Freedom from pain, anxiety, suicide and depression. And healing. There are so many broken kids because their parents are broken; there is generations and generations of pain and it sits on their parents and it sits on them. My generation is crying out to know who they are and social media is defining them.”

I can feel it in my gut as she speaks. My heart is all over the place; for the kids that she speaks of, for the trauma of the past and the trauma of our present. 

A key question
I ask Bukho a question on behalf of the Church and on behalf of believers of my generation who are so quick to judge the young and relegate them to the realms of the “lost”;

“What would you say to us Bukho?”

“Christian families are so often fixated on raising their own children that they don’t see the other kids that aren’t from Christian homes. Adopt your children’s friends; invite them into your home. We need you.’

“And pastors, churches, adopt high schools. There is so much hunger there.”

We end our conversation with her telling me how much her generation needs parenting, impartation and teaching. I am left feeling how much we need her, and others like her. Their hunger is contagious. The greatest tragedy for our nation would be for the Church to sleep through their clarion-like cry. 

Subscribe to Newsletter

Please help us to keep on publishing news that brings Hope in Jesus:

>> Donate  >> Become a Super Subscriber

VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/gatewaynews100

COMMENTING GUIDELINES
You are welcome to engage with our articles by making comments [in the Comments area below] that add value to a topic or to engage in thoughtful, constructive discussion with fellow readers. Comments that contain vulgar language will be removed. Hostile, demeaning, disrespectful, propagandistic and off-topic comments may also be moved. This is a Christian website and if you wish to vent against Christian beliefs you have probably come to the wrong place and your comments may be removed. Ongoing debates and repetitiveness will not be tolerated. You will also disqualify yourself from commenting if you engage in trolling.