ICY Africa

ICY is a youth training movement that is spreading far and wide across Africa, finding young people of peace and discipling them to follow Jesus, and equipping them to serve their communities. The current leaders of ICY are David and Linda Isgrove. The passage below has been written by Linda.

ICY was one of those God initiatives where He opens a door and we followed not knowing what to expect! At a time when David was between jobs we were given an encouragement by Jean Darnell, a friend of Riverside, that he wasn’t to go looking for a job but that something was going to rise up that would be of far greater significance than we could imagine. That very week David was offered a job which included writing training courses. A leadership course he wrote for a Christian youthwork organisation was taken by a friend to a youth group in the slums of Nairobi, and those who took part in the course found stronger faith and the confidence to find new directions. 

We have always had a heart to see young people be disciples, not just converts. We started with Miff (originally MYF – Moseley Youth Fellowship) before Riverside started. So when this friend asked us to look after the course in Kibera we said yes. A change in the group’s leader saw the start of phenomenal growth, and Joe, our African director, has since developed a team in Kenya, and leaders overseeing other countries. Starting with groups of  up to 20 in Kibera, in 12 years ICY has personally trained over 480,000 teens and youth leaders across 36 countries in Africa, who have gone on to train their friends, probably over 1 million in total. 

God is in the business of multiplication. We have recognised that God’s plan is for us to be a disciple making movement, not an organisation, but that has been hard for people to understand. A movement goes where the Holy Spirit leads, ‘the wind blows where it wills’ and we don’t always know what’s going on! Doors open when we least expect them, a conversation in a Birmingham inner city car wash opened a door into Zanzibar. The guy that David met in that carwash shared that his best friend was the brother of the President! Six months later we were in Zanzibar running a conference for young people.  

Jesus called young people to be his disciples before they knew who he was, training them to do what He was doing, before they fully understood, even before they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. There is so much opportunity in Africa where so many are desperate to be given hope. Some we meet are Christian, some of other faiths or none, but all precious to God. Through school and college initiatives, and particularly Boot Camps for intensive training , we find out young people’s concerns then mobilise them for their own mission, training them to train others by building their own teams.

Part of ICY is Africa for SDGs, where the youth use the United Nations Sustainable Goals to develop projects that engage with their local community and that develop their faith, initiative, leadership skills. Covering areas such as social care and  development, climate change, entrepreneurship to counter poverty, and education.  

We have four basic pillars, through which our vision is developed:

1. Youth to God: in-depth discipleship

2. Youth to Youth: trained to lead

3. Youth to Church: responsibility, engagement, church planting

4. Youth to Community: learning skills and leading teams

How can you get involved?

We need more praying partners. Our faith is not in our methods but in God’s direction, we face so many challenges we need to hear his voice clearly. We know that ministry to God must precede ministry for God. We send out a prayer letter once a year and we’re starting a WhatsApp group to send out monthly prayer up dates. If you’d like to join in praying just email lindaisgrove@gmail.com  

We also need those who would like to partner with us with regular support. This whole ministry is a miracle of God’s provision, sustained by small gifts through many individuals. Thank you so much to Riverside Church, many Riverside family, and other friends who support us. You can give through Stewardship services or contact us directly.

You can pray right now!

There has been a request from a number of leaders from a number of North African countries for training. How to do this safely and when is our big question. In 2016 we felt God encourage us saying He wanted us to be in every African country by 2026!  So we trust him for guidance but please pray with us for clarity, wisdom and provision. 

For Joe, and James, our leader in West Africa, as they seek to help plan youth boot camps and schools work in a number of new West African countries where links were established in the autumn.  

The Kenyan team who travel by car all over Kenya and into neighbouring countries need a second vehicle. Riverside helped massively with the first one for which we are so grateful. We have another car in mind but need the finances of £10,000 or less. We need God’s wisdom if this car is the one.