Thank you for joining me. I'm Bob Aldred and today we're going to be talking to a
friend of mine in the studio, Ian Goodson. Ian is a social worker with Teen
Challenge which works amongst young people in Brisbane. Their motto is,
New Life for Troubled Youth. Ian, as you work with young people no doubt you're
facing a generation of youth that has less or maybe different opportunities
than what's my generation had and the generations before us. Your organization
is offering a Christian answer to troubled youth but answer to what sort of
problems? I guess Bob that many young people would still see them living
themselves living in a really beautiful country with lots to offer
and I think one of the key things that young people would be looking for is a
is a contented life. I think young people are also looking at the future probably
with a lot of apprehension too and I think they're looking for answers to these
sort of dilemmas that that they can see in their future whether it's their
immediate future in the way of jobs or the longer term future and the big
questions that might confront them. So they're a bit ambivalent. On one side
they want to have a lot of fun, on the other side they're a bit worried about
what sort of things are happening around them. Do you find that these young people
then are steamed up about key issues or rather apathetic towards them? I think
there's a mixture Bob. I've often wondered I guess how much young people
worry about the bomb or whether that's the privilege of perhaps more educated
people to worry about those sort of issues and I get the answer from them
that I generally they don't seem to worry about it too much but they see the
day after in some of these films and they admit and they do worry about the
future. Where's it all really leading to in this crazy world? Well that's a general
sense Ian but you're seeing people as individuals. What are the most common
individual problems that people come to you with as a social worker? I think
probably in one word Bob we might summarise it in the area of relationships.
Young people are having difficulty getting on with their parents and
certainly parents are having difficulty getting along with their adolescents too.
I think a lot of the problems rest in that sort of area. And over the past
months Ian we've read a lot and seen a lot on television about parents not
carrying through their responsibilities. Young people in the streets, the street
kids as their media calls them. Is this the sort of person that you're seeing a
lot of? Yes we do. We've got an activity centre in the valley, we've got a
crisis accommodation centre at Ashgrove and I guess many of the young people
could be loosely called street people. It doesn't mean they always sleep on the
street if they're not with us or in another regular sort of accommodation
somewhere but they do spend some time on the streets whether it's days and
sometimes the nights sleeping out too. It's true. Ian what has Christianity got to
offer those sort of people? We see Christianity a lot as people sitting in
churches, we don't often relate it to people who haven't got a house or a
family and you want to care about them. What's Christianity got to offer these
young people? Well I guess Bob the truth remains the same down through the
thousands of years that we've had God's Word and Christ himself said I came
that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly and I
think perhaps this is the key to the whole thing. We've got a guidebook of
simple principles that people can live by and that truth remains the same as it
ever did and I guess this is what we're trying to bring to young people is a
concern and a love and a listening ear that we might tap into the and
understand them. I think they want understanding young people and hopefully
they will be willing to listen to the good news, the gospel that can bring
answers to these problems and many many more in their lives. So what would you
say to the parents of young people who don't get on with their parents, those
families that are that are split and divided and seem to be at odds with one
another? What would you say to the parents? Well it's so much we perhaps
could say Bob but I think one of the thing we all live in a very pressured
sort of society, time seems to be so difficult to find sometimes except for
the things that we might want to do ourselves and I think the first starting
point for parents is is to really set aside time and to listen to young people
because as I said they they really want to be understood they've got lots of
hurts they've got lots of things they want to share and if parents will make
that time it's all the reason that young people won't run off to someone else
where they might get wrong advice. Right so time is the key, time to listen.
Ian thanks very much for coming in today and talking to us and to you folk at home
might I say that time is very important time with your children time by yourself
but most of all time with your God and in that time you can renew yourself
spiritually and be better able to listen and to be able to lead your children to
a God who really cares. Thank you for joining me this has been Bob Aldred for
Christian Television Association.