Last night saw the Graduation ceremony for the latest intake on the Ignite Leadership Academy. 12 young people received their Leadership Diplomas from local Vale of Glamorgan MP John Smith. The event is one of the highlights of the Ignite year, and John Smith rightly commented that with so much bad news around about young people, the Leadership Academy was a shining light. Here are the graduates with John Smith MP:
I hosted the evening, and as well as John Smith MP there were contributions from Rob Burns, Jonathan Booth, and two of the students themselves. One of them was Zach Kaufman from Fort Wayne, Indiana, who is on the Ignite Cymru schools team. Zach heads off home for Christmas and we will see him again when he returns at the end of February. Zach is just one of an outstanding bunch on this year's academy. They met every Tuedsay night for 12 weeks, under the tutelage of Gary, Rob Burns or myself, and were given input by us as well as church leaders from around Cardiff.There was a residential weekend early in the course as well One of my favourite little pastimes in Ignite is to keep track of previous Leadership Academy graduates and to see how they are contributing to the body of Christ. We have graduated over 80 students over the last 4 years, and it will be exciting to see what God has in store for the latest graduates. I pray that God will go with them and bless them, and that they will be a blessing.