The forces
of death,
the gift
of life

The World Council of Churches in turn offered many young people a chance to be actively involved in international Christian service. By the end of the 1950s more than ten thousand youth from over 60 countries had spent time in one of the almost 400 ecumenical work camps organized in 47 countries by the WCC Youth Department.

The types of projects varied: building a refugee home in Germany, digging a sewage line through a kilometre of rocks and dirt for a Protestant school in France, clearing land for a children's playground in Japan. Over the years, the number of camps in Africa, Asia and Latin America grew significantly.

Encounters across cultures and confessions around a common task of reconstruction, rehabilitation or community service instilled in many young Christians a commitment to work for the unity and renewal of their churches. In a world where the threat of nuclear war created fear and uncertainty, this experience gave them a deeper awareness of their own social, economic and political responsibility.

Like many other WCC initiatives, the work camps illustrated the conviction expressed in the message of the Vancouver assembly in 1983:

We are astounded and surprised that the eternal purpose of God is persistently entrusted to ordinary people. That is the risk God takes. The forces of death are strong. The gift of life in Christ is stronger.