16-year-old Charlotte Cassar was nominated for the Lundie Memorial Award by the minister of Petersfield and Liss United Reformed Church, Revd Josh Thomas. He described the wide-ranging contribution Charlotte makes to the Mission of God within her own church and overseas.
"Charlotte has been instrumental in the success of our ‘Youth Ukraine Mission’ team. For a number of years now, she and a group of our young people have accompanied the adult team of volunteers who serve two Ukrainian villages in the south of the country which border Hungary. These villages have suffered greatly from their historical position. They have been part of five different countries in the last century. Although some villagers can get permission to work in Hungary, most rely on subsistence farming for their livelihoods. They have different teams working to support the local ministers; running medical and dental clinics, a summer holiday club for children in school, and a youth and community team making pastoral visits to villagers. Charlotte has shown great enthusiasm and passion in her work with the school’s team and through this she has been able to share something of her Christian values with countless children and young people. As well as the impact she makes whilst she is on mission, she has also helped to encourage and inspire many other young people to consider taking part in the trip, which in turn enables these young people to discover and develop talents and gifts which they can use to the glory of God. All of this costs money and Charlotte is always front and centre when it comes to the fundraising for all of our young people. She has successfully helped to organise and execute a number of events for this purpose.
Away from the Ukraine mission, Charlotte is a key member of our church family. She is always willing to help out in any way she can. She regularly reads from the Bible, helps to welcome people to church, sings with the worship group, helps with the junior church and the creche to name but a few things. Despite having so many other things that take up her time, she is always enthusiastic and smiley and her faith really does shine through. The other children and young people in our church look up to her and I am sure that the way she embodies Christian service will inspire others to follow her lead. I cannot recommend her more strongly for this award."
We were in complete agreement with him. Another very worthy recipient of the award – we look forward to hearing more from Charlotte.