Truth Corps began in 1970 when a four person team went to Panama and has continued to be a moving experience for many brothers and sisters ever since. My first experience was with a visit of team of five much younger brothers and sisters to Panama. I was involved with Truth Corps for the next twenty years. Since that time, Truth Corps teams have visited ecclesias in Canada and the US as well as Panama, Jamaica and Mexico. I don’t know how many ecclesias have hosted Truth Corps since 1970, but without doubt they have benefitted from their experience. Of the hundreds of brothers and sisters who have gone on Truth Corps, many have had their lives greatly impacted from their experience. Truth Corps continues to benefit ecclesias and Christadelphian youth to this day.
Truth Corps began as a program to support ecclesias in their preaching efforts and it has done that. But it helped more than in the immediate preaching support; it increased the focus of the ecclesia on preaching and reaching out to their local communities. In addition, an unexpected benefit of Truth Corps has been in the spiritual growth of the team members. A brother mentioned to me, that after observing a Truth Corps team member upon his return, it seemed to cause five years of spiritual growth in him during that summer. When the members returned from their Truth Corps experience, they were different. They had spent a summer living in close contact with others, sharing in the household duties and putting up with inconveniences in a crowded house, and spending a good part of each day in generating and visiting contacts with the standard Truth Corps flip-chart presentation and other kinds of preaching activities. Add to this the close and intimate discussion of their experiences together as a team. While this was a new experience for them, it motivated them to undertake new and different activities when they returned to their home ecclesias. This is the long term effect of Truth Corps. Local CYC’s began to take on new dimensions, new leadership emerged, more young teachers began to shine, and prayers became more focused and meaningful. Preaching activities became a bigger part of ecclesial life. Many former Truth Corps team members have become more involved in ecclesial work. More than a few have become recording brothers of their ecclesia. It is not unusual for former Truth Corps members to be teachers at Bible Schools.
In my sixty plus years in the Truth, I have seen two events that have profoundly affected the brotherhood. One is the establishment of Bible Schools and the other is the Truth Corps. I have been richly blessed to be a part of the latter.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One