Youth give week to community service
Witness to Service
I experienced The Church last night. A group of nearly 150 youth and adult sponsors representing 12 churches from across the conference have gathered in Jefferson City for a mission work camp experience this week.
My husband (District Superintendent Elmer Revelle) and I went to greet them and thank them for the work they were doing in the Mid-State District. As they closed their first day of service, I was privileged to worship with them and to hear their witness as they shared the experiences of their day. The youth shared stories of caring for children, feeding the homeless, work- ing at the Food Bank, painting, weeding, and building ramps. They laughed as they talked about waiting for supplies, working in the rain, being chased by wasps, painting and repainting, and a seem- ingly endless mound of cereal. Through the laughter, they movingly told how their individual experiences of helping others touched their lives and broadened their view of life. One of the older students said that she saw the face of God in the face of the woman who was so grateful for the ramp that was being built for her home. Well, I saw the face of God in the faces of each one of those young people. I have heard the expression that children and youth are the Church of the future, but I can testify from my experience last night that they are not the Church of the future, but indeed the Church of right now.
I am grateful to these young people for the witness they shared with me, the witness they are sharing with those receiving their help, and the witness they will continue to share as they serve God in the days ahead. I truly experienced The Church last night.
-Diana Revelle
Summer means service for hundreds of United Methodist youth across Missouri. July 5 through 9, about 100 youth came together in Jefferson City to participate in the Missouri Conference youth work camp that week, and work on projects in the surrounding community. They were part of about 1,150 youth and adult sponsors who are participating in Missouri Conference youth work camps this summer.
Having that many extra hands on deck can be a big boost to organizations in need of help. The youth were rehabbing one Habitat for Humanity home in Jefferson City, painting a new home that was next door to it, and doing foundation work on another that was just started across town.
Ron Hansen is a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and a member of Wesley UMC.
“We really appreciate having the youth come here this summer and help us out,” he said.
Just over the hill from the Habitat houses, youth were helping with children at a state-funded day care center for people who meet income guidelines.
“Playing, reading books, making bracelets, digging holes in the sand... you name it, they’ve done it,” said Mark Walker, youth director and worship leader from Ozark UMC. Ozark had five youth and two adults participating in the work camp. Walker went with the youth from the church to Kansas City and Colorado last year, and will go to Colorado again this year after the Jefferson City work camp.
“This gets the kids out of the house, away from the television, and puts them in service to communities. It teaches them to be more mission-minded,” Walker said. “The Conference trips work very well for us. Bev and her staff (the Conference Council Youth Ministries volunteers) are very well organized. It makes it easy for folks like us to just pick the date and go.”
John Birkhead, director of student ministries at Green Trails UMC in St. Louis, had a work team sorting and folding clothes at the Rainbow House in Columbia. He said their church is also sending two youth groups on two Conference youth work camps this year, like it did last year.
“We’ve doubled the number of youth we have participating in mission trips,” he said. “The Bible says to be in mission to Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. We start incoming sixth graders with a two-day mission in St. Louis, and build on that.”
Birkhead appreciates how the worship experiences at the Conference work camps are lead by CCYM.
“By having everything run by student volunteers, the youth can really relate to them,” he said.
For one Green Trails youth, Sam Irwin, this was her third mission trip. She also goes to camp each summer, and had just returned from camp at Blue Mountain in Southeast Missouri, which she attended with her older brother. He’s going on the youth work camp to Colorado this year. While Sam in doing community service projects around Jefferson City, her mother is part of a 16-person team from Green Trails that is volunteering in Mozambique.
“We were excited as we planned to be gone at the same time, serving people in different parts of the world,” she said.
“Knowing your helping others gives you a really good feeling.”
Fellow Green Trails youth Thomas Ziervogel said he had spent the morning at the Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center. He was weeding, something he doesn’t do at home.
“It was tiring, but we got a lot accomplished,” he said.
A group of half a dozen youth from Sikeston were across town working at the Agape House, doing maintenance on the landscaping and business. The house is a place for families to stay while they are visiting family members in prison. The youth were impressed with facility.
“It’s really cozy,” Crystal Sharp said. “It would feel like going to your grandma’s house.”
This was the first mission trip for Monica Ortiz of Avondale UMC in Kansas City. Her son Mateo Estrada was with her, but she was the one fired up about coming.
“I had to talk him into it. This is as much for me as it is for him,” she said.
Ortiz said the youth were enjoying fellowship and worship, and were learning a lot on the work experiences. On Wednesday her group was serving lunch at the Salvation Army.
“They were really pumped for this,” she said. “They did all of the shopping, cooking, serving and clean-up themselves.”
For more information about Conference youth activities, go to www.moumethodist.org/youth.
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