On July 13th Dan and I had the privilege of taking 10 of our High School and Middle School students to Kenosha, Wisconsin for a service trip! We were hosted by Group Mission Trips at Journey Church, whose school we stayed in for the week. Group Mission Trips offers two different trip experiences, Week of Hope and Workcamp. This year we participated in a Week of Hope trip which focuses on community service. The service site we were placed at was the Shalom Center, which offers shelter, hot meals, food distribution and other services for those in need. We served in their food pantry, packing boxes for distribution and sorting food donations.
The Shalom Center had a fantastic staff person, Teresa, who showed us what to do. As thorough as her tour was, many of our students felt like a ‘deer in headlights’ looking at the stacks of boxes and shelves piled with food. Fortunately, our students didn’t wait around long before quickly starting to sort shelves and ask questions when they were unsure about something. By the end of the week we had sorted through 3 pallets worth of donated food and completely reorganized all of their shelves, hoping to help them going forward.
As the week went on and our students became more familiar with the food pantry, I was impressed by their willingness to tackle new jobs. A few of our students had been organizing and bagging baked goods for distribution. As other hands became available, they did a great job showing their friends what was needed for each bag. Other students were packing ‘standard boxes’ which contain a specific set of foods for the distribution days. Our students were joined by another group of 3 students from another church who did a great job showing our students how to pack these boxes. Taking directions from other students isn’t always something that goes so smoothly so I was really pleased to see how well our students worked together. With the help of the other church, our students packed approximately 300 standard boxes for distribution on Wednesday and Friday.
We had morning and evening programming each day which used the acronym EQUIP to encourage our students in challenges they might face. EQUIP stood for Evaluate, Question, Understand, Improve and Proclaim. Along with a new word from the EQUIP acronym, each day we also learned about a new ‘tool’ for our ‘toolbox’ for dealing with difficulties in life. At the end of the week our students were given an EQUIP bracelet to help remind them to slow down and breathe, lean into their community and look to God and scripture as they face challenges. All week I saw these tools help our students get through moments of the trip where they were frustrated or tired. I pray that they will continue to be reminded of these tools as they face difficult moments in their lives.
Last year I remember a student asking me, “Why do we have to go so far to serve, why can’t we do that here?” I thought that was an excellent question because it is an important part of our call as Christians to serve one another and to care for those in our community. The reason we go so far away is to give our students a lasting memory that is centered around serving others. It is our goal to help nurture a faith in our students that is more than just Sunday morning worship or Sunday night youth group, but is present in them every day in how they live their lives. Our goal is for service to similarly be an everyday part of how they live out their faith. Taking a trip is not the exclusive moment where service happens, but it serves as a memory for our students to build off of. I pray that as our students continue to grow in their faith, that they will remember this week of service and seek out more opportunities to be a blessing to others.
–Tim Warner