Western PA Youth Mission Service Changes Lives

Send Email

Hundreds of United Methodist youth from across Western PA are helping others and building relationships this summer on mission work teams serving in the region, other parts of the United States and abroad.

Some are part of teams formed in their local church. Others join Conference Volunteers in Mission teams or participate in the Youth Ministry Team's weeklong uth4Missions event in Johnstown or Mission Discovery, Mission Adventure and Mission Expedition -- part of the Western PA Cooperative School of Christian Mission held at Grove City College.

Many large and medium-sized churches and smaller congregations send youth or multi-generational volunteer teams to work outside their communities each summer. This year, for example, a delegation of 66 youth and advisers from Christ UMC in Bethel Park spent the last week of July working with Project Chacocente in Nicaragua.The Project takes families who were living on the town dump in Managua, gives them a safe place to stay and acquire the skills needed to create a better life. Various teams cleared fields, laid a cement floor at an auditorium, played with children, helped construct a home and performed other tasks. Groups posted photos and information on a blog each day so church members could follow their work. Visit www.cumcfaithforward2009.org.

Earlier in the summer, a multigenerational team from Highlands Community UMC traveled by train to the Four Corners area of New Mexico, where they repaired homes and soaked in Navajo and southwestern culture. Their pastor, the Rev. Bill Starr, posted reports on his blog, www.chcumc.org.

Many church teams work with organizations like the Appalachia Service Project (ASP) [www.asphome.org], UM Heart in Hand Ministry in Philippi,WV, [www.heartandhandhouse.org], or Pittsburgh Project [www.pittsburghproject.org]. Others make their own arrangements.

Conference Volunteers in Mission Director Diane Miller said she doesn't have a solid number of how many youth and young adults are involved in hands-on mission work this summer. "It could be over a thousand. Many churches don’t tell me about their teams, especially if they work through other organizations. They may not consider themselves Volunteers in Mission, but if they are doing something for someone else because they feel called by God to volunteer, then they are!"

Traveling as a group to work together in Christ's name helps strengthen relationships among church members, builds connections with unchurched volunteers who go with the group and creates friendships that can last a lifetime.

High school student Christi Fagella was part of the ASP team from McMurray Guyan Valley, WV, in July. The church sends about 40 youth and adults to ASP each year. "I really saw how lucky we are and how much we take for granted," she told her congregation. "I've started to look at some things differently. And I really got to know other people from our church, not just the youth." Miller said the response is typical.

"Often youth return home changed people," she said. "They appreciate what they have. They are more sensitive to conspicuous consumption and waste. They are ready to commit their lives to serving Christ in new ways."

As an example, she mentioned Bekah Swineford from First UMC in Bradford who was one of seven youth and young adults among the 27 volunteers on the Conference VIM trip to Paraguay last year. Returning home, Bekah decided to put off studies at Asbury College to volunteer with the Chacocente Project in Nicaragua. This summer, she's a General Board of Global Ministries intern working with the homeless at Rising Hope UMC in Alexandria,VA. Swineford's blog at www.risinghopeintern.blogspot.com contains inspiring reflections on her experience.

 Zion UMC in Sarver sends many youth and young adults on mission trips. Three of their college students went with the Conference VIM team to Alaska in the summer of 2007. Miller said one of them, Amy Shick, took VIM leader training at the School of Mission, joined the Christmas 2008 VIM trip to Russia, and led a team of women from her church to work at Mission Central in Mechanicsburg this year.

Another young adult from the group, Gabe Gehenio is an electrician. He served as an individual volunteer in Dulac, LA, over a college break, worked evenings on electrical work at the United Methodist Habitat House last year and taught tool and job site safety during the VIM Leader training in May 2009.

Howard Rhodes of First UMC in Clarion is a contractor who sets up a VIM experience every year to work on a Habitat for Humanity house."He schedules it right after school is out so youth can be part of the team," Miller said. "Over the years, those youth have acquired construction skills, bonded with the adults they work alongside, and have become an integral part of mission teams,"Miller said.

At some churches, youth who have served on mission work teams volunteer year after year, taking vacation time from jobs in other cities as young adults or bringing their own children when they are old enough.

It's one way that United Methodists of all ages build relationships and pass on the love of God.

As Starr put it in his blog about the Central Highlands mission team: "In a day when 'going to church' seems to be enough for many, we have 37 people who 'are' the church -- missionaries who have come to Shiprock, NM, for two weeks, to try to share the Gospel of Christ by our words and deeds."

To learn more about mission/VIM opportunities, watch this site, www.wpaumc.org.