news-record.com

Young missionaries from Jamestown United Methodist Church held daily vacation Bible school on the sidewalks of an inner-city neighborhood in Philadelphia.

“Every day we’d drive off in our two church vans into some of the most downtrodden and poverty-stricken neighborhoods in America,” said chaperone Michael Bunch. “A map, Bibles and a lot of prayer is all we had in most cases.”

Eight groups of three, including one adult and two students, took to the concrete mission fields, recruiting participants from the young people they came across. The members of the high school youth group sang, helped the children learn Bible verses, told Bible stories, played games and had snacks at the end. Children were given prizes for daily attendance and learning their Bible verses.

Housed at Calvary Episcopal Church, the young people slept on inflatable mattresses — and with the church mouse. Each evening they shared the day’s events, telling who touched their life and whose life they were able to touch.

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“One experience that lives in my heart is when I ‘signed’ the word ‘God’ in sign language to a young man who is deaf; he immediately knew the universal language of God. Everyday he would sign to me to ask when we were coming back to teach the Word. This experience taught me that no matter how it is said, ‘God is Good!’

“We also worked at the Mary Jane Home, a transitional living facility, distributing free clothes and lunches to those in need, and with MANNA, a nonprofit that makes specially designed meals for AIDS patients and other sickly patients. We volunteered with Philabundance, the region’s largest food bank and hunger relief organization, and we mass-divided unbelievable amounts of food to be given to people in need.”

— Lucy Kennedy, freshman, Ragsdale High School

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“A few people have asked me upon my return from our mission trip what it was like to go work with them, or they, or those people. And I have had to respond that therein lies the problem.

“There is no they. We are all the same in God’s eyes, whatever our circumstances may be, and it is unfortunate that it took this long for myself and some others to realize that. So the main thing I have learned is to be very slow to judge and very quick to accept someone with love.”

— Ian Snelgrove, senior, High Point Central High School

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“At the end of the week, we had touched 235 students, with 20 of them giving their life to the Lord. Our youth loved on these children, and it was extremely hard to leave them knowing that we would never see them again. Needless to say, there were plenty of tears and hugs when we left.”

— Rachel Ruth, chaperone and assistant for church and youth ministries

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"The part of the trip that touched me the most was the interaction with the young kids who grew up with poverty and the violence around them. What I brought back from Philly is a better understanding of homeless and poverty-stricken people. It was an experience getting to know what they have to go through daily. It made me value what I have and makes me more thankful.”

— Austin McGugan, junior, Ragsdale High School