Work Missions: Pass It On

Our first youth work mission planning meeting for trip 2007 is next Sunday at our church. I’m looking forward to it more than I anticipated I would be. And that gets me wondering why I get excited about a trip to an underprivileged area for a week of work with a bunch of teenagers, one of whom is my recalcitrant daughter. What’s funny is she’s looking forward to it as well. All the kids get into it. They come again year after year through high school and college and end up as adult volunteers because they’re connected with the vision, with the project.

It began with someone who had a vision and took action on it. Ten years ago, Reverend Jan Yandel, then pastor at Berea United Methodist church, wanted to go on a mission. Her church was a place of mission work, a place where people in the suburbs went to help out, and she wanted to take the missionary spirit out of Cleveland to another place. She would pass it on. The ever-widening rays were going to get even wider.

That first youth mission trip took 42 people to the Badlands of North Dakota from several United Methodist churches, including my church. The group grew year by year, ever-widening, and churches broke off and new churches of smaller groups were added.

Now there are several youth work mission trips that began with that one vision. Dr. Yandel used her experiences in putting together youth work mission trips as the basis for her doctoral dissertation. It’s “The Book” Ken Delfing of North Olmsted United Methodist Church uses every year when he plans the next trip. This year Ken led seventy-two missionaries from North Olmsted, Independence, and Cove United Methodist Churches on a trip to Oak Hill, West Virginia.

I was on that trip. I was on last year’s trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well. I’m one of the newer adult volunteers. Many of us give up a week of vacation year after year because we see the youth, ages 13 to 22 and beyond, grow. Their “magical growth experience” takes them away from their friends, from sports practice and summer camp, from hanging out at the pool, and from television. It takes them out of their element. It takes us adults out of their element as well.

These trips are complicated, but Ken, using “The Book,” has it down to a science. We give control of the mission to the youth. The trip is born in December with the first monthly meeting, and by the February meeting a choice of location has been made. Committees are formed to deal with travel, worship, entertainment, food, and publicity. Tool bins are stocked, 15-passenger vans are rented, and inquiries are made. A reconnaissance group makes a trip to the chosen sight to meet with the local volunteer coordinator, our host church and pastor, to gather information. We want to know the need, assess the amount of work that can be done, the sleeping arrangements, the kitchen, and the entertainment options.

This past summer, we drove nine vehicles divided into travel teams. We were equipped with adult drivers, six to seven youth per car, bags of chips, money for lunch and gas, first aid kits, paper bags and markers to create W.O.E. (Words of Encouragement) bags, and markers to decorate the outside of the vans. The worship committee provided us with a CD of music and the travel team gave us detailed directions. We were van 6 and we were in a travel group of vans 4, 5, and 6.

I can’t tell you why I like the trip so much. I give up my life for a week and do what people tell me to do and go where they tell me to go, just making sure my work crew puts a roof on a house, clears rubbish from a moldy basement, or builds a strong porch while remaining safe and happy. I enjoy the thoughtful, nurturing people—the adults and youth engage in meaningful conversation while they work and during evening recreation time. I feel good about helping people who can’t help themselves. I’m inspired by people like the pastor of the church who wants to make sure his work crew is comfortable and by the local volunteers who give up their time to coordinate work and supplies. I can explore a new town and discover how the people live and what’s meaningful to them; it’s often different than what I know.

The work reports are fun. We learn what the kids got out of the day by how they present the report—some are more upbeat than others. Jingles, poems, weather reports, skits, and pictures are all part of the show. We laugh, we relax, we are amazed. The devotions, also organized and conducted by the youth, center us on why we’re where we are—even while there, I need reminders of my Faith.

People ask me about the trip. I tell them about the people we helped, the work we did, and how great the kids are. I tell them I get a chance to live differently. All my roles fall away and I live in the moment. Up on that roof, I felt God soothing away my cares, telling me it was going to be all right—He was not going to let me fall from the roof. I came home with two gold coins to pass on, and I passed them on to deserving outsiders and continue to pass on the attitude of that week throughout my year in my daily life.

When I was in Oak Hill, I found out about other mission trips and was fascinated by how many mission workers cross through that town every summer. I also found out about other trips in the area organized by different organizations, and I felt... a desire to do something different than our annual youth mission trip. Last week my husband and I looked at Sierra Club work outings, including clearing of invasive plants on the California coastline near San Francisco. Today I spoke to our minister’s pastor about her mission trip to Illinois to make desks and other items to be shipped to desolate places.

There are many ways to pass it on.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com
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