Youth Mission Committee begins!

“The youth mission committee held its first meeting about a week and a half ago, and we covered quite a lot of ground.  The group had some old faces and new (including myself).  The first meeting of the season started off slowly, not too many people were showing up.  After a quick snack break however (which took place about five minutes into the meeting), we were energized and ready to make some progress.

During the meeting we discussed everything having to do with missions.  One of the things we focused on was how our youth group could do missions work in our own communities, in our schools, in the area.  We really want to bring to life the idea that we should be trying to further God’s kingdom as we are going about our daily business.  We shouldn’t just set certain times to be on God’s mission, for example the big trip over the summer, but we should be doing God’s mission every day. To more frequently be working on God’s missions we need more opportunity than the one trip each summer gives us, we need to arrange service events all year long, and the big mission trip will be the exclamation mark.

Much of the time in this meeting was used for brainstorming.  We came up with ideas and developed them, and we took one or two ideas each to look into and discuss in our next meeting.  Some of the things we talked about were collecting cans to recycle and donate the money to charity (which charity?)  We discussed this as well but didn’t come up with a definite conclusion), helping out the salvation army, working with senior citizens and children, holding a youth group sort of event in the park, and many others.

We also discussed the big mission trip that changed the lives of everyone who went this past summer, and the one coming up.  Of course we did not go into specifics, but we made a pros and cons list (although coming up with cons was hard) and developed some ideas about it.

The student run meeting was very successful; we got a lot done.  Our favorite youth pastor, Dan Haugh, unfortunately could not make it that night, but we handled the situation like adults and ran the meeting by ourselves (teenagers? Acting like adults!? No way!)  I must mention that we couldn’t have done it without Sarah Esselborn’s gift of leadership.  She’s experienced in missions ministry with the church, and she did a great job going through the meeting and guiding the discussion.

- Suoz“

Trip recap and link to pics and video presentation

 

Newark mission trip video

Click on the above link to watch the video presentation that was shown at the worship services at BCC this past weekend.

You can also check out my facebook page for a 200 picture photo album of our trip compiled from 5 different cameras.

Our trip was a wonderful experience as 45 students and adults from 3 churches in Westchester County NY traveled down to Newark, NJ to bless that city.

We worked hard on big and small projects, visited people and churches, fed the homeless, ran sports outreaches in the community, shared God’s love with people in parks, organized a Vacation Bible Club at two locations, and did everything for the Love of God.

Some of the work seemed monotonous and times, but our students realized that everything we do matters to God and we are to work at every task as if we were doing it for Jesus. This mindset completely transformed our projects into worship experiences.  We did not need to know the outcome of our work or receive recognition for we knew that God was smiling upon us.

We did our best to bring joy, laughter, and hope to the people in this forgotten city.  We served wherever a need or opportunity came up and were willing to scrub pots if it helped make someones life easier. 

Our interactions and conversations with people were all Spirit driven and lead.   While we hoped to be a blessing, the people of Newark blessed us in so many ways.   

Of course we realized that “the harvest is full but the workers are few”.  There is so much to still be done in this city.  While we were able to finish some of the projects we worked on, others remained uncompleted for who knows how long.  In addition, it is not hard to look around the community and see hundreds of needs (physically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually).  Many of our students left wondering what an additional week could have accomplished.  Some left making a promised to return to continue the work we began.  

We hope that we left a lasting mark on the city of Newark, the missionaries of World Impact, and the people between Sussex and Orange Ave.  We also hope that this experience will challenge and inspire us to look around more closely in our home communities to find similar needs.  While Newark is fairly close geographically to all 3 churches, there are cities and communities in need much closer.  What will we do about those?

From a youth pastor perspective, it was amazing to watch 3 youth groups come together and work towards common goals.  We laughed, prayed, played, and sweat together for a week in Newark and I believe bonded beyond expectations.  John Bagwell of Ridgeway Alliance and Dave Stradling of Hillside Church lead their ministries with common ideologies and vision as I do.  I appreciate their friendship and fellowship and look forward to joining together more often and bring our groups together to make an impact and difference here in Westchester.

We had the privledge of seeing our students at their very best.  Their attitudes were great, displaying humility, servanthood,, compassion, and love.  They loved God and loved others by serving God and serving others.  They worked at whatever they were doing for the glory of God.  In many ways, our students inspired and challenged us to come back home and continue to live as missionaries; be the hands, feet, and mouth of Jesus.  

“Lord, may we continue to do that things we did down in Newark.  Give us a vision and passion for our home cities and communities and use us to bring hope, healing, and salvation here just as you did through us down there.”

In Jesus,

Dan Haugh, Pastor of Student Ministries  BCC Youth

Photo album Newark Mission trip 09

The culmination of a week serving God

So, we are now back home, exhausted and emptied, however, everything was poured out for the people of Newark as we served, loved and shared out lives with them all week. From serving in soup kitchens to painting stairs and fences to cleaning out an overstuffed garage, the week was filled with God’s power and love over our team and Newark. This was my first trip as a leader. After 4 years as a student, I understand how most of this works and what to expect. However, my perspective on things and what I garnered from this trip was far different as a leader, an adult responsible for 7 other people. It was truly a blessing to watch my kids grow over the week and get to know them more and more. God has definitely blessed this youth group as well as Hillside and Ridgeway youth groups with some amazing kids. Everyone stepped up and did what they were asked without complaining or difficulty. Along with partnering with the other leaders and working with them, it was great to learn about the kids in my group, the kids that I was in charge of and worked with everyday. It definitely taught me a valuable lesson in setting an example and constantly being aware of what I do and say. While we are called to do this constantly for non-Christians we encounter, so as to actively reflect and exemplify the character of God, I was compelled all the more to be the kind of leader and person these kids needed. While it would have been easier to not work as hard and simply delegate work to the kids, I was pushed to work even harder so as to be the best example possible for my team. 

While this week was not perfect and at times I wasn’t happy with what we were doing, I was forced to suck it up and do it, to do it as though I was serving God. That was a big step for me this week. Often when I don’t see a specific purpose or significant worth in the work I have to do I can really slack or just do the minimum. However, this week I was pressed to change my perspective and even the work I didn’t enjoy or didn’t feel worthwhile I did to serve God. I feel God really worked in me as a leader so as to be an example to my kids. There are many things that I took away from this week, most more personal. I got a different perspective on different areas of my life where I have been struggling and God opened my eyes to areas He wanted me to work on. I’m not a real emotional person and often times I feel that emotional reactions and responses aren’t very deep and don’t last long. This week however, God spoke to me reasonably and didn’t break me down emotionally but quietly revealed to me what He was working on and I was able to evaluate these areas calmly and rationally and not only make a commitment to change but I saw the process of why and how to change as I made this decision. Because of this I am much more excited and confident going forward that I can maintain this change. I understand my reflection is not terribly focused but its really been a culmination of many different things throughout this week that have made this week as great and impactful as it was. So I thank God for the work He has done and how He works, that its not always a big event or moment but when a bunch of little events and epiphanies accumulate, the impact is still equally profound. 

All in all what I take away from this great week, beyond the time spent with God and the great times had, is that this is a great group of kids who came together and got along and worked as well as I’ve ever seen, that God can work in any circumstances, even when they don’t seem significant and just another affirmation that on the missions field is where I am supposed to be. I thank you all or your attention and your support, it’s all been very helpful. So my final thought to leave you with is that no matter what you are doing or where you are doing it, its important and it matters. That whomever we serve, it is done unto the creator of us all. And that extra little work, that extra effort, that nobody may notice or nobody on this earth may ever acknowledge, God knows it and will acknowledge it and that makes it worth doing.    

Eric Urschel

ATL what is God telling you.

Today my group (group E) had ATL meaning ask the Lord. We had to pray for 15 minutes and what ever was on your mind you can do that. So while I was praying I just was thinking about working in the garage. Working in the garage means painting and moving stuff around. Also I wanted to do Evangelism because I didn’t really have a good time the first time i did it. So I wanted to leave the week with a good attitude on Evangelism.

So I was waiting to do garage work when Kim told me they had room for me on the Evangelism outing. I was a little nerves, but i was excited. We got to the park and split into 2 groups. I enjoyed it so much I got to talk to many people, My group talked to many Christians which was great knowing that they are many Christians in Newark. My group was looking around the park to see who to talk to. Bill the person in charge of my group said, “Let’s talk to those people.” I really didn’t want to talk to them because they looked busy. We talked to them we talked for a long time. I think we talked for 30-40 minutes. Not sure about how long we talked, but pretty long. I enjoyed my self the 2 hours we had evangelizing went by so quickly that it felt like only 45 minutes.

I enjoyed my self so much.

Sincerely

Lydia Davis

free water anyone?

Today my group went to Branch Brook Park and handed out free water bottles to those who wanted. Many people gladly accepted them and allowed us to share our faith with them. One man was definitely interested in our message and promised the leader that he would contact World Impact to follow up and discuss some questions he had. I really enjoyed this experience and felt that I bonded even more with the other students in my group.  We probably handed out 30 bottles and almost all of them listened to our message and we were able to pray with about 15 people in the park today.   Today challenged my faith because we had to memorize a five part outline for salvation to share with others.  It made me step out of my comfortable zone, even though I am naturally an outgoing person.  I hope that I will be able to do similar things back home in White Plains and be able to share from the Bible with both friends and strangers.

This afternoon, our group did A.T.L (Ask the Lord)    Funny story.  When we were praying and asking God to give us direction for the afternoon, I fell asleep and had a crazy dream.  I was sparring in the garage with Jackie Chan up on the painting scaffolding.  He did a crazy karate chop and knocked me off and I fell.  Soon as I fell, I woke up and my leader ask us to talk about what we prayed about.  So I figured I was supposed to go to the garage to work!!!!  And I turned out that many of the other group members had similar answers of wanting to go to the garage and help out there.  In the garage we moved another section of furniture and items and started to prepare the walls for priming and painting.   I was definitely tired but just being with everybody and having the fellowship with people helped give me strength and not fool around.  We had so much to do and got so much accomplished today and it felt really good.        

God Bless,

Tyler Owen, Ridgeway Alliance

Life in the Promise Land

          Yesterday i was reading in our devotional book called The Edge and God put something on my heart during that time that i wanted to share. The devotional was about Joshua and when God appointed him to lead the Israelites into the Promise Land following the death of Moses. I could imagine Joshua standing on the edge of the promise land and looking over it all scared, nervous and maybe even anxious, but he had full faith in God and was so trusting in how God was going to lead him and use him for His good. 

          So as I read this yesterday, God kept putting on my heart how he has a Promise Land for every single one of us. We just have to continue praying and asking him to reveal it to us. And just as he revealed this to Joshua, God is going to reveal our promise land to us. This was especially on target for my life. This whole past year i have been praying and asking God what he wants me to do when i finish high school. As i enter my senior year in the fall and begin to apply to colleges, i feel that God has begun to show me the promise land that he has in store for me and it looks so truly wonderful. Similar to Joshua though i am scared and anxious, but i am all trusting in the Lord for the plans He has for me. God has a promise land for every one of us, and it is through our faith and devotion that he will reveal it to us.

          Now for me, the promise land is guidance for my future, but the promise land could even be a situation in our groups here where we are just designed by God to use our talents in a specific manner to bless his people here in Newark. The key though is to be like Joshua; we must have full faith and trust that God is going to lead us to the right place, and through that faith, he absolutely will. 

         Please continue to pray for our final days of ministry here. We have seen God in some amazing ways already, and cannot wait to see him work in Newark more. Pray for continued strength and that we will be able to be a light for God here in this amazing city. 

-Sarah Esselborn

Group D- Report for the week so far…

First of all Group D would like to thank those back home who are supporting us and please continue to pray for us. Group D is comprised of 2 leaders and several youth from different churches: Jon Bagwell from Ridgeway and Claudia Palacios from Bedford. Isaac and Alexej from Hillside, Haley from Bedford, and Kyra and Lila from Ridgeway.

On Sunday, we went to Cornerstone church for our Sunday service. The speaker that day was the president of World Impact, which is the organisation we are working with. He told us the story of how World Impact began and even mentioned the place we are staying at, an old school turned into an inner-city outreach center. After that, the 3 youth groups went to the park to play with some kids. We took a LONG walk to get to the park. Once there we all got into a circle and did a big group prayer. After we split up Haley went to draw with chalk,and give out princess stickers.Her and some other kids made a large hopscotch. While Claudia used her Spanish to talk to some of the children’s mothers about VBC (vacation bible club).Lila enjoyed playing soccer and blowing bubbles. Kyra played baseball with some of the kids,and Isaac and Alexej played some frisbee. Afterwards we split into several groups and went around the city inviting people to come to Vacation Bible <i>Club</i> . Afterwords we enjoyed a hearty meal and a good night’s sleep.

On Monday we had to wake up early to make breakfast. We were the pioneers of the kitchen! We got there and had to find everything. There was NOT much food there. We found eggs and four loafs of bread. Kyra and Lila made toast in the oven. We had three types of cereal. Claudia and I (haley) made the eggs in the pans, After Alexej and Isaac cracked them into the bowl. John got the pans out of the holders and helped us get the eggs into the pan and out on the table to be served. Like every morning we have a devotion time after breakfast for about a half hour. Then we get to work, on Monday we cleaned the garage in the morning and did evangelism in the afternoon. The garage in a MESS there is stuff everywhere and the lady Louise who is talking care of it wants to turn it into a thrift store and a food pantry. So as of Monday we were cleaning out half of it to be able to scrape off the old paint and repaint it. There was everything in that place, from tanks of oil to golf clubs you name and it was in there. It was a big mess but it was fun as well. After lunch we went with Dave and Kim to do evangelism in the park. Dave does a magic show in which he explains the bible and how to become and be a good christian. At the end we pray and ask if anyone would like to dedicate their life to Jesus and we had about 8 kids raise their hands. Then we talked with some people.It was a amazing day.

On Tuesday, we had fence duty all day. Luckily the group before us had already scratched off the rust so all we had to do was paint. we had buckets of thick black paint. It looked and felt like tar. We used latex gloves but there was really nothing you could do to get away from the paint. It was a VERY messy job. Alexej and Lila were on the scaffolding. It took us a while to finish but it looked good in the end, although we dropped paint on the sidewalk which was what we were trying to avoid the whole afternoon. We had to get some of the clothes from the garage and use this oil stuff that we basically bathed in ourselves to get the paint off. We had to pour it on the sidewalk and we were all scrubbing the sidewalk. We all got paint in our hair and all over our legs and arms. Lila and Kyra wrote their names in the paint on their legs. Which they regretted much later when they were showering. All in all it was a fun day and our group really bonded.

 

Today- We had garage all day and the good will food pantry. We were in the garage today scraping the old paint off the walls and repainting the walls and ceiling. Lila and myself (haley) were on the scaffolding all day doing the celling. Kyra also joined us doing the celling.  Alexej and Isaac  were scraping and painting, they also pushed us on the scaffolding. Also some of the group went to the GoodWill rescue mission and served food.   Goodwill Rescue Mission

Tommorow we have VBC (vacation bible club) we are all looking foward to seeing the kids and seeing what god has in store for us the rest of the week.

- Haley, Claudia, Alexej,Lila,Kyra,Isaac, John.

sledgehammers and a new kind of coaching

Today I got to do what many youth pastors dream of…smashing things up into tiny pieces with big sledgehammers. Okay, perhaps only I used to daydream of that while sitting in seminary classes!

My work crew continued the massive makeover of the garage project and my task was to remove the old heating cast iron pipes. Ralph Adrien was a big help with the hammer as well as we removed an entire wall of pipes and prepared them for cleaning and painting. My ears rang with the loud noises and my arms are still a bit sore, but it was fun!

In the afternoon, I had a real privilege of taking two BCC baseball players to help run a baseball clinic for 20 inner city kids between 10-14 years old. Jeff Smith and Liam Wheeler did an excellent job of doing drills and throwing batting practice. We then helped run a 5 inning exhibition game. I have been coaching modified baseball at John Jay in Cross River for six years, but never have a felt a sense of pride, gratitude, and fulfillment as when I was with these children, most of whom cannot afford their own bats or gloves.

A special moment occurred when Liam shared his testimony with the boys about how baseball and Jesus saved his life and gave him hope when he was battling his cancer. Watching Liam stand on the pitchers mound and share what Christ has done and means to him was powerful, and my favorite sport and passion of baseball brought all of these things together today. I am grateful for this unique opportunity called Word on the Mound provided to us by the great programs of World Impact, but also feel saddened wishing that I could spend the same amount of time with these guys as I do with my team back home. I wonder what kind of development (physically and spiritually) would occur with that kind of dedication and involvement.
Dan Haugh

Third full day in sunny Newark

Today ends my third full day in sunny Newark. Interestingly, Bill spoke in our meeting that the name of Newark was originally meant as New Ark, a city of the new Covenant with God. This related back to my morning devotions. Firstly let me speak about the roof, which has become a special place, at least for my church group. You know, Newark may seem street by street a gang infested, satan filled hellhole; but if you look at it from a higher perspective, it really is beautiful. I guess that is how God sees it. But back to my morning devotion, I had it up there in the sun with one of  my best friends Zach. I have been reading Romans, a strong book of the Bible that has great ability to build you up spiritually. Reading chapter 8, about the Spirit controlled mind, God was laying on my heart the fact that we hardly ever take time out of our day to confer with God. He was speaking to me that even though sin begins in the heart, the very potential for sinful desires comes from an imperfect mind. Just imagine when the city of Newark was first founded, the high hopes of the first settlers, and how quickly it fell into despair. Its the same with our own lives. I was also reading that we cannot please God until our minds are controlled by His Spirit. But once they are, we will be called His sons. That devotional had a powerful impact on me, and I highly recommend to anyone that they take time to talk with God and get filled with his word.

Our team was in the garage sweating it for the afternoon. We got started on the painting, which was really exciting after having so much fun moving the stuff out of the garage the day before.  We had some time to bond, and I was grateful to God that the druggies across the street at the deli were giving us respect. In the morning, we went to the park to do some evangelism for children. Our evangelism leader Dave did a great job with his gospel magic show, trying to give the kids teaching on the gospel. We had at least a dozen kids and sme of the mothers pray a prayer of dedication to Christ, and I pray that the seed was planted for their future in the Church. This trip overall has just been a great bonding time for me, I’ve gotten so much tighter with guys in my church, and I’ve met a few people too. What I hope is that God will use this trip to show me what He wants for my future, because I’m approaching a huge junction in my life, begining college. I want to come back more on fire for God and more passionate than I have ever been before.

                                                                                                                                                                                                       -William Ebertz with Ridgeway Alliance Church

Turning black and white

Yesterday and today, our group worked in the Garage. The garage job is unbelievable to me because yesterday we were the first ones to start working in the garage so we had to move all the old items, or “treasures” as Mark liked to call them, because of all the stuff we uncovered (including old clothing, records, hats, fridges, sinks, and more). After moving all of the old furniture, I used a very shaky, old latter as others used a scaffolding to chip off the paint already on the ceiling while more people chipped off the paint on the walls. I had a lot of fun chipping the paint off the ceiling, even though its not a very exciting job I guess compared to VBS or something, but I guess no matter what I enjoy doing the Lord’s work =).

God really gave me the strength to keep going even when I was tired, and time really flew. Even though God made my hands strong enough to keep chipping away the paint, the downside was that I managed to get several (over 10) splinters in which the next day Lorin had to remove all of them (or most of them) with a needle and tweezers. In the end though I realized it was all worth it, I mean I don’t regret working in the garage. Today we did some more chipping, my hands bandaged for protection, and we started priming the room. In the process, people have loved to tease me about how dirty I got. Some say I changed nationalities, with black dirt/dust all over my face from the dust on the ceiling lights, and white priming paint all over my body and clothes. Good ting I don’t mind getting a little dirty! The reason why I enjoy the garage is because I can really see that all of my hard work pay off, even when our team wanted to give up we kept going and the garage looks great, and I then believe that it’s truly worth it. I’ve also had some great bonding time with our team with all the joking and fun that we make out of it. I’ve made some new friends, and connected more with previous ones, and am learning more and more every day and this experience is really awesome. My first missions trip is going well!

-Kayla Staubi