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

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.

Working on the Stairwell

Hello,

My name is Dan Abramowitz and today my group spent the day fixing up the northwest stairwell at the World Impact building. I started off by scraping the gook off the stairs. As i began working my way down the steps I started talking to my friend Doug from Ridgeway Church. It made the work go faster, and we talked a lot throughout the project, i found out a lot about him, Alyssa, Suoz, and the other people in my group.

It was good because I’ve never talked to many of these people prior to the mission. John Munsinger was helpful too because he taught me what I was doing. My main motivations were slowly seeing how much the staircase improved and how I was serving the Kingdom of God in a small way, on the side knowing that if I got drafted I would probably need to know how not to be horrible at painting and mopping. At the end of the day I felt that we all got to know each other better, and it was a good start to the week, I hope i get to know the people in my group better as the week continues.