The youth group recently traveled to the city of Carlisle, Ohio to partner with The Village Church of Carlisle and serve alongside them for the week. During the week the group spent the mornings helping the church during the kids club at the park. Students helped with groups and ran games. During this time they were able to build relationships with the kids while going through stations such as recreation, Bible, crafts, and snack. They were challenged this week to be very intentional in sharing the Gospel with students and they went above and beyond what was asked of them. Many in our group were pushed out of their comfort zone because of the sharing but that didn’t stop them! In total, we had fifty Gospel conversations, six of which came on Friday while we were at the amusement park and talking with people while waiting in line. It was great to see their efforts in several different areas of the kids club serving and sharing!
In the afternoons during the week, the group served several different ways in the area. They helped out at the church’s ministry center advertising and offering a free car wash two days of the week and helping prepare rooms for painting and other general clean up. We also helped with Headstart, which is a preschool in the area. They are currently switching into a new building so the students helped paint rooms, move tools around to help with those fixing and performing maintenance for the building, power washing the building, pulling weeds, and taking care of larger trash that needed to be carried. And the last company they partnered with was Alistrong which is a resale store where people can come shop and offer a price for different things like clothes, shoes or other household items or they also help those who aren’t able to afford clothes and allow them to come to pick up things every couple weeks. So the students helped sort through clothes, organize, paint, as well as other general building maintenance. During the afternoon time of service, the students did a great job working hard and serving the different ministries in the area.
Overall, the week was a great time of seeing students stretched and pushed out of their comfort zone, becoming leaders and ministering to the younger students around them. We had great attitudes, especially later on in the week as we were running on little sleep. They had very busy days and they continued to serve and continued to stay patient, helpful and upbeat as a group. We are very thankful for the group that went and served and are proud of their efforts during the week and willingness to serve.