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St.
Peter’s Evangelical UCC, Ferguson
Youth Mission Trip 2007
The youth group from St. Peter’s Evangelical
UCC, Ferguson, participated in the F.A.S.T. mission trip in
Alderson, West Virginia on July 8 – 14. F.A.S.T. is an acronym
for Faithful Advocates Serving Together, which is a joint ministry
of the UCC and Disciples of Christ denominations. Our work
included replacing windows and doors, roofing, replacing a
ceiling, minor electrical work, and other odds and ends. A
highlight was helping one family move back into their home after
living under a makeshift shelter on their own property for several
weeks. Our group consisted of 4 adult leaders and 19 high school
youth.
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Peace UCC, Hartsburg
Friedens UCC, Brazito
This year our youth went on their first Mission Trip. We were
joined by youth from Friedens UCC in Brazito and St. John’s UCC in
Billingsville. We went to Denver, where we served the homeless and
low income families through the DOOR program, a Mennonite youth
mission organization. As one of our youth, Brett, said, “If the
whole world could experience for five minutes what they experience
daily no one would ever take the life they have for granted ever
again.” We are opening our next youth mission trip to all
Mid-Missouri UCC youth. Call the church for details. 573-657-9414
Photo's on the right are:
The boy with the elderly woman is Tyler, from St. John's UCC,
Billingsville. He is packing food at a food pantry.
The boy who is with a small Hispanic boy in a yellow shirt is
Timothy from Peace UCC. He is helping a little boy learn English.
The group of kids are our youth playing red rover with the
children in a summer literacy program during a break.
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Peace UCC, Hartsburg
Men of Peace
Inspired by the help we received after the flood of 1993, the men
of Peace UCC Hartsburg have been going out disaster relief mission
trips twice a year since 1995. This September they traveled to
southeastern Missouri to help a family that had lost its home
twice to tornadoes and then was the victim of an unscrupulous
contractor. They have recruited other churches to join them,
including Central UCC, Jefferson City, and St. John’s,
Springfield. Statistics of our men’s service:
•22,006 miles logged
•6,962 volunteer hours
•$139,240 volunteer labor @ $20/hour
•Cost to provide that labor $8,869 or $1.47/hour
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St. Peter's UCC, Kansas City, MO
Dylan Pisechko (17), Andrew Pisechko (14), and Ministry Associate
Howie Howard traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to spend the week
building houses for local families in conjunction with Amor
Ministries (www.amor.org). The three joined a team of over one
hundred high school students and adult participants from Wayzata
Community Church of Wayzata, MN. They plan to return, with friends
in tow, in June 2008.
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Ivy Chapel UCC,
Chesterfield
Ivy Chapel's Sr. High youth traveled to Pensacola, FL this summer.
We worked on two hurricane damaged homes . At the first home we
were confronted by moldy carpets and walls, broken furniture and
appliances and several years worth of accumulated slime. Wearing
masks & gloves, our youth ripped out the moldy carpet, threw out
trash, tore out old walls and helped drywall new ones, washed,
primed and painted existing walls, hung ceiling tile, along with
general cleaning of the home. They made new friends, found joy in
helping others, and discovered great meaning in being God's hands
in the world.
pictured at right:
Erin Lowry & Alex Glenn from Ivy Chapel UCC begin clean-up of a
hurricane damaged home in Pensacola, FL. (Photographer - Linda
Lowry)
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First Congregational
UCC, Webster Groves
This summer, Ezekiel’s Wheel, the junior high youth Group at First
Congregational Church of Webster Groves, went on an in-town
mission experience. It was intended to give us a sense of what a
mission trip would be like, without moving too far away from home.
Although we the kids helped to plan which places we would
visit, we still had little knowledge of what was in store for us.
We started out by just learning what the week would be like.
Everyday we would go somewhere, cook dinner together, have free
time, shower at the YMCA and have a worship service. We crammed a
lot of stuff into the time we spent together, so I’ll just share
some of my highlights of the trip.
One thing I really enjoyed doing was visiting Lydia’s House, a
place designed to help abused women and children get back on their
feet. I liked this because it was interesting to learn about
Lydia’s House and
how they helped their clients. But what really
surprised me was how nice the apartments were for the families.
Each one was so well done and the decorating was gorgeous, that it
made me glad to see that the clients were well on their way to
recovery by receiving the right support from Lydia’s House.
Another thing I enjoyed was visiting Kindercottage day care. After
practicing our puppet play several times it was nice to see that
the cute little 3 and 4 year olds enjoyed watching it. Working
with them in small groups, helping them to make their own sock
puppets was very fulfilling. But what really made me smile was
hearing them all sing to “This Little Light of Mine” as we
performed our puppet show. I know I speak for me and the rest of
Ezekiel’s Wheel when I say that hearing them sing really made us
feel a connection with them.
Similar to the experience I had at Kindercottage, we also
performed our play at Dignity House. Although we performed our
play and made sock puppets with older kids, 5 to 7 year olds, I
could still feel like I was making a difference in their lives
when I could see them smile with pride from admiring their own
puppet creations.
Overall, the thing that touched me the most was just being able to
learn and participate in some of the things going on in our city
to help those in need. Aside from working with cute little kids
and seeing inspirational works of others, my favorite aspect of
the trip was probably getting to know some of the people in the
group better then I had known them before. When you are away from
your home and regular schedule, you start to miss your own life. I
did, but having peers who were going through the same thing as me
was very comforting. The “Mission Experience” was a time of
inspiration, learning, stress, and appreciation, and I think we
all learned a lot.
By Kara Hoganson
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