2008 Youth Mission Trip

In June, eight youth and four adults from Saint Matthew participated in the Group Work Camps Foundation's 'Week of Hope' mission trip in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's one of a number of such mission trip camps run by Group each year. Our particular camp brought together sixty campers from four congregations from three states. The daily routine included opening worship, work at various agencies, schools, and homes, daily devotions, and evening worship. Participants also had a lot of fun.

Work campers had a great experience on this year's trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Please begin to pray now that all of our youth will have a tremendous experience of spiritual growth, commitment to service in Jesus' Name, and fun on the 2009 mission trip.

Group Workcamps, by the way, is a spinoff of Group Publishing, the company formed years ago by a Lutheran couple looking for educationally sound, attractive ways to teach Biblical truth to teens. As the years have gone on, their methods have been applied to people of all ages. Group Publishing are the creators of this year's Vacation Bible School curriculum at Saint Matthew, Power Lab.

Youth Mission Trip Dates and Site Set The dates and location for the youth group mission trip this summer have been set. We will be going to Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 15 to 20. Eight Saint Matthew young people and five adults are registered. Next year, hopefully, all of our young people can go! Please pray for our group as it prepares, asking God to deepen our faith through this experience. Pray too, please, that God will keep the group safe.

Pictured above is the Saint Matthew group. Each  day, they were put with people from the other  churches in work groups of which they were a part all week long.

Ask Hannah about her definition of tedium. It's bound to include as an example planting grass . . . one single
blade at a time!

Kylen and fellow crew members showing off the
muscles they developed from their service.

Becky strikes a pose with her crew. They put in a full week
at Mel Trotter Ministries.

Why is Garth Brooks sneering from Kylen's T-shirt?
Doesn't he like the color of paint she's using?

Our youth and adults were inspired by Potter's House.

They also worked very hard . . . including cleaning the entire building with paper towels!

Jesse, taking a break from his endless sorting,
shows how truly dangerous static cling can be.

Stephen on the job.

At the thrift store of Mel Trotter Ministries in Grand Rapids, a number of Saint Matthew mission trip campers joined their work crews in sorting through donated shoes, articles of clothing, sporting goods, toys, books, and other items. Literally thousands of shoes, each needing to be paired together with rubber bands and classified, were poured out of boxes where campers did the tedious work on the loading dock.

Mel Trotter Ministries, named for the man who in the early part of the century led it, helps people addicted to alcohol and drugs to get a new start in life. It's done in complete reliance on Jesus Christ.

You can learn more about Mel Trotter Ministries in the book, Man with a Mission: Mel Trotter and His Legacy for the Rescue Mission Movement.