In early June, Scott Bradley was in a group trimming bushes for a Minnesota woman who’d undergone a recent shoulder replacement.
That same week, Riley Watt was helping at a food pantry in the same area. She and another teen returned carts for people who visited so that after choosing their groceries, they could also sit down for a meal and go look over available shoes.
A group of youth from Brookville Road Community Church in New Palestine traveled earlier this month to Minneapolis, where the team helped out at several community ministries.
Arriving there June 1 and returning June 7, the team lodged at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church. People of the church served team members breakfast and supper, and sometimes lunch, amid their week of going into the community for various acts of service. The congregation prayed for the team during services as the week began.
“We are so excited,” Derek Broten, Beautiful Savior’s pastor of mission and ministry, said during the June 2 traditional service, viewable online. “Thank you for giving up your weeks, your vacation and the things you have, to go and to love on our community.”
Holly Power remembers the day such love looked like weeding a garden at Hospitality House, a ministry that offers homework help, a snack and after-school care for children. Other students washed ministry vans; some helped set up computers. There was also time to play kickball and soccer with the children.
Another day, Riley and the rest of the group were packaging food at Good in the ‘Hood before people came for food pantry hours. The church-launched center offers a week’s groceries, basic foot care, youth programs and referrals to other resources.
The New Palestine group ended up staying beyond the packaging and through distribution, interacting with young families, older adults and others who came. Holly was intrigued to hear some of their stories.
“It was really interesting and eye-opening to see all the different situations they were in,” she said.
Several team members talked about moments that were enlightening or even stretching on the trip. For some of them, one that stood out was riding a monorail loop on a Sunday afternoon, offering “Jesus Loves You” bracelets and rubber duckies to fellow passengers and offering to pray with them.
Scott said most people were receptive to receiving a bracelet, many of the prayer requests people shared were for health issues, and a few people turned them down.
Dan Kleiman wondered if an argument in his monorail car was going to escalate, but he and other team members were quietly praying.
“It was a little scary, but I know that God was with us,” said Dan, an incoming senior at New Palestine High School.
Lucas Holmes said he was also out of his comfort zone on the ride and yet found it a point of learning.
He thought of a mission trip he’d gone on last year, to North Carolina. While that team met people who needed some material help, such as food, “I would say they were well-founded … really good Christians,” he said.
This year, it felt sometimes like people’s physical needs were accompanied by other needs, such as struggles with addiction, or spiritual needs. Yet he saw some of the other team members, “having these conversations with these people, telling them Jesus loved them,” he said, and he pondered how Jesus would spend time.
“He didn’t spend it with people he was comfortable with,” said Lucas, an incoming NPHS sophomore. “He spent it with people that everyone viewed as lower, but still he loved them. …
“Really, that experience has challenged me to get out of my comfort zone every day this summer. I have been spreading Jesus more freely to people I meet just randomly.”
While team members talked about growing outward, in helping and interacting with those they went to serve, they also told of inner growth, both in their personal spiritual journeys and in their rapport with other youth on the team.
“Life is about God,” Dan said. “It’s not about me … and it’s always been about God.”
“This is a great way to take our next step in our faith,” said Riley, an incoming sophomore at NPHS. “It was just a great opportunity to do that.”
Scott, an incoming eighth-grader at New Palestine Junior High School, said he knew a couple of teammates well but many others not as much. “I got to know a few of them better over the trip, … we actually have hung out together after the trip.”
“We were able to get a variety of things done,” said Holly, a homeschooled student going into her junior year. “I think it impacted us just as much as we impacted the community there.”
