Twenty-nine Moniteau County residents returned with a sharper commitment to faith after a week-long group mission trip.
The group left for East Lake, West Virginia, on June 24 to participate in a trip dedicated to community and service to others.
Participants met at St. Paul's Evangelical Church in Jamestown, where 23 youths and six adult chaperones prepared for their mission. Ben Marshall, St. Paul's Evangelical board vice president, said he, his wife Kim, and Seth Rohrbach coordinated this event as part of the Jamestown Community Youth Group.
"We call it the 'community youth group,' because...even though St. Paul's Evangelical Church kind of houses it or that's where we meet, it's opened up really any youth. Any high school youth that we'd like to come. Whether it's from Jamestown or surrounding communities," Marshall said. "We do have some kids from California that come over, as well. And we actually had three kids from California to join us on the mission trip."
Marshall said the group went to multiple locations throughout the trip. The first two stops included Ark Encounter in Williamsburg, Kentucky, where missionaries got to see a replica of Noah's Ark, and Gateway Christian Church in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, where they stayed the night and received prayer from the congregation during morning worship service. When the group got to their location, they set up camp at East Lake middle school gym and almost immediately started their mission.
"It's called the 'work-group mission' where we are doing painting or building decks, replacing the siding, re-roofing. So it's a lot of manual labor, and we do that for five days on the actual mission trip itself," Marshall said.
Participants are divided up into groups where they are partnered with members from different churches and youth groups. The mission trip to East Lake, West Virginia, is part of a larger effort with churches across the nation. According to Marshall, the trip ultimately had 36 crews, 26 work sites and 221 total participants, including youths and chaperones.
"There was a lot of building decks, replacing decks, wheelchair ramps, that kind of stuff. We typically do a lot of painting, whether it's painting a full house or a shed or something like that, and we had some crews do that. This time, compared to other (trips) that we've been on, there was a lot of woodwork using drills, saws and chop saws," Marshall said. "But the group work missions, they provide what they call a 'site coach.' It's somebody that oversees the project. If there's somebody that...stumbles or has a question, then we get to work directly with our site coach who might come and kind of explain it, and then you're able to jump back into it."
Marshall said the purpose of the mission trip is to bring youths in their communities closer to God as well as open up their eyes to parts of the United States where people are not as fortunate. He said that built into each mission is a theme that inspires youths. This year's theme is "forged," as in "forging steel." The idea behind this year's theme is to build an attitude and belief to "have the hope of the Lord in you." Each day the mission trip highlights a smaller theme related to "Forged," such as hope, suffering and character.
"Thursday night, whenever we got done, we asked the question who would want to go on another mission trip and everybody raised their hand because they truly felt that they a purpose and were just truly growing in their faith," Marshall said. "It was a really good experience."
After spending a few evenings in the gym of East Lake middle school, youths finally got to pack up and prepare for the journey home. They returned on July 1 with a renewed sense of service. Marshall said Moniteau County stepped up to its support for the mission trip.
"There was over $20,000 raised between the Jamestown, California and Prairie Home communities. So there wasn't just one community. It wasn't just one church. It was a true collective. A Moniteau County effort," Marshall said. "From the Jamestown Community Youth Group to everybody in the county, we just truly appreciate the support. Not only financially but the prayers that were being sent out and the donation of tools and just everything. We can't do what we do unless we have the support of the community."