Published: June 24, 2006 02:45 pm            

Mission possible for Thorntown youth

Teens take trip to Texas to do work in God’s name

Editor’s note: Reporter correspondent Sarah Brindle recently traveled to Texas with a youth mission project. Following is a look back at that trip.

“God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” — Romans 8:28

Thirty neon green shirts portrayed just that message as the Thorntown Methodist Church youth group loaded up its vans and traveled to southern Texas for their fourth annual mission trip. I could not be any prouder to say that I am a part of this group. From May 29 to June 4, our youth group did reconstruction and roofing on a church in Mission, Texas.

“I think that the youth decided, probably a year ago, that returning to Mission, Texas, was the place God was calling them to,” said Laurie Potter, director of youth ministries. “Our contact in Texas, Dwayne Melton, came to us with an opportunity for some rebuilding and reconstruction on Templo Emanuel, a non-denominational Hispanic church outside of Mission.”

Templo Emanuel is a small church of about 15 members run by Tony and Elida Reyna, who basically fund the whole church by themselves. The couple began Templo Emanuel from scratch 15 years ago in a small room in Abram, Texas, but later moved the church to their hometown, Mission.

“We just wanted to talk to people about Jesus’ love and about salvation,” says Elida Reyna, the pastor’s wife. “At first all we had to have service at was a floor, no walls or a roof. I work selling tamales and other small jobs to buy stuff for our church. We eventually were able to afford walls, but still no roof.”

“It sort of looked like when you are little and you and your brothers built a little club house, where boards are thrown every which way, and not really connected,” says Gina Caldwell, a recent graduate of Western Boone.

Our job was not to tear down any of Templo Emanuel’s existing construction, because the members of that church worked hard and saved a lot to have what they had, but to build a more stable and safer roofing over it. Our work schedule was from 6 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and then from 6 to 8:30 p.m. We constructed sturdier walls, built and shingled a roof and created a small water drainage system. To accomplish this, we first had to raise $13,000 to cover building and traveling expenses.

“We usually start about a year in advance, planning our fund-raisers and events we are going to do to raise the money for the outreach mission,” says Potter. “We raise the money as a team, versus each individual having to raise so much by themselves on their own. We do various functions throughout the year, where the team raises the money. We are a team for Christ, and I feel that it’s very important that we remain a team even through fundraising.”

One thing I think is special about our youth group is the team work visible through what we do. We are a group of young adults ranging from junior high to college, all from different churches around the Thorntown area, combining into one community youth group that works as one to show God’s love.

“I’ve been working with the youth in this church for 25 years now,” says Potter. “It started out with just the Methodist kids, but people began bringing in their friends, and now, the neat part is, it’s become more of a community youth group,” she said, noting that the churches involved include Methodist Church, Thorntown Christian, Friends, Baptist, Dover Christian, Church of Christ, and Mounts Runn Baptist.

“The team really isn’t affiliated with any denomination, just kids wanting to do the work of God,” Potter said. “We’ve had just wonderful support from all the churches in the community.”

Along with the building project, we wanted to fellowship more to the community and incorporate a vacation Bible school for the area children. The first couple days we started out with about six or so children coming to the VBS. We would have them do crafts, Bible stories, some singing and learn memory verses. Then some younger high school students went door to door personally inviting any children to the VBS. The next day, we had more than 18 kids attending the Bible school.

“The children participating in the VBS would come up and ask if we were going to be there the next day and the next day to do the school for them,” says Potter. “So we talked to the pastor and coordinated that he and his daughter will meet every Wednesday at 10 in the morning to provide a Bible school for these children. This is brand new to them. The church really didn’t have any families from the community coming, so it’s definitely a good opportunity to reach out to them.”

“The vacation Bible school really touched our hearts,” said Caldwell. Just seeing the love they had for Jesus, it just really shown through them. It was really nice to see that.”

By the end of the week, many adults down in Mission were shocked at all that we accomplished. Sometimes it’s easy for people to underestimate us, but that’s what I personally love about our trips. We teenagers worked together and showed what God’s love can do and accomplish.

The team has been on three other outreach missions: a smaller one in Southern Indiana, a previous trip to Mission, Texas, where we built a house for a Hispanic family, and one to Haynes City, Fla., in which we landscaped a camp for terminally ill patients, and also did construction work, painting and sodding for Habitat for Humanity.

One of the most uplifting comments we heard was from a local man who assisted us with the building. “I was expecting 25 to 30 men to come here and work,” said Larry, a member of the Methodist Church in Mission. “I looked up and there are 25 to 30 girls and few men getting off that bus. I thought, ‘We are never going to get anything done.’ Well, I’ve never been so proven wrong in my life. You all have just amazed me by how hard you work, and all you’ve got done. I’m just blown away by you all.”

“It was such a blessing having you come,” said Reyna, as she stared at the improvements at her church. “It seemed like such a dream, but then you came. We are just so glad and thankful for God sending you. We just want to say thank you to every one of you, and to all the people back in Indiana for making this possible. Thank you and God bless you all.”

Each year you can barely get our youth group to reload the bus and come back home. It’s just such an amazing experience. It’s nothing you can describe unless you go. There is such a strong bond between everyone.

All the adults that accompany us are great and we all become a family the second we leave. The closeness you feel with God, the focus, and the knowledge that God is making this all possible for us to help those in need is an indescribable feeling that keeps every one of the youth team wanting to go again and again.

“I think all of these youth really present such a positive image of young people today,” says Potter. “Not only what they do down in Texas or wherever, but back in our community also. We do a lot here locally. What they do is a year-round process. This team of young people is a group of youth where every one of them is willing to pray. Every one of them is willing to give devotion. Every one of them is willing to share their faith with others. And I think that’s really neat. You don’t always hear that about teenagers today.”

        

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