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The youth group at New Horizon has its members participate in a number of different group activities such as movie nights, retreats, and mission trips. The following are stories of their experiences.
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Watch out for flying flamingos. The youth group is raising money for their trip to Denver at the end of July. It costs $25 to flock a neighbor's or friend's yard. See a youth group member or Pastor Dave to place your order.
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Back in the end of March, the Conformation students and Youth group took a trip down to Chicago to visit two churches. The first church was very modern with a live band, a pool for baptism, and very contemporary music. It was a constant standing for the first half hour, but we were singing and maybe dancing a little (namely me). I had really enjoyed the church service and I could make connections with the sermon. The next service was the next day bright and early at eight in the morning, but the beginning of the service woke everyone right up. The choir was huge and sang beautifully. There were no hymnals only what peopled remembered. The sermon was loud, upbeat, and very interesting and it was never boring. I really enjoyed both services and each service had its own unique thing that made the service worthwhile to be there.
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My name is Alicia Gerlach and I am currently a member at New Horizon United Church of Christ. I went on a mission trip to Panama from January 1st through the 12th. I went with 18 other people from the church I go to at college in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. This trip was my first mission trip, my first plane ride and my first time out of the country. I would like to share with you about what I did on the trip and how much I enjoyed it.
Panama is a beautiful country. It has many rolling hills, and wonderful little villages. The weather was so hot (80’s all week, plus humidity). Our goal in Panama was to help five churches execute a great vacation bible school program.
On the Friday after we arrived, we worked with the vacation bible school teachers to organize all of the materials for the week. All of the teachers were excited to get booklet material because they were not used to having the luxury of pre-planned materials. Our group helped prepare for the vacation bible school by cutting out pieces of paper that children would need to glue onto paper throughout the week. In the afternoon on that Friday, we went to the Panama Canal. The boats were huge that went through the canal. I learned that these boats pay around one million dollars to pass through the canal!
On the Saturday after we arrived, we helped out with a leadership program for kids ages 10-15. It was great to see how interested these children are to learn about God and the bible. They had a great interest in learning.
On Sunday, our group drove halfway up a mountain/hill and climbed the rest to observe a view of Panama City. It was a gorgeous view. After the climb, we had a morning bible study. Then, we attended a church service in Spanish. After the service, we went to a church in Sorá. There, we were able to play soccer with some of the children from the Sunday school. They were very excited to play with older kids and just have more people to play with. Then after soccer, the pastor from the Sorá church told us a little bit about the church and the surrounding area. He said that Sorá used to be a farming area, but many people started to get jobs in construction because it paid more. So, now there are many houses surrounding the church, and it has grown into a quaint little village.
From Monday to Friday, our group helped with five different vacation bible school programs. We split our group in half – ten people went one way and nine people went the other way. My group first went to the church in Rio Rita. The vacation bible school program in Rio Rita was very organized. During the group time, Carlos (the leader) would talk about the story for the day. Then we would sing two or three songs. Even though Carlos was not that great of a singer, I was amazed at how he belted out the song and just sang with a passion that the kids really enjoyed. Then we would divide the children up by age groups. I worked with ages 6-8. This age group was taught by a guy about 16 or 17 years old. The children really listened well to him. It was very great to see young people help teach vacation bible school lessons.
In the afternoon on Monday through Friday, we helped with a vacation bible school program at a church in Loma Cova. When we reached Loma Cova, we saw at least 200 kids (I am not exaggerating)! Each day we would start as a large group, tell the story, and divide into smaller groups. At Loma Cova, my favorite thing to do was to just observe the children. Frequently, I would see an older brother or sister carrying around a younger brother or sister. I was shocked at how much siblings cared for each other. Some of the siblings would walk 15-20minutes hand in hand just to get to vacation bible school. I loved seeing the caring in the children’s eyes. It is amazing how young these kids are who are interested in God.
Here is a picture of me with some of the children at Loma Cova.
One thing I noticed about the children at the two Sunday school programs was that many of them, if not all, had clothing with English writing on them. Come to think of it, I don’t know if I saw any clothing with Spanish writing on it. I think I remember hearing that families buy palates of clothing that are second hand American clothing. They do this because it is cheaper than buying new clothes.
One thing I learned about the churches in Panama is their emphasis on children programs. The children programs are very important for churches to grow. Another thing they emphasize is to take projects away from the pastor and be able to assign them to other people in the church – this gets people more involved and allows the pastor to work on other things.
One thing I learned about myself is that I am actually a really shy person. In the group I went with, I usually kept quiet and just listened to conversations. However, over the course of the trip I did feel like I got to know some people a lot better than before the trip. When I interacted with the children, I was a lot less shy. It was easy for me to open up to many little kids because they just came up to you and said hi. The children loved to use my camera to take pictures. I also played “ring around the rosy” and “London Bridges Falling Down” with the children. I also learned a train song in Spanish that the children loved doing. The children at Loma Cova even once dragged me inside to have me dance with them. It was really sweet. They would follow my every move. I felt happy being able to have them excited to see me every day. I was really sad the day we had to leave.
Throughout the week, our group met some missionaries that were in Panama. One night, we had a good discussion about a couple of different things. Jack, a missionary, told his story about how he came into his faith about four years ago. I got to tell the story of how New Horizon came to exist. Everyone listening was really excited to hear about church growth like ours. We also discussed different denominations since there were a few people from different denominations. We didn’t discuss how one was better than another, but instead we focused on the fact that we all believe Jesus is God’s Son and He died for our sins. We talked about how each denomination just is a different way to worship God, and each denomination has good things, but none are perfect. This discussion was probably one of my favorite events on the trip. In the discussion, I also realized that I didn’t go on the mission trip in order to get into heaven; I went on this mission trip to serve the Lord and share His word and love with others.
I want to thank all of you who made this trip possible. I want to thank you for your prayers of support. I really enjoyed being able to help demonstrate God’s love in front of the children. I feel as though they’ve helped me see that love can be shared even through a language barrier. I ask that you continue to pray for mission trips to continue all over the world to expand God’s love.
May God’s peace be with you,
Alicia Gerlach
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