Washington D.C. Service Trip

A group of 20 youth and 8 adults participated in a service trip to Washington DC from Sunday, February 19th to Thursday, February 23rd 2012. As part of the trip down, they spent the night at Great Wolf Lodge in Pennsylvania. There they enjoyed a very fun time at the indoor water park.

On Monday they arrived in Washington D.C. and stayed at the Center for Student Missions. The Center for Student Missions provides opportunities for urban missions and service experiences for youth by providing a place to stay and coordinating logistics for service opportunities.

On Tuesday, half the group left at 5:30am to serve food to the homeless. The other half of the group spent the morning hours serving low income senior citizens with dementia and Alzheimer’s in a charitable adult day care facility. In the afternoon they all worked with two different after-school programs. On Wednesday, the groups switched assignments. In addition to these service times, the group had daily devotions on the topic of the the riches of the good news of Jesus and how is applies to “serving our neighbors”.

Before driving home on Thursday, the group toured the Capitol Building, including a visit to both the House and Senate Chambers, compliments of our congressional delegation from New Hampshire.

The time of service in the nation’s capitol was a real eye-opener and growth opportunity for everyone. The youth were surprised both by the extent of the need and by how much they enjoyed interacting with those in need. Moreover, the times together as a group, debriefing and considering a gospel-perspective on our service events, were quite encouraging. It was so much fun to hear the kids describe their experiences to one another and very encouraging to see how attentively they listened to an explanation of the gospel in the midst of these times.

On the Sunday after they returned, some of the adults and students shared reflections on their trip. You can listen to what they shared here.