Spring Break Mission Trip to NYC - Clover Sites

[Pages:2]APRIL 3, 2011

Spring Break Mission Trip to NYC

On Sunday, March 27, four students joined Jennifer and I on an adventure, devoting a week of service to the people of New York City. Three of the students were freshmen (Andrew DeShane, Blayne Salerni, and Julia Hagemeyer), and one was a graduate student (Zach Bond).

NYC is the largest city in the United States, with over eight million people. Did you know that 1-in-20 NYC residents have experienced homelessness at one point in their lives? Each night, over 38,000 homeless individuals sleep in the NYC shelter system. This includes more than 16,000 children. Thousands more sleep on city streets and in other public places.

The six of us were blessed to stay at Manhattan Church of Christ's building a few blocks form Central Park. The main objectives of our short-term mission trip were to grow closer to God and one another through the experience, and help Christian organizations do what they do. With an eternal perspective in mind, we wanted to plant seeds of God's love and truth!

The week was packed with lots of different projects and opportunities. We woke up at 5:30am most mornings in order to catch the subway to volunteer at a Christian rescue mission called St. Paul's House. Our work there varied from leading worship songs and sharing a Bible message, to serving breakfast and cleaning up afterwards. One day we stayed late to run the food & clothing bank.

From there, we took the subway to volunteer with a faith-based after-school program called Operation Exodus Inner City, Inc. The 80 children we worked with were predominately from the Dominican Republic. From 2 to 6:30pm we helped tutor kids and supervise them at the park. One day, Julia shared a Power Point presentation about her college experience. Afterward, our group was in charge of the chapel service. Andrew, Zach and Blayne jumped on stage where there were guitars, drums and microphones, and led some fun praise songs, accompanied by Jennifer and Julia's hand motions. Then Jennifer shared an interacted Bible lesson about gratitude from the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. We wanted to honor the staff and encourage the children to be thankful for them and for all of God's provisions.

On another day, we were privileged to tour the very first Teen Challenge, located in Brooklyn. This organization was started in the 1950's to help people overcome addictions and learn about Christ. Now, Teen Challenge has ministries in thousands of locations across the world! It was inspiring for us to hear the personal testimonies of several people who graduated from the program with transformed lives. It was our pleasure to help them prepare packets for their upcoming banquet of 500 guests.

In between these projects, we did quite a bit of work around the church building of the congregation that hosted us. We assembled shelves, cleaned off soot from the library walls, reorganized the room used for their homeless ministry, hauled broken furniture out to the curb for bulk trash day, and stuffed envelopes for Easter invitations. Suffice it to say, they said we can come back!

Last but not least, we brought some origami paper with us and folded cranes for a fundraiser for disaster relief in Japan. This was in partnership with the English Language Institute at the University of Delaware, and World Vision.

Amidst this activity, we did manage to get a little sleep, have some personal devotional time and enjoy the city along the way. Our traveling from point A to point B, took us to many neat places such as Manhattan, Brooklyn, Harlem, and The Bronx; Time Square, China Town, and Central Park. We especially loved trying new foods and listening to the diverse musicians performing in the subways.

We even had a spare hour to visit a wonderful non-profit organization called International Arts Movement. You can read more about this unique organization on their website: .

We want to thank Greg Romano for giving us a lift to the bus station in Wilmington Sunday morning, and Darrell Swanson for picking us up Friday night. We also want to thank the Delaware Christian Campus Ministry Foundation and all those who partner with DCCMF as donors. It is a blessing to have funds available to help students participate in mission trip like this!

I want to personally thank my wife Jennifer for all her hard work, helping me prepare for the trip. And I want to thank the team of students who joined us. I'm proud of them for so many reasons. Even though we were up early in the mornings, out late at nights, sleeping on the floor, getting lost on the subways in cold temperatures, the students never complained. They were flexible, and maintained positive Christlike attitudes. All in all, the Lord surpassed our expectations, and we'll cherish this experience for a long time!

Tyler Ellis, Campus Minister

(302) 766-3003 / btylerellis@ / BTylerEllis

Blue Hens for Christ

/ BlueHensForChrist / ParadigmUD

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