Our Lady Of La Vang Parish

For 17 years God has blessed me to serve alongside my husband as directors of Chi Alpha at the University of Texas at Arlington. During my time here, I have served and mentored hundreds of young women and internationals who now fulfill the mission of Chi Alpha in the marketplace and the world as pastors, missionaries, police officers, nurses, teachers, and social workers. I am especially thankful to walk with those students who came to faith, experienced discipleship, and the Holy Spirit empowered their lives through the ministry.

Our goal is to help out in the freedom school in Mount Zion Methodist Church in Longdale. With a lot of courage and inspiration, I couldn’t wait. However, when I reached the church, I entered a comprehensive state of shock; I couldn’t believe my eyes. The freedom school was burned down. As a devoted Christian, I couldn’t believe that someone would burn down a church, the place of God! I stood there

In August of 2011 I was blessed to become the small group leader of fifteen high school freshman girls. Each one of my fifteen girls had a face and each of those faces had a story to tell. In Grace Baptist Church 's Youth Ministry, small groups are the primary way that we connect with our students. The mission of our small groups are to create a safe and welcoming environment where the students can grow in their relationships with Jesus and each other. In order to accomplish these goals I am responsible for mentoring my group of girls on a weekly basis. I meet with them twice a week for two hours at a time. By starting with this group of young women as freshman in high school and continuing with them through their senior year I was able to form trustworthy bonds with each one of them. During my second year as a leader one of my girls, we will

Throughout the past four years I have had the fortunate pleasure to immerse myself in many extracurricular activities; however, one service project has truly changed my high school experience for the better. The summer before my sophomore year I volunteered as a teacher aide for my local parish's religious education classes. A month before the classes began I received a call from the administrator asking if I would work one-on-one with a third-grade boy with special needs. As a fifteen-year-old, I had very little experience working with children with autism; however, with the help of the young boy's former instructor and the administrator, I felt reassured that I had the ability to help this young boy who was so eager to learn about his faith.

I serve as a Pastoral Intern at the Evanston Vineyard Church, a non-denominational church and is located at 2495 Howard Street, Evanston, IL. This is my second year serving here in the capacity of an intern. The Vineyard is a diverse community that welcomes both religious and secular people belonging to different ethnic, racial, cultural, linguistic, economic, academic, professional and non-professional backgrounds. People from more than fifty–fivenations of the world gather together and worship here at the church. A total of twelve salaried pastors serve on staff, out of which five are male and seven female. I am one of two female pastoral interns presently in service.

This quarter our small group chose the Coats 4 Kids organization. We were searching for an organization that involves kids, but it was very challenging to find something that worked for us. It was a challenge to find an organization that involved babysitting or tutoring or playing with kids. Some organization that we wanted to work with were, Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, Boys and Girls Club, Ronald McDonald House and various elementary schools. But every single organization required background checks and an extensive registration process. Eventually we choose KXLY's Coats 4 Kids. This organization was very important for me because coats are a necessity for every child. One day I was driving past an elementary school and I saw kids walking out of the school, many of them either had no coats or their coats were not zipped upped. This made me sad that so many kids were walking out into the cold with no coats. If a child doesn't have a good coat for the winter, it turns into a domino effect. They could get sick and then that would mean doctor visits. Every child deserves a coat during the winter.

For my service hours, I volunteered at St. John’s Vacation Bible School. Vacation Bible School took place in the basement of St. John’s Catholic Church during the week of June 15 - 19th. It was actually four days long because on Tuesday night the basement flooded, so Wednesday class was cancelled. I volunteered alone, but made many friends that week. The reason I volunteered for Vacation Bible School is because Mrs. Bronder told me about it and I was interested in doing it. This was my second summer volunteering at Vacation Bible School; the summer before I volunteered at LCC’s Vacation Bible School. The theme this year was Hometown Nazareth. The groups were named after the twelve tribes of Israel and the activities were based on what Jesus

Every year, my church puts on a Vacation Bible School program to reach out to children in our community and to help them learn more about God. I attended this program as a child and grew to look up to my leaders. Once I entered high school, I began helping to lead the Vacation Bible Schooler’s, teaching them songs, helping them make arts and crafts, and most importantly teaching them about the love

As a teen growing up in a small town I’ve worked and volunteered at many places gaining different experiences quickly. However, the most memorable and special experience I’ve had was at Greenwood Court a division of Tri-County Mennonite Homes after spending a semester as a co-op student and eventually working as a full-time employee. Greenwood Court is located in my hometown Stratford and is well known for providing residents and their families with “a place to call home”. While at Greenwood Court I was impacted by their values and beliefs, hands on teaching which eventually changed my career plans and the relationships I made with both staff and residents.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “ Life’s most persistent ad urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others’?” Returning to Spring Arbor after Detroit made me want to serve my time even more. I was so impressed by the amount of students that rallied up for the cause of serving. I had the privilege of going to the Ganton retirement home in Spring Arbor. I met a beautiful woman named Pearl; it was a privilege to do her nails while I spoke with her about her life. Pearl was gentle, precious, and a blessing to my life. I hate to admit at first I wasn’t super excited to cute and polish someone else’s nails, but the second I reminded myself that Pearl is a reflection of Christ I joyfully painted her nails. The entire experience at the nursing

It was during that visit to the school that I had an experience that I walked away from with such a strong appreciation for and that truly served to foster and enhance the faith community. The school had hallways that were filled with representations of how they celebrate the Catholic faith, however the one that stood out for me was one that I noticed the first day, in the front hall when you first walk in the doors. Walking into the school, I glanced at what looked to be colored tablecloths or quilts displayed on tables in the hallways. Each table had signs on them that had short prayer and a name of a single individual or group of people. I thought it was just a nice welcome for our team, a thoughtful touch. As the day continued and I spent time wandering around the school noticed students of different ages, stopping at the tables. I initially decided that they were just reading the signs or enjoying looking at the tablecloths, but later I would learn what they were really

Family Ministry is essential to family’s spiritual growth because it is more than activities or programs it is a lifestyle. I am excited to implement the lessons from this class in my church and throughout my personal ministry to individuals. Being that my church worships as one congregation, everyone is in the sanctuary and we try to practice Family Equipping Ministry, we have to begin to explore how we can engage members to connect beyond age groups. Conversations with parents are a starting point. Hopefully these conversations with parents will identify the comfort level that the parents have in the role of being their children’s spiritual counselor. My church’s role will continue to be the counsel parents need and the reminder that perfection in their spiritual life is not needed to assist their children in spiritual growth. Implementing the term intergenerational into our worship and events will also be a task that I will bring to my pastor. I will explain that we need to unify the congregation and connect our members. An ongoing focus that must not be lost is our church growing God’s kingdom and we will use our community resources to implement programs at our church in the future. I look forward to making the elders aware of the community programs that can be implemented in our church that will assist us in Family Ministry. The Family Ministry

When I showed up to one of the Sunday’s meetings, I felt welcomed straight from the beginning, even without knowing anyone yet. Then, after talking to several people, it was easy to notice that hospitality was one of the fundamental virtues of this community. The church values relationships and sees evangelism, discipleship, and the missional engagement as an extension of friendship with God, with each other, and with people outside of the church walls. The existing missional focus of the community is to reach out to young adults from different cultural backgrounds. It is commendable that the church values racial diversity and aims to develop a sense of belonging for everyone.

Furthermore, before the completion of my NYSC I volunteered with a non profit organisation called “....” this mission of the non profit was to reach out to women and children in the rural area. I was part of the team for that year that initiated, planned and executed the objective of the organisation in a village in Kogi state, Nigeria. We were to reach out, see to the needs of over people in the aspect of providing basic social amenities and we did a thorough follow up afterwards.

Against the attacks on Christian life, against the prevailing lack of commitment to anything beyond material gain in contemporary culture, against the confusion and relativism of post-modernism, the unrestrained struggle for wealth and pleasure of the global culture preached by the media, we can place before the eyes of the young a role model of commitment to Christ and to his Gospel. We can invoke the intercession of a 17-year-old native Filipino to pray for, inspire and lead young people to a new understanding and love for Christ and his way, to a willingness to give witness to what the Gospel teaches, to a readiness by a young person to give his life for Christ and his Church.