MOUNT VERNON, Ky. — Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) has partnered with a group of youth from 10 different LDS congregations in the Lexington area for the first time to serve in Rockcastle County. The youth conference consists of kids ages 14-18 doing various projects around CAP such as commodity distribution at Grateful Bread Food Pantry, preparing disaster relief bags on Williams St., sorting/steaming clothing donation for Grateful Threadz, and constructing ramps/benches at the housing barn in Mount Vernon. Once a year there is a conference like this to strengthen the kid’s faith in Christ, allowing the kids to build important friendships, and serve the larger community.
“Having this youth conference with 80-100 kids exposes them to tasks they can do in their community to help out
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Witnessing the youth give their time and effort to make sure that they finish each and every task they were assigned really showed their dedication and drive to helping people in need.
“I want to help change the lives of people in need, build relationships with my group members, and serving brings joy to my heart because I get to bring joy and peace to the lives of others,” said Waveney Brooks, a volunteer from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “This isn’t my first service trip, I have been on other service trips with my church like two years ago, and I went to Guatemala to help in their medical clinic and helped build a school.”
Grace Brooks, a volunteer from Tates Creek High School, expressed her impact on serving in Mount Vernon. “I just want to help people that are in need.” She helped her group as they put together ramps in the housing barn in Mount Vernon. Grace Brooks is the sister of Waveney Brooks, they both were a part of this service trip for the LDS youth
At church, in addition to my participation in the worship services, I volunteered at our church’s soup kitchen, medical camps and elementary school for underprivileged children. These experiences opened my eyes to the deprivation of love and care in the world and a dire need of God’s grace for people at large so they could receive forgiveness, healing and restoration in their lives.
Community Service is not strange to me because I have been doing community service at Northview Church since the beginning of my sophomore year in high school. When I saw the assignment that I have to complete 4 hours of community services, I knew that Northview church was my first choice. Northview church was found by Tommy Paino in October 1980. There were only 30 people in the cafeteria of Carmel Elementary School where they formed the church which later become Northview Church. Three years later, in the month of July, 1983. 285 people attended the last service at Carmel Elementary School, then they moved to the church’s new place which is located at 131st and Gray Road. In the late 1985, the church bought an 81-acre of land located at the highest point in Hamilton County on the southwest west corner of Main Street in the city of Carmel. This is the place the church is currently located at (“Northview Church History”). Throughout my service, I learned that the church’s mission is to connect people with God and connect people with people. They value relationships, spiritual growth, and the ability to reach out to those who are far from God.
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
Each of us will show we are leaders by being positive role models for these young people by showing them we genuinely care about them and their futures. We represent the service component by taking time to work in an organization that is in need of volunteers. We recognize that this is not a faith-based organization, but we chose to act on our individual faiths by doing God’s work and serving others. We will demonstrate the pillar of learning by working with children from different backgrounds than we grew up in. Also, we will encourage the children to learn through mentally stimulating activities in a fun
I knew my transition from an ordinary visitor to a volunteer would be a new and exciting experience. My task in the Summer Reading Program was to register patrons, explain how the program works, and give out prizes at the end of each week. The number of children who registered for the program impressed me. I enjoyed working with these children, since I knew exactly where they got their excitement from. I would look forward to seeing the smiling faces of the children as they received their prizes. Their faces made me reminisce about the joyful moments I had as a child when I couldn't wait for the grand prize week of the Summer Reading Program.
Dr. Anthony Jordan is the Executive Director-Treasurer of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO). The BGCO is a convention of 1813 Southern Baptist churches comprising of about 614,000 members. This organization’s purpose is to help the churches that are members of the convention spiritually, financially, and structurally. They provide a number of camps and conventions for people to attend and use. They also provide assistance in handling the business and professional aspect of a church’s ministry. One of the most popular camps that the BGCO puts on is Falls Creek Youth Camp where around 50,000 students attend over an 8 week period. Dr. Anthony Jordan has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Southwest Baptist University and a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (BGCO.com). He has been the Executive Director- Treasurer for the last nineteen years. Before he became the Executive Director-Treasurer, Dr. Jordan served as the lead pastor at Northwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City from 1982-1996 (ohbc.org). The members of the BGCO have been very positive about the way Dr. Jordan leads and structures the convention. In the rest of this paper, I will inform you of how Dr. Jordan handles ethical dilemmas, how the convention is structured and the culture surrounding it, and the leadership style and qualities that Dr. Jordan uses and exemplifies as he holds the position of Executive Director-Treasurer of the
Waves of people arrived with arms full of canned foods; I was simply amazed at the altruism and benevolence those people possessed. The groups of people formed a semicircle and the same coordinator who I was first introduced to earlier began speaking about the event. She proclaimed that the purpose of the event hosted today was to not only provide assistance to those in need today but for many years to come. She continued by giving her countless thanks to the groups who gave a helping hand and donated their time to the Jubilee Center, as well as the event. As I looked across the crowd of people, I noticed that there were some who were very young, some still in elementary school and others who appeared wise and sagacious. Despite the difference in age, there was one thing that grouped all the people there in common: they all shared a passion to support those in
Last year, I decided I wanted to make a larger impact in the world, so I decided to sign up for the Humanitarian Experience For Youth program. It was here I realized how blessed I have been and the depth of the passion I have for serving those less fortunate. During this 17-day service trip to Lima, Peru, I helped build a medical clinic in an area that lacked treatment for families. We built the walls with bricks and cement and I learned how to install rebar. I also helped local schoolteachers with their English program by volunteering in their classrooms twice a week. It was very rewarding to accomplish so much in so little time. The work was extremely exhausting, but I would do it again without hesitation. Because I’ve been the recipient of so much service, I want to always “pay it forward”.
Several years ago God moved upon the heart and mind of Bishop T.T. Scott, prelate of the Northern Mississippi Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, to make choice of Pastor Larry Lee Lewis Sr., to serve as the Jurisdictional Youth Department President. For 16 years, President Lewis led our department with dignity, class, vigor and great distinction. Not only has President
They are often intentionally forgotten and overlooked, but we were there to show them love and kindness in the sometimes discouraging and demeaning environment they live in, to remind them that their lives held value and meaning. This was the goal on our minds as the Westridge mission team and I drove up to the village of Sicangu located on the Rosebud Reservation near the southern border of South Dakota. My group was hosting a Bible sports camp for the children of the Sicangu Village on the Rosebud Reservation. The purpose was to teach them respect, integrity, and teamwork commonly illustrated in Bible stories, and then apply those values to the sports basketball, soccer, and ultimate frisbee. We were there to reach out to the children of the village and give them
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.
On May 29th, 2015 at about eight a.m., a group of eleven youth and three youth leaders from Fair Haven Baptist Church loaded into two vans and prepared for a twelve hour drive. Our destination was a new church located in the middle of a crime-packed, non-believing neighborhood in Sulfur Springs, Florida. For the week, we would partner with a missionary group called Hope Street. Our mission was to take flyers that advertised the local church and go door-to-door, inviting people to the grand opening, which would also be their Easter Sunday service. Little did I know of the huge impact Hope Street would make on the Sulfur Springs community.
Over the past two summers, I have ventured to different regions of Pennsylvania on mission trips with my church, First Parish Congregational Church. These mission trips are week long service projects set up by an organization called Group Mission Trips. This Organization sponsors mission trips all throughout the country, and I have had the privilege to attend two. My first in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 2014, and my second in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania last summer. Both of these mission trips provided plenty of opportunities to grow through service not only as a person but as a leader.
From that moment on, those kids made it my ultimate goal to bring light to this organization by expanding it each year and getting more people involved. Furthermore, my project is now recognized as a NonProfit Corporation
Children and adolescents are capable of impacting their communities and even the world in amazing