Meeting Jesus

The following is a testimony of a youth leader who experienced SERVE in Toronto last summer.

This was the first SERVE experience this group of youth group kids ever had and it was such an amazing experience! We brought a bunch of country kids to the big city, and while none of them are planning on moving any time soon, they embraced the experience and learned so much from it!

I loved the many ways that we learned about homelessness and that homelessness is not just a result of laziness.

The best part was our nightly worship. I’ve been on a handful of trips like this, and the worship can be pretty awkward, which it was the first couple of nights, but then it just all clicked and I truly believe we met with Jesus every night during those times of worship.

Just recently one of my youth group girls was talking about the letter she wrote herself and how it made her cry when she received it in the mail. I asked her what she had written to herself. She said that she’s always believed she was a Christian, but Toronto SERVE was the first time she encountered Jesus.

Thank you to Toronto SERVE for providing opportunities and experiences for us all to met with Jesus that week!

Forever Changed

The following is a testimony of a student who experienced SERVE in Gallatin Valley, Montana in 2016, which forever changed her life.

Gallatin Valley SERVE 2016 showed me what it’s like to be a true Christian. Through my experience at SERVE, I was able to deepen my relationship with Christ by giving Him complete control of my life during the message that took place at the day at the lake.

My life is now forever changed. Christ is taking me places I could never go on my own. SERVE helped me realize God’s calling for my life. I am now planning on attending a Christian college in pursuit of a degree in youth ministry. I am also going on a six week mission trip to Southeast Asia this summer.

Thank you so much for forever changing my life! God bless!

Coffee and Life

It’s the Month of May, Sip, Sip, Hooray!
Have you ordered your SERVE 2017 Authentic Community blend coffee yet? Share some community with others when you SERVE this specialty blend from our friends at Good Neighbour Coffee. A portion of all proceeds will give students the opportunity to experience Authentic Community at a SERVE mission trip in a way that will change their lives forever, encouraging them to impact this world for Christ. Click here to order your 1 lb bag today!

Read below to learn more about Good Neighbour Coffee and the amazing things they have been doing there!

We had no idea that the farmers who, today, grow the coffee beans that we now roast were the very people who were our Honduran friends 9 years ago.

In 2008, my wife and our four children lived in Catacamas, Honduras for four months. Having served as a youth pastor for 20 years in North America, I was granted a sabbatical. We decided to live in a Spanish speaking country for no other reason than to live and learn! I have led more than my share of mission trips and spoke on several SERVE trips, but now I wanted to simply go with my family and nestle deep within another culture.

When we returned from the sabbatical, roasting coffee was something we did as an experiment with neighbours and friends. Eventually, our family began sinking money into some better roasting equipment at about the same time my friends in Honduras began exporting coffee beans with the help of a group who we met while in Honduras called, “The Carpenteros and Friends.”

Meanwhile, my pastoral role in the church included some heavy experimentation in a mission that helped people love their neighbours called Neighbourhood Life. Three years later, I resigned from the institutional setting to begin a full time missionary position which seeks to transform lives and communities in Christ, focusing on our immediate neighbourhoods. This approach takes seriously a theology of place in which we are called to “bloom where we are planted”. At the heart of this model is the call to love our neighbours, with the certainty that God desires to draw our neighbours to himself and longs to see their lives transformed and the assurance that Christ “dwells among us.” I am now in my fourth year.

As the mission increased, so did the coffee roasting. People began asking where they could buy bags of Good Neighbour Coffee, and the number of visitors who stopped by the roasting shop also began to increase. Since I was well acquainted with fundraising for SERVE and various other parts of youth ministry, I approached the increasing sales as the ongoing fundraiser for Neighbourhood Life.

In fact, I also began harvesting stories from the authentic community developed in the various neighbourhoods in which I worked. Those stories were powerful and found their way onto the backs of the coffee bags. This was starting to get interesting. The direct trade coffee not only impacted the farmers in Honduras (currently we impact 55 farmers), and various families who work alongside them (around 250 families), but it impacted neighbourhoods where we live! Crazy, eh?

Well, with the benefit of our direct trade relationship, three of our friends/farmers flew from Honduras to Alberta and ended up at our Good Neighbour roasting shop’s open house this past October. They toured the small roasting facility that also stores the organic beans they so carefully harvested. They were the featured guests, who, through a translator, spoke over a half hour on the blessings the partnership had on their communities. As if that wasn’t enough, some of the other guests (neighbours and store owners) began to ask questions. The owners of a large grocery outlet heard enough and walked away while telling me to bring a case of all the products I roast, so he could sell this to our community.

Today, we have recognized the support of Rio Olancho coffee in Honduras and our Neighbourhood Life mission as the catalyst for creating authentic community. Call it a win, win, win situation! Not only have we increased our purchase of beans, but we are about to open our first, “Good Neighbour CoffeeHouse.”

To learn more about Good Neighbour Coffee, visit goodneighbourcoffee.ca or rickabma.com.

Satisfaction in Giving

Several years ago at Alamosa SERVE in Colorado, my work group was given the assignment of building a wheel chair ramp for a retired Air Force Veteran on limited resources who was caring for a disabled friend in his home. The project involved taking out steps and part of a front porch, and figuring out a way to adapt the ramp into the existing structure. On my first SERVE, back in 2001 in Michigan, I was assigned the same task, and I recalled the time it took and how overwhelming that assignment seemed.

Through lots of prayer and some outside assistance it was completed back then. This time, thanks to the learning experience and others like it on prior SERVE’s, plus being blessed with some very talented youth in my group, we were able to finish the basic structure in just one day. The rest of the week was spent putting on the finishing touches, applying a fresh coat of paint where needed, and constructing a staircase on the back side of the home.

In our experience, we saw that although Fred, the retired vet, didn’t have much in terms of possessions, he was willing to open up his home to help a friend in need. When we were given $200 to look for someone that week who we could bless the money with, our group chose to give it to Fred, because he had shown the sacrificial love for someone else just as our Lord did while on this earth.

Even though we didn’t meet that friend, since he was receiving treatment in Denver hundreds of miles away, we were able to experience his joy through the smiles of pride and tears of joy that flowed from Fred’s face when the project was completed. I will never forget the sense of satisfaction we all felt in giving back our time and talents for someone who had also served his country.  I don’t remember much about the first wheel chair ramp installed in Michigan, but I know even though it’s been years since then,  I had the same feeling and blessing, which is what SERVE is all about.

-Don Koops, Youth Unlimited Board Member

Don’t be Afraid of the Big Ideas

Do you ever feel too small for your big ideas? God loves to use people who don’t seem important enough to do his most important work. Consider these examples from the Bible:

Elijah- He spent some serious time in prayer and it changed the weather for THREE YEARS! You know the weather, that thing everyone acknowledges is totally out of our control… Elijah affected it through the power of prayer and he was just a guy like us.

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” James 5:17-18

Moses- This guy got asked to do big things by God and had some serious doubts about his own ability.

10 But Moses said to the Lord, ‘Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.’”- Exodus 4:10.

But when he put his faith and trust in the Lord’s power working through him, he was able to lead the Israelites out of Egypt through the Red Sea which he separated to make a dry path. Wow, that is a big dream that God used “un-eloquent” Moses for.

Gideon- Gideon was from a small clan that was being ruled and terrorized by a bigger clan, the Midianites. He was scared and felt hopeless when an angel appeared to him and told him that if he went and stood up against the enemy the Lord would make sure he won! Crazy.

15 And he said to him, ‘Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ 16 And the Lord said to him, ‘But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.’” Judges 6:11-16

SERVE is a big dream sometimes. I mean, we are talking about taking close to 2,000 students and youth leaders and having them travel away from their home, sometimes even to a different country, and housing them in churches and schools so they can put in hard work all week on service projects that are often far from glamorous. What could go wrong? Well, a lot. A lot can go wrong and there have been plenty of problems throughout the years; but with God’s help and his power working through us, SERVE can be more impactful and life changing than we could ever imagine.

So, are you ready to dream big with us?

 

 

The Expanse of SERVE

It is amazing how a word conjures up images and memories for us. SERVE seems to do that. For churches who know this ministry, when they hear the name SERVE, they bring up stories of God showing up in the places and challenging the participants to be stretched for the Kingdom in powerful ways. Many students carry these faith forming experiences with them for a life time, often as a highlight moment.

I hear stories like this often – students who are now young adults, parents who came along as leaders, pastors who shared in an experience with their younger members, all carry with them these nuggets of Kingdom stories.

God uses SERVE experiences to reach beyond the sending church and the hosting community. It touches the broader community through fundraisers, through shared experiences, through the essence of bearing one another’s load. These are powerful life building moments and we at Youth Unlimited are privileged to walk alongside these communities, sharing with you in those moments of what and where God is working in this world.

This really does feel like Authentic Community.

Mission Trip Self-Care

I have a confession; I am terrible at self-care. I have a suspicion that I’m not the only one. Too often female youth leaders are the worst offenders when it comes to neglecting rest. We care for our families and then turn around and care for the leaders and students in our churches and communities. There is always so much to do and too few hours in the day. And yet, God in his wisdom, requires us to rest, to Sabbath every week.

It’s often during our busiest times that we need to rest the most. And while every week is busy, the busiest week of the year, in my experience, is always the week of the Youth Group summer mission trip!

So, how does a person sneak in a little self-care during a week that demands so much and allows for zero alone time? I discovered a little trick, by accident at first, but it has now become a self-care mission trip habit!

Before leaving on the mission trip I make a quick visit to a store that sells my favorite soaps (LUSH), shampoos, conditioners and lotions (AVEDA). You know, the stuff you normally don’t buy because it requires a little more time and money. I only purchase the small travel size bars and bottles and immediately pack them into a suitcase. Since the only 5 minutes of alone time any adult gets on a mission trip are the 5 minutes spent in the shower, I turn those precious few minutes into a spa visit!

Come mid-afternoon, when it’s finally time to hit the showers, I eagerly pull out the special occasion spa products, take five minutes and deeply breathe in the natural aromas of calming lavender, invigorating mint and cleansing citrus! It’s just enough time to clear my mind and rejuvenate my soul… because usually the next task is dinner – and dinner with 75 teenagers is no joke!

Special shower products may seem like a trivial detail in the scope of the entire week, but I have found that this small act of self-care allows me to be more fully present during all the other minutes of each day. By filling up my own cup, I have something available to pour out and give to others.

Before you leave on your next youth group mission trip, think about ways that you can sneak a little self-care into the week and be intentional about making it happen. I am confident you will notice a difference, and so will everyone else!

Marion SERVEant

We’ve been talking a lot about ants around the Youth Unlimited offices. They are amazing creatures, but there is one specific ant story that I love to share.

It was a summer evening, and I was participating in a Youth Unlimited mission trip in Marion, Indiana. Everyone was at a local water park enjoying a little downtime when I noticed a colony of ants in crisis. A puddle of water formed in the exact spot where a line of ants was traveling. In the middle of this ant catastrophe, I noticed one little ant kept swimming out to the middle of the puddle. It would push an ant to the water’s edge and then go back into the middle to save another….and another.

As we at Youth Unlimited prepare for another summer of SERVE mission trips, we have been digging into our theme of “Authentic Community”. The Bible has a lot to say about community and how we ought to treat each other. Galatians 6:2 says, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” During a SERVE trip we are often eager to “carry another’s burden”, but are we eager to dive into the puddles of life and help carry someone else’s burden when we’re not at SERVE?

The Youth Unlimited staff is already praying that God would prepare churches, communities and YOU to bring life and hope to those around you during SERVE. But don’t wait until this summer to be Jesus to your friends and neighbors –look for ways you can be a SERVEant all year long!

I’ve Never Been on SERVE

I’ve never been on SERVE, yet I work at ThereforeGo Ministries (formerly known as Youth Unlimited). Sometimes that seems weird, and sometimes it makes complete sense.

When I was in college, near the end of my freshman year, I had an intriguing epiphany. After a year with a “just okay” Resident Assistant, I knew I could be a Resident Assistant with greater intentionality, and maybe have a greater impact on my fellow students in that position than my RA had on us. In that moment, I realized when people choose to follow in someone’s footsteps, to pursue a passion that may not have always been their own, it’s usually either because the person who set out before them did a horrible job or they did such a great job that people just have to be a part of what they’re doing.

Though I became a Resident Assistant in light of a situation where I wanted to do a better job for people, I had the opposite situation when I became a high school coach.

In high school, I had a coach who invested in the girls on her team like we were important, worthy and precious. A true practitioner of exhortation, she pushed us, she encouraged us to be more than we were, she journeyed with us and she taught us valuable lessons we could one day take with us as our lives moved on. In hindsight, I saw the great impact my coach had on my life, and when given the opportunity to take over for her as a coach myself one day, I gratefully took the position with hopes that I could one day journey with even one high school girl the way she journeyed with me and my teammates.

So why do I work for Youth Unlimited when I’ve never experienced SERVE? I’m here because I’ve vicariously experienced SERVE in the stories I’ve heard. I’ve seen the impact. I’ve read the quotes. While my faith-forming experiences as a teen didn’t involve jumping in the youth group van and heading across the country to serve another community, I know from my vicarious experience at Youth Unlimited that God does amazing things at SERVE. I know that lives are forever changed for Christ at SERVE. And I know that I just have to be a part of what’s happening here.

Concentrated Impact

by Brian Bierenga

Take a minute and recall your last youth leaders’ meeting. Perhaps someone suggested, “We should really help our students develop a heart for serving others.” Your group agreed and assigned people to investigate service options, check calendars with kids and parents, gather supplies and arrange transportation. Once that was done, your leadership team worked hard to publicize and promote a one-day event, tout it at several youth meetings and recruit as many students as possible. After the event, your team agrees that several service days over the summer would be better, but that when it is so much work to schedule one, planning several will never be an option.

Or perhaps, at your last youth leaders’ meeting, someone said, “We really just need to build community within our group. We have some great worship, service and discipleship elements for our students, but they just aren’t gelling as a community.” So your group proceeds to brainstorm about creative ways to bring the group together, mix them up, break down barriers, have fun and build trust. And since this sort of thing takes time, your team agrees to program a youth group event every other week for the next month, which means all of you will have to work together to organize, promote and run each of these events. Lots of fun, but also lots of work.

Or let’s say that your group is thriving and your students love serving others and just being with each other. At your meeting, a fellow leader says, “I love the events we do, and things are going great, but wouldn’t it be cool to really go deeper? Wouldn’t it be powerful if we had a special Koinonia service, or even celebrated the Lord’s Supper as a group?”

Suddenly, your whole team is inspired as they envision that experience: your whole team except for your youth director. She says, “I love the vision for this, but honestly, we only meet for one hour. I’m not sure how we can move kids from opening games, silly-string fights and high-energy music into a place of vulnerability and quiet reflection with God and one another in such a short time. I’d love to see this work, but I’m just not sure our regular format lends itself to such a deep worship experience.”

So many great ideas, but so many logistical hurdles to work through. Certainly, there must be an easier way!

What if there was a way to cover several huge ministry goals at once?

Take a minute to reconsider the idea of a service-learning trip for your group. A successful mission trip for teens can accomplish several big goals in a short but intensive amount of time. With good planning and God’s blessing, a one-week service-learning trip can produce more life change and impact in a student than an entire year of Sunday night meetings.

Imagine your students being immersed in the discipline of service as they work alongside others for several days in a row. Imagine the conversations and community created from doing life together for a week – and yes, even from the 16-hour van ride. Imagine how God’s Spirit can move through several nights in a row of worship, teaching and small group discussion. Imagine how God could use a whole week to work in the heart of a far-from-God-student and change their life trajectory.

These are things that happen at SERVE, five to seven-day high school mission trips that sends middle or high school age students out to care for and restore their world in an environment where they’ll encounter the concepts of justice and missional living. More than just a short trip, SERVE is a faith-forming experience where the communities, congregations and students involved all experience lasting transformation.

If the idea of a service-learning trip hasn’t been suggested recently at a youth leaders meeting, maybe you want to bring it up at your next one.

For more information, visit our SERVE Site Locations page.