Germantown Youth Service Trip to Northern Ireland

Youth Retreat, Fall 2008, Camp Donegal

Many of you know that Q and I, along with our dear friend Kurt, have been working closely with neighborhood youth for around five years now. These precious young people are very special to us, and central to the life of our church. They are the current energy and future influence of our community. The privilege of engaging with young people has allowed us to share in their lives while continually trying to provide loving instruction and counsel that is biblically based.

We have been alongside them and their families through victories and trials alike, including the pride and accomplishment of finishing high school despite the odds, as well as suffering the tragic loss of both parents. We have accompanied them to court, tutored them through challenging school assignments, consoled them at funerals and vouched for them at the request of probation officers. We have helped them find and maintain employment and have seen some go in and out of substance abuse rehab programs. We have had to get in between fights both verbal and physical and sometimes involving a weapon. We listen to and encourage them through romantic heartaches and challenge them to resist the pressure to initiate or react to conflict with violence. We support them in their anger towards an absent dad and in their many questions about God. We listen to and read the lyrics of the music on their iPods, MP3 players and cell phones, and discuss their meanings and values. We laugh at their jokes, share meals, play games, watch movies, go camping.

When Danny O'Hara joined our church last summer as an intern interested in working with our youth, we began dreaming of the possibility of forming a team of our kids and traveling together to Northern Ireland, Danny's home country, for an experience like none they have ever had. The First Presbyterian Church of Portadown is a church of about 1,000 members in the 30,000 person town of Portadown. For 2 weeks in August, the church has service opportunities in which youth could participate including a Vacation Bible School and a ministry called Xpression.

The dreaming turned into planning and now we have been invited by the church to spend the second and third weeks of August with them. For the first week, our kids have been asked to serve as junior counselors at the VBS, which is attended by preschool and elementary age Northern Irish children of the Portadown community. They will be assisting teachers and students and serving in various other ways.

During the second week, they will participate in Xpression--an outreach comprised of around 400 youths organized into teams carrying out service projects in the community. This is an annual concerted effort to love, serve and "express" the gospel of reconciliation in the community of Portadown, which is largely divided among Protestant and Catholic lines. In addition to participating in these programs, our kids will have the chance to share aspects of their own African American culture in both formal and informal settings, including hip-hop demos, spoken word deliveries, and sharing their own nuances of the English language while hanging out with Northern Irish teenagers.


YouTube video for Xpression 08 (only on Blogger, for those of you on Facebook and other places that are getting the feed)

These opportunities of cross-cultural service, worship, teaching and exchange are exciting and unique for our kids. By and large, these opportunities that come regularly to other Christian youths in US aren't considered a possibility for our youths who have grown up in inner city neighborhoods. Also, an opportunity to visit another country and participate in God's work in other parts of the world is not one that is within easy reach for them. We believe that this can impact their worldview--in how they understand God and His people worldwide. We are praying that the team will gain a heart of service that extends beyond their own comfort zones, so that they will return changed and eager to serve God and others back home.

Those of you who have traveled abroad know how exhilarating and educational it is. And those of you who have not only been tourists but participants in another culture know how much it stretches and grows you. You have had your self-centered view of the world challenged and the treasures of another way of life deposited into you. Your gratitude has been increased, your understanding enlarged and your sensitivity heightened. Q, Kurt and I have experienced this a little bit. We want this for our kids, too.

We are thankful to The First Presbyterian Church of Portadown, who has not only generously extended the invitation to come, agreed to host the kids and leaders in congregation members' homes, and committed to praying in a personal way for individual youth and the team, but have also already hosted a fund raising luncheon where they donated almost 1/4 of the total amount needed by the team! The pictures are from the event, 2 weekends ago.

We are currently estimating the total cost of the trip to be around $11,500. The bulk of the expense is of course airline tickets. But we have some additional expenses such as some food and ground transportation. Each of our youths' families has agreed to be responsible for obtaining their child's passport. The passport fee is $85 and that's a sacrifice for many of the families. But each parent is so supportive and extremely eager for their child(ren) to have this experience, they are determined to find a way to pay for it. (In 2 cases, it is an extra financial burden because 2 sisters and 2 brothers have committed to go.) Additionally, each student has agreed to contribute $250 of their own money that they earn themselves (not given to them by anyone), as well as to seek support to pay the $1,100 necessary to go. They are writing support letters to family and friends and giving presentations at churches. They are actively seeking prayer support from at least 15 people who will pray for them everyday during the trip.

I first want to ask if your church or small group would be willing to invite the team members to come and share with you. Just the process of sharing with others and inviting them to partner would be a wonderful growing opportunity for our young people. Second, would you consider giving to the trip? We are currently raising support! We are hoping that with many people giving a small amount, we can help make this happen for our young people.

May we send you a letter that describes a little more about the trip and the individual kids going? In it will be a request for financial and prayer support. If so, please contact me either by commenting on this post or through email, so we can get that to you as soon as possible. (Let us also know whether you'd like that in hard copy or in electronic version.)

Thanks for reading this far; thanks for caring about what we're up to in our neighborhood; and thanks for caring about the people we've been called to. In case you are interested in praying for the team, we will put up the team profile soon on the blog we’ve put the team profile up here (as of March 4). We'll also keep you updated through the blog as preparations unfold.