On a Mission
Summer is a popular season for youth mission trips. But one group from West Point, Va., did not travel to a third world country.
Instead, the 35 teens from Colosse Baptist Church visited Butler County. While here from Saturday to Saturday last week, they performed a host of tasks in partnership with Cornerstone Baptist Church in Center Township.
Splitting apart into several teams, the group's many projects included replacing ceiling tiles at the YWCA, cleanup and outreach at Alameda Park and painting and landscaping at the church, where a vacation Bible camp also was offered.
“We want to expose them to ... all the other people that live right around you,” said Colosse youth leader Rose Rice, a banking information technology manager by trade.
“It's not like you have to go to a foreign country. There are needs all around us.”
The group that calls itself IGNITE, or Inspiring Godliness Now in Teens Everywhere, searches out the mission opportunities through a networking website hosted by the Baptist Association of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
With help from some 15 adults, IGNITE travels by van, hauling its own food, air mattresses and other survival necessities.
Taking into account specific light construction jobs on the agenda, the group also makes use of a trailer to haul a range of items from gardening tools to power washers.
For the Butler County trip, many such supplies were used for crafts and activities during the Get in the Game and Join God's Team Bible camp outreach at Cornerstone, which included drama and sports activities for youths.
Pastor John Barkley, pastor at the church for just more than a year, said his congregation of about 50 welcomed the partnership opportunity.
“I think it was a very good week. I think we accomplished our goals to try and expose the church to the community,” Barkley said. “We sort of stepped out into the community where the church hadn't been for a long time.”
According to Rice, this marks the 18th year IGNITE has done the mission trip.
“I've coordinated trips to Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia — all the states we can get to,” Rice said.Although need also exists back home in Virginia, Rice said removing the distractions of daily life can increase focus among the youths on relationships with God and each other.The trips are open to youths in seventh through 12th grade.Now 21, Samantha Carter attended her first mission trip in 2002. This year, she returned to the group as an adult leader.“In high school you have all the struggles ... and all the temptations, but I didn't have to worry about that because I already had my clique,” she said, explaining her IGNITE friendships began at birth.“People in the young adult group were with me in the church nursery.“It makes me feel good to help other people,” she added. “It makes my heart feel good.”Also on the trip was Nathan Hale, 13, attending for the first time.“From my first three nights already I feel like I'm closer to God,” he said, describing evenings camped out in the church, where IGNITE members share in scripture and song.During the day, Nathan was part of the team in Alameda Park. Activities there included cleaning around the picnic pavilions and hosting children's crafts and songs as an outreach for the Bible camp.Maura Denniston, 7, and her 6-year-old sister, Alaina, were among the parkgoers who partook in the games and crafts on July 19. Their mother Joey of Butler said the family would likely attend the Get in the Game Bible camp that night.“They want to go and it sounds like fun to them,” she said.Jamie Shuster of Connoquenessing Township also had been in the park with her children Samantha, 10; Alex, 9; Sydney, 7; and Jordan, 4.“The (IGNITE) boys came over and they mentioned face painting and enticed the kids over,” said Shuster, citing a good possibility her family would attend, too.Barkley said the Bible camp drew 20-some youths, a good turnout for a first-time event.Barkley said he was pleased to make that connection with the community as well as with the IGNITE team.“It was really a special time,” he said.“A lot of new friends were made. A lot of good things started for us as a church.”
