Harrisburg Mission Trip: The Conversation

you're listening to beyond the sermon the podcast of First Methodist Church in Collingswood New Jersey on our podcast the goal is not just to share our sermons but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and what God is doing in us and in our community the conversation you're about to join was inspired by our 2024 summer sermon series Apocalypse Now Revelations called to be faithful Witnesses in this series we're talking about what Revelation meant for its original audience and what it means for the church today you can find more information about our church at fumc callings would.org thanks for joining us for this conversation we're here with a very special edition of our uh podcast it is not about Revelation even though it's happening this summer although I guess there could be some Revelations that are made um but we have an opportunity to hear from a handful of our youth who participated in our most recent uh Youth mission trip to Harrisburg to serve with youth works and so why don't you take a minute and let us know who is here starting with you Jeremy I'm Jeremy I went with a peg leg and I came back with a peg leg success I'm Tim Rambo Joanna Alexander Bethany Alexander Madison mcdevit Josiah Rambo I'll start off because yesterday in our small groups and SU school I was with uh Timothy plots who also went on the mission trip and one of the people said hey Timothy how was the mission trip he said good and then she was like what' you do he's like I scoop poop and that was it I was like I think more context would have been helpful and so uh if you guys could share a little bit about our service projects that we did and that'll differentiate between our kids here and maybe a little bit about the organizations that we served as well so on Monday we went to a Christian Performing Arts Center and they had a summer camp going um similar to our VBS but they were practicing um performance for the end of the week I think it was The Wizard of Oz but on Monday we went and we just cleaned the facility and different rooms and on Thursday we were responsible for their morning Chapel so each person had different jobs for like a group game or there was a skit and then there was a lesson with small groups afterwards and we just stayed and ate lunch with the kids and hung out with them what other opportunities were there well I was at the junior high so we did poop scoop but it was for horses so kids can get their exercise that they need because um some of the kids were like you know mentally challenged and stuff so they don't always get the chance to exercise as you know we have the same chances so we got to help the animals and their like cages get clean so that they can provide the services that for the kids who need it okay great and that's what you did the whole week well that was that was on Wednesday I think but for the other days we helped um garden and weed the plants cuz one of the days I think it was I think it was Tuesday we went to this Garden in the city Hill and um they provide a food stand for people who can't always like go to the grocery store cuz they're in a food desert food drought where like there's not any close like grocery stores where they can just easily like pick up like food so they set up a stand where they can um sell groceries at a reasonable price for people who need it outside of a like a healthc Care Center Health Center so I think that was really cool that we got to do so I went with the senior high group and on Tuesday we had the opportunity to help out at a local food bank where we worked on passing out food to people making boxes and bags of other food to give out and I think in total we handed out 90 boxes and even more food after the boxes were done so it was a really interesting opportunity to help get help and serve the community that's great on Wednesday we went to a farm wild the heart that MADD just told us about where they grow food and sell at an affordable price to the people in that community and there we worked on weeding and shoveling and spreading Mulch and I caught a wasp nest and then I hobbled away on my peg leg yes that was an adventure of its own but what's like one of the crazy ridiculous moments just like silly ridiculous things that happened this week that come to mind that is your chair yeah that's what you get for leing on every day taking those naps we played um Head Shoulders Knees Toes and cup and one of the rounds I wasn't really paying attention but all of a sudden you just heard a huge crash and there's a table on the floor and crowds everywhere and then there's two people on the side like rolling on the floor and they were fighting over this cup ridiculously it was hysterical and what was that table that they knocked over with all the crowns oh so that table had bags on it with like everyone's name and the goal was to write people positive notes and just like compliments and all that stuff in their bags to take home with them and just like to uplift other people not Riz though no Riz allow no R agreed we got to pick off beetles off of plants and me and another girl Reese but we got a jar filled with soapy water and we were just picking off bugs off plants for like an hour and we got a lot of them you did and there's a picture of that I think on the youth Instagram yeah there is a picture so go like it up if you didn't know Jeremy really values skin care and he brought his fact I do have stress xon so I needed it yeah continue he brought a nice cooling cucumber face mask and was so generous to share it with me and is that is that like a physical mask where we just alternated who wore the mask it was like the it's just like a gel so you like wipe the gel on and then it peels off anyway I'll share mine ridiculous and regretful being in the peg leg is when we went to city island uh I played beach volleyball with my peg leg and one but uh after that my knee was pretty sore especially cuz we had to like I had to hobble was like a half mile each way down that thing so that was a little intense but still fun so one fun thing I did was one time at free time I didn't have anything to do so then I just played a game of chess with Tyler and that was really fun and you got beat no I beat him you beat him yeah I know ridiculous but it was very fun and enjoyable for me to pull out Nails on Monday with oh screws pull out screws on Monday with Nick yeah no we had the Senior High boys cuz the Christian Performing Art Center makes their own stage and props and all that kind of stuff so because they don't have the most funds like a theater company um they reuse wood and so we were like getting screws and nails out of uh giant planks of wood so that they could be reused um for future events which is super awesome what was something that surprised you uh about the place that you got to go serve or what were you not expecting that you ended up really enjoying about the place I would say that weeding actually turned out to be fun even though we did it like multiple multiple days you have to see even how like tiniest thing of like pulling a few weeds like helps so much more that you you can't see but like you know it's happening um with as the junior high we got to go to like an old folks home and I wasn't really expecting to talk to that many um like people but I got to talk to a lot of the women there and I got to talk about their um just like their lives when they were younger and I thought that was really cool to see how like it was how different it was and how it's just so much different than my life now now and I just thought that was really cool so when we went to the the horse place called Catra after we had finished in last like 10 minutes they let us play with some of the animals before we went back to shower so you got to play with horses no but we got to play well kind of but we got to play with donkeys and goats mostly I guess I was surprised at how much food the food pantry had and like how many people really need food in that Community like the line was like across the street and around the block there was so many people but also like locals in the area were dropping off food there was another church who came with a ton of celery what nobody wanted celery but um and Costco donated a ton of pastries and bread so it was really cool to see everyone come together to provide for those people yeah I was I was really surprised at the food bank of a couple things one the people waiting 4 hours before distribution and then also like the amazing community of volunteers that they have there on a regular basis were just so sweet and loving and energetic but they also knew when they had to be tough with the people that were trying to like uh get more or get things their way whatever it might be and they found I I felt like they had like the perfect balance of all of that oh yeah and also like that some of the volunteers are also on the receiving end of the ministry and so they're serving those in need while they themselves are also in need and so that was really encouraging as well what's one way that you saw God show up this week or you saw God maybe in a different way than you've seen him before um one way that I thought really opened my eyes was the foot washing um ceremony I think like the people who ran youth Works which was the mission the thing we went to um they washed our leader feet and then our leaders washed our feet and it was you know it was like even though like their our leaders are so much older and wiser than us they still like took the time out of their day to like wash our feet and I thought that was really cool cuz like and it was really cool just to see everyone like praying over each other and just like it was just was so cool to see everyone like praising the Lord just in a different way that I never would have expected to like washing people's feet I think that it was just so cool and like yeah no it was a a beautiful time because we would have DeVos and a gathering each day so if someone could like explain what DeVos and Gathering look like for us in the week so for devotionals they set aside 30 minutes in the morning before we went to our service sites to spend time with God and they gave each person a little devotional packet with questions and scripture that goes along with it like keep you in the right mindset and especially before you go out to serve other people and so at after we got back from our showers and had dinner at the end of the day we would do a service with everyone there led by like the leaders at youth work and some other people and we would sing worship and then it'd be a lesson about how we should stay rooted and then we would break into our small Church groups and discuss that and so our last night was the foot washing that mine shared about and it was beauti because not just the watching but also praying over one another and uh like she had mentioned can anyone guess cuz I know but can anyone guess how long we were praying over each other I would say like an hour 45 it was around an hour and 10 really but like it just like so immersed and in of time just kind of you know uh fluctuated yeah but it was just a a beautiful time but it very quickly turned into just everyone praying over everyone and then just like alternating we with like chair hop to who we were going to pray with as leaders and as as students and so it was it was a very very holy time yeah no that definitely stuck out to me do you think there was some significance to the how meaningful that experience was having done it at the end of your time together having served all week in these different ways I think it was cool that um during the week we were going out to serve other people who might not know Jesus but at at the end of the week we were able to serve each other and put ourselves like in in the position of Jesus serving his people what other ways did God show up don't edit this out that is true that is how I saw God uh the justice that was served for some reason every morning this cop waited at the same spot to pull people over so while we were outside doing our devotionals we would see him pull someone over and uh see Justice served and we would sometimes play Bad Boys the song from my phone speaker while they were getting pulled over and at that same time Randall went and said hi to the cops during one time Dwayne sorry Dwayne The Rock Johnson no Dwayne uh went and said hello and so can anyone share a testimony of how awesome Dwayne is I don't know how many of you got to talk to him so one more I think it was the first morning Monday did we saw this older man he was just working around the church property just cleaning it up making it look nice and he introduced himself to us as we were going out to do divos and we just got to a really nice conversation on how were're a part of their missions that they do at their church and that they're just really blessed to have us there d a custodian at uh the church we stayed at and everyone was like hyping him up like M like the youth work staff Macy Alexis and kayle were like oh Dwayne's just the best I love Dwayne blah blah blah and I like hadn't gotten time to interact with him then the last day I got like two minutes I was like you are the sweetest old man in the world can we take you home uh cuz he he really just like so much love and light coming out of him and just yeah glorifying God in everything he does and it was just a beautiful witness watch call it our week was not spent with just our group uh we had some new friends uh can anyone talk about that experience because in previous youth like Retreats and stuff and it's not just you guys but like every time I've been it's like we worship together and like maybe one kid makes another friend but we don't like really intermingle as much as we would hope to and so I would say what do you think was different about this trip that made you guys uh get so many new friends and also tell us a little bit about our new friends I think that was different about this trip was that we were serving alongside each other so we were like out in the heat together so I feel like we really just connected in that way and we just like could I don't know we spent a lot of time talking to each other and stuff but one of the people I met um Sammy but at the the foot washing we were praying over each other we both prayed for each other and it was really great and it was really fun to pray with her well a lot of crying but it was really fun and meaningful to be pound sign rooted always if you didn't know um a hashtag is also a pound sign and explain what a hashtag is first um also number sign and so the theme for the week was rooted so we stayed poundside rooted there's also more to that Junior High Junior High because we were the ones who spent everyday weeding so we would rate each root on how each weed on how rooted they were in Christ we like oh she's [Music] rooted um so yeah also how to un red came to be was that was that me and him app plot one of the leaders um we were just talking about you know the theme and she was like cuz they told us to use hashtags and I was talking to her and I was like wait isn't a pound sign the same thing as a hashtag so that's how pound sign red happened wow reminder to put this in the front of the podcast as a disclaimer uh of terminology that will be used throughout the podcast so friends relationship intermingling what you you think was different or if you'd like to add to what Maddie said and also tell us about a friend you made so during service I think we already mentioned we were split up in groups but the senior high was in a group with the other Church's Senior High and then Junior High with the same and um I don't know it was just a nice experience to bond with them and like at Retreats and other camps you kind of stay in your own groups during the day but they kind of forced us to be together not like forced us but and we were able to talk to them more I think the reason that we were able to make friendsies here is cuz we're kind of with them the whole time and if you're not going to talk to and build relationships with other people of like mindset that are around you all day I feel like that kind of naturally happens especially when you're working together trying to accomplish the same goal yeah that it was nice cuz even by like day two I could like the youth work staff couldn't tell who was with which church cuzz we were just in free time sitting together in meals sitting together in worship like all mixed together it was uh really really great to see that and have new friends and even towards the beginning of the week when we didn't really know people you could just see um like how willing they were to help us even if we had never talked before and like when you're doing the same thing helping one another they were very willing to help you as you guys serve together like when I was pumping out my air mattress with my foot what would be one of your big takeaways that changed you while you were there or something you learned about yourself that you want to approach differently or do differently now that you're back from that mission trip I would say just getting to truly know what it feels like to serve other people even though like you don't want to like truly having a servant's heart and just doing all of that with God's love and just doing what's mostly needed I would say that um going into the week I was kind of nervous about like working in the heat not that we did as much as the junior high but we were out in the heat a few days and um I just don't like sweat or getting dirty and I don't like God just provides Joy like even if like I don't know I I was fine being in the hot all day because I knew it was helping other people I feel like one thing that I took away was sorry I feel like one thing I took away was just like that like sharing god with other people like not from church and even these like P like literally like 3 days since we've been away from the missions trip I've literally got to tell my friend about Jesus who I never thought I would be able to tell her but I feel like from the missions trip I feel like I just learned so much that I was able to tell her with like stuff I learned from the missions trip um so one evening every evening there was an activity and one of the evenings we went to an island in the middle of some River I don't know the name squ sasana oh and there was a bridge and on it was a Muslim man he held a sign it said Jesus never cleed Divinity let's talk and Jeremy's brave soul decided to go talk to him yeah yeah so that that was the night that we were on the island and um a bunch of the kids wanted to come with me uh for that but I didn't want it to be a like gang up mentality of like the mean I didn't want the whole crew pulling up so I said I was like I'll take one kid and so I ended up taking Timothy plots and just just for him to witness it and talking about like we set our hearts before these conversations of like being humble trying to share truth and Grace like knowing that God you know Jesus died for this individual as well um and we also wanted to like gauge the heart of the person within the conversation didn't want someone that was just there to scream and yell and you know had their ears shut to anything else they were just there to prove people that they were right and so we went up and um jut and his friend was there uh and um we got to have a lovely conversation was very kind um and not like it it wasn't like aggressive it wasn't it wasn't aggressive evangelism and so we got talking and uh he was already in the middle of a conversation with someone else about um Jesus saying I am the way the truth and the life but but essentially he was arguing that all the prophets were the way the truth and the life at their time and was not able to provide scripture in the Bible or the Quran that backed that up and then I brought up Jesus said before Abraham was I am and he said that all prophets were there at the beginning of time in spirit and uh knowledge but also was unable to provide any form of scripture to back that up but the the focus why I brought up John 8:58 is because it's Jesus claiming two big things claiming a name for God I am which in Exodus 3 God says I am who I am and when he sends Moses to Pharaoh he says tell them I am has sent you but he's also naming a characteristic of God of being there since the beginning of time being present now and the assumption would be in the future so it's the alpha omega in that statement and then he was kind enough I got his number tried to see when else that week that we would be able to meet up with him cuz it also led to like Jesus um I was like you know I'm probably going to believe the guy that died and rose from the dead when he talks about Divinity over Muhammad who did not and then Tyler came up and we were done and we were about to leave so we left got his number and we tried we tried to go back um but I think it was still very fruitful and and lovely tried to go back to talk to him and we thought that there was a lot of free time to do so at least an open time that was okay to do so and I got to take our very own Joanna Alexander and Emma cner and he had texted me about the sign of Jonah prior to us arriving there and when we arrived he was already talking to someone else about it Joanna would you be able to explain what he was trying to tell or share so he was talking about how when Jesus said just like Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and three nights he was going to be in the belly of the Earth for 3 days and three nights and jut was trying to say that Jesus doesn't fulfill that because he was only dead for barely 3 days and only two nights and so sadly we uh only had five minutes with chud this time before we got the call that our group was done with uh their activity and so we ended up having to go back um early but one of the things that I love about evangelizing um in general and having these conversations is it gives us a reason to go back into scripture to to find the answers because it always has the answers and so uh it led to us to lean into this cuz I never focused on Jesus talking about Jonah I was like oh yeah that's a thing like and then him talking about greater than Jonah yeah Jesus was greater than Moses he was greater than Jonah like it's not a scripture that we typically hyperfocus on um so therefore I didn't think of the literalism of what jut was talking about and so we came back and we started digging into Bibles with our friend Allison shout out to Allison who has been uh living in Jordan for three or four years now two years and has been uh working alongside uh Muslims and learning about their culture and their beliefs to evangelize to them and so we got to dig in and in John 1931 it says now it was the day of preparation and the next day was to be a special Sabbath because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath they asked uh pilot have the legs broken and the bod's taken down and so um when when Passover is happening there's a special Sabbath and Passover shifts because they go by lunar calendar so where it lands in the year um can change but it is it is believed to have happened the day prior to the normal Sabbath normal Sabbath is Friday Sundown to Saturday Sundown and this would have been Thursday Sundown to Friday Sundown which which means Jesus dying on Thursday and then coming out of the Tomb Sunday would have been the three days and the three nights as he had uh prophesied in I think it's in Matthew and in Mark the thing about Jonah uh and so it's really interesting even though it messes up how he celebrated those Christians with Good Friday and Easter Sunday um really interesting to see uh how God's word just holds true uh even against all the scrutiny and we're hoping to stay in contact with jut and see what other fruitful conversations can happen with him but Joanna what was your uh experience like going into that cuz it was a little anxious to be in that environment it's a new thing um well I was a little nervous going into it just that I guess we wouldn't know how to counter what he was trying to claim and like we're supposed to be leading people towards Jesus but if we can't if we don't have all the answers it might not work out but I guess the mindset switched when we saw him cuz he was just really calm and like eager to have a conversation and also it's not our job to like make him believe it's our job to lead him to Jesus also it was really encouraging both times we went to see him there was already other Christians talking to him and to see how other people care enough to go lead him to Jesus too was um encouraging I feel like one time I saw God was really unexpected was some of the girls we just just like talked at night and I feel like well a lot of the nights we just talk to each other and we discuss things that I never thought to discuss and I thought that was just really cool to see God in a way that I was just like what how does this work with this because like this is just this so I thought that was really cool that we could talk to each other about stuff that you can't always bring up you know on just conversation to add on to that I feel like every time we had a conversation like different people would bring up different scripture and like just shows like how much like you don't think you'll remember scripture but like if you keep reading it like stays in your heart I don't what's the verse like hide his word in your heart and it was cool to see how everyone like had scripture to back up what they were saying during those conversations but um another thing I learned one evening during the Gathering they were reading the passage that says like love is patient love is kind and um I think my perspective switched like love isn't about what you get it's truly outward and especially like going into service sometimes you might go in with the mindset of like like you're going to get something out of it yourself but it's about it's truly about what you can give to other people any last things you guys wanted to share about your exper experience that you think maybe people would want to hear about cuz I know it's a lot and we're still processing and the van ride back home was fun because you napped well I actually actually I finished my DeVos and then I read scripture and then Josiah told me some really great songs I don't even know what the songs are called ma Master of the puppets and okay I don't know but yeah and then I got to read a chapter of John John 15 cuz I was talking to Joanna about this verse and I couldn't even remember it but I like one evening this is one evening and yeah this is another evening we were talking about this and then I just went in my Bible app and was like let's read John 15 today and then I was like John 15:18 that's what I was talking about for anyone wondering if it's if the world hates you remember it hated me first or something like that something more maybe more smarter but I would say just all the conversations that happened over the time there was a lot of fruitful conversations either that I overheard or that I was part of and it was just it was nice it was really nice yeah even in downtime you would think like uh I don't know I feel like in Retreats it's like God time God time God time and then when it's not official God time then like we just do fun in chaos but to see like the downtime and free time also be like have some fruitful conversations and scriptural conversations was really really encouraging pound sign rooted pound sign [Music] [Laughter] [Music] rooted a little SI found sign rooted found sign rooted boun sign rooted 3 2 B sign [Applause] rooted well that's our conversation for today but that doesn't mean the conversation is over we'd love to hear your thoughts on these topics as well to ask a question about anything we've discussed in this episode or to join the conversation you can head over to fum collingswood.nj [Music]