In July 2010, ten teens from the Vineyard Community Church Youth Group will be headed to Northern Ireland on a missions trip. More specifically the team will be headed to the Causeway Coast Vineyard located in Coleraine on the north coast of Northern Ireland. I am excited and extremely blessed to be going with the team as a chaperone/team member but better yet I am going as a proud dad. You see, my oldest daughter Courtney is one of the teens on the missions team. This will be her first mission outside of the United States.
The missions team will be participating in “Shine” a week long community service program. The team will be doing community service projects, delivering groceries to those in need and will be doing other things to show the community that the church is there to care for them in a real and tangible way.
The teens will have the opportunity to be stretched in their social skills by being called upon to share about their life experiences with the local youth in Northern Ireland. They will need to adapt the social differences between the youth back here in the United States and those that they will encounter while in Northern Ireland. I expect that there will also be some learning when they come to realize that some words and phrases mean something totally different outside of the US. I am really looking forward to the growth that they will experience while on the trip.
We still have a few months before we embark on the adventure, but the team is already at work trying to raise the funds necessary to pay for the trip expenses. Each member of the team is responsible for raising the funds necessary to cover their portion. There will be yard sales, car washes and a silent auction (being held during the Valentines dinner at the church). Beyond that we are asking friends and family for support, both prayer support and financial support as both will be extremely important to the success of this mission.
If you would like to commit to praying for our team, please let me know by sending me a message and I will send you updates on our prayer requests as we progress toward our departure. If you desire to help us financially we would appreciate that as well. You can do that by sending a check to:
Youth Ministries
Vineyard Community Church
601 South Cooper Road
Gilbert, AZ 85233
Please write my name in the memo section of the check. There is also a method available for using a credit card (In case you want to earn credit card points), contact me and I can pass along the details. Please remember that all of your donations are completely tax deductable. It is a little bit of a struggle to ask for help, but I guess humility is one of the lessons that I am meant to learn.
Over the next few months as we prepare the team for this wonderful journey, I will be sharing my thoughts, feelings and the things I learn along the way.
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