Youth Missions

 

The HSM has taken several mission trips over the years, most recently to Alaska, Guatemala, the Texas-Mexico Border, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, and Namibia. Our goal is to provide opportunities for our students to experience what it means to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus where ever they are...in school, around town, or even over seas. We will be updating our old blog page as a way for people to stay informed as to what is going on while we are away so if you are interested in the updates click here.

 

 

ALEKNAGIK, ALASKA June 12-19: We had a great trip to Alaska where we were able to minister to three different areas in Aleknagik and Dillingham. We did a vbs type ministry with children in both towns that was really fun. We got to spend time with about 20 children at each site sharing the love of Jesus through story telling/drama reinactments, song, and crafts that helped explain the point of the stories. Of course, we played games with them as well which helped to open the door for the message to be heard. In the evenings, we went to the Dillingham Youth Center and hung out with some teenagers for four nights which was really a great ministry opportunity for our team. The town that they live in (Dillingham) is a small fishing village that has about 2500 people so there is not much to do during the day other than get into trouble so this Youth Center is a great place for them to meet up and hang out to play video games, pool, and other fun stuff. We had the privilege of doing youth services for the four evenings that we were there. In our time there, we saw four students come to faith in Christ and about 10 more make the decision to start living out their faith. It was really cool to watch each of the groups as they got more comfortable with our team. We have some great memories from this trip and are grateful to all who helped make our trip possible through giving and prayer.   

 

SOUTH TEXAS July 7-12: Our trip to the border was awesome again this year. We took our largest group (40) since we started going down there again 4 years ago and the ministry was awesome. We again had our group divided into two teams, one doing basketball outreach through Hoops for Hope and the other doing a vbs outreach to the children in the Elsa/Edcouch area in the mornings and the Albores Apartments in the evenings. We were able to interact with a great group of kids in both locations and our students were blessed by the chance to love on the kids there.

 

CHICAGO June 25-July 2: Our MOTION group had a great experience ministering up in Chicago this summer through the program that we call MOTION. They were able to perform at the Hancock Center, Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Navy Pier among other places. The students were able to go out and share about why they follow Jesus with those who stuck around to watch the performance. They also were able to do the Kidz N Motion program at St. Phillip Lutheran School where they taught the children some of their MOTION program as well as mixing in some teaching on faith in Christ. It was a great trip for our students and they are looking forward to what God is going to do through them this coming year.

 

On a different note, the HSM has committed to having a consistent ministry to the children and their families in the neighborhood around HBC as well as to those in our surrounding community. We will be doing outreaches once a month in order to reach out to these families right in our own backyard. If you are interested in helping out with that, please let Ronny know.