Emphasis Preaching Journal

I can remember back when I was serving a large suburban congregation as one of two associate pastors. One of my areas of responsibility was the youth ministry program. We had set up as a goal for the summer sharing in a service work project in the Tennessee area with Mountain Outreach Project of the United Methodist Church. This was a mission project with more than 400 youth coming together at various weeks during the summer to work in poverty-stricken areas of the south. I organized 35 youth and five adults to make the trip south to spend one week in mission with the Mountain T.O.P. program. The average youth from our group came from a home that was valued at $150-$250,000. For many of the youth this was the first time that they had seen or been in touch with poverty from a firsthand experience. We all bunked together in a condemned school, ate in an old run-down cafeteria, and worked in the heat of 90-degree weather. At first, many youth from my group could not take this experience. Some of them didn't think they could make it through the firsthand experience of the poor. It attacked their hearts. After much prayer, after many discussions and working together for the week, it was amazing how these youth grew in their faith, in their devotion to mission. For many of the youth this was the first time that they had worked and became one heart, shared everything they had and claimed no possessions. It was truly a remarkable experience for these youth as they relied on the power and presence of God to get them through the week. Yet, at the end of the week not one youth wanted to go home. They wished that we were scheduled for another week. A year ago, I heard from one of these youth. He is now a teacher in a middle school in another state, active in his church and deciding to take the youth group he works with on a trip this coming summer. -- Smith