Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — When the youth group of the Limestone United Methodist Church set out on a mission trip Lynn, Mass. on Aug. 1, group leader Carol Castle had one major goal and that was for the traveling teenagers to have an eye-opening experience.
Seven youths and two adult leaders from the Limestone United Methodist Church spent the first part of the month near Boston helping out in the community of Lynn, Mass. during a mission trip. Participants were, from left, Kyle Burns-Frazier, Justin Thompson, Adult Leader Carol Castle, Brandon Thompson, Emily St. Pierre, Joshua Worthen, Monique Lebel, Adult Leader Jay Thompson and Baily St. Pierre.
Castle knew that it was mission accomplished after a long day of hard work when one youth group member said “we should be doing more mission work in our community.”
“I thought, ‘he got it,’” she said.
Limestone Methodist Youth Group members spent about a week in Lynn participating with a national organization called Youth Work. Through the program, the seven Limestone teenagers interacted with other participating youth groups — two from Minnesota and one from Virginia — volunteering their time at elderly daycares, a community daycare, and a school. The combined youth groups from different denominations of Christianity were about 70 volunteers strong and judging by the reactions of Limestone’s participants, Lynn may have made as much of an impression on the volunteers as the volunteers have made on the community.
“I learned a lot about myself and how I can help people,” said Monique Lebel, 18, “the people that I helped also helped me!”
Each youth had a unique experience, but there were similarities in the lessons they learned; it was the first time to the Boston area for Emily, 15, and Bailey, 14, St. Pierre, but they both came away from the trip with some pretty profound thoughts.
Emily said that she’d learned never to judge a book by its cover and Bailey learned that there are a lot of people out there who need help.
“I also learned that you should focus more on others than yourself,” she added.
“Missions are a great chance to help those in need and have some fun in the process,” said Joshua Worthen, 17. “There are different things that we can do to help out in our own communities.”
Each mission participant had their own favorite parts of the trip, of course: Emily enjoyed the opportunity to learn about the Bible how it relates to everyday life while Bailey enjoyed getting to know the children individually at the daycare center “because they really don’t have anyone to talk to at home,” she said.
Lebel agreed that she enjoyed learning about God and working with the children, but she also enjoyed making new friends. Making friends wasn’t just for the teenagers, as group leader Castle also enjoyed interacting with and getting to know so many people of other denominations, and there was never a shortage of people to meet.
The teenagers worked each day from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., but the evening activities for the group were varied. They did some fun activities, like taking the train into Quincy Market one night and hitting the beach another, but their evening activities also included more somber activities, like they also spent one evening having supper at a soup kitchen one evening and really interacting with less fortunate individuals.
“I would love to participate in another mission,” said Lebel. “It’s good to help people and think about their needs instead of your own.”
Contributed photoParticipants of this summer’s Vacation Bible School of the Limestone United Methodist Church also influenced the mission trip of the church’s senior youth group; each Bible School student brought in school supplies that were taken to students of Lynn, Mass. during the recent mission trip.
