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2008 High School Youth Group Mission Trip

Sixteen youth and four adults spent a week in the San Francisco Bay Area, doing projects that ranged from the inner city to the redwood forests. All along the way, staff of the various San Francisco organizations spent time teaching us and giving us helpful perspectives on the work and people we were engaged with.

Our projects included:

• repackaging pinto beans for the San Francisco Food Bank;
• serving dinner to 500 homeless and poor people at Glide Memorial Church;
• cleaning flower pots and planting native grass at Redwood Creek near Muir Woods;
• clearing brush on Angel Island;
• building a Habitat for Humanity home in San Francisco;
• painting Habitat for Humanity homes in San Jose;
• preparing meals for shut-ins through Project Open Hand, and;
• distributing groceries through the food pantry at Chinatown's Cameron House.

It was a wealth of experiences, and a wealth of love and wisdom from folks like the Rev. Glenda Hope, whose life's work has been given to serving others. Repackaging pinto beans may not sound inspiring, but when those same beans appear in a food pantry, and opportunities are given to meet the people who are helped by the food pantry, important life-changing connections are made, and were made.

We were blessed with a community of youth and adults who got along well and who trusted one another — enough to share deeply the personal thoughts and feelings each day's experiences brought. We were surely blessed by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you, one and all, for your prayers and support. 

Georgette Huie
Acting Director of Youth Ministries & Children's Choir Leader