Sermon:  SYF Mission Trip Sunday 2011

October 23, 2011

Micah 6:6-8
Luke 6:32-38

SYF Mission Trip Sunday

This service was an opportunity for our Senior Youth Fellowship Mission Team who went to serve at Homeworkers Organized for More Employment or HOME in Orland, ME for a week this past summer to share about their experiences participating in the ministries there.  During the week they worked on a variety of different projects – home repairs, shingling a home and a goat shed, demolition, porch-building, food pantry/feeding work, insulating and sheetrocking a room in a women’s shelter, painting the interior hallways of another shelter building, childcare and summer camp work.  During the week they learned more about themselves and who God calls us to be as missionaries to the world.  During the service various members of our group shared what their experiences were with their projects.  Below is one reflection about the work at HOME.  (Note: If you would like to learn more about HOME Co-Op visit their webpage at http://www.homecoop.net.)

Sister Lucy Poulin, who founded HOME over 40 years ago once said, “Many things occur to people when they see H.O.M.E.  When you see that complex on Route One, it's large and impressive.  But you need to remember that it was built by people who had no professional credentials, who were often too young, or too old, or too unskilled.  Many people studying it have said that to run it you need professionals.  A famous management consultant studied us once for several days and, at the end, he said his experience proved we couldn't exist--that if the government or a philanthropy ran H.O.M.E. it would cost millions of dollars.

            "But H.O.M.E. hasn't grown that way. It has grown out of needs that people have had and that other people have seen and said, ‘Let's do something about it.’ …
That seems to have worked, and that seems to be what we ought to do:  respond to people.”

To that end I wanted to share with you today the reflection of one of our mission team members who couldn’t be with us this morning.  Carolyn Marron wrote this:

I was both nervous and excited to go on my first mission trip with the Senior Youth Fellowship.  I was excited because I was going to get to experience this with my sister who was going on her final mission trip with this group.  But I was nervous because I wasn’t sure what this experience was going to be like.  What was I to expect?  How was I going to connect with people that are so different from me?  This anxiousness that I was feeling disappeared when I met Emma.  Emma is a five-year-old little girl who is living a very different life than I am, in a very different place than where I am.  Our connection was made over the craft of making friendship bracelets.  This is something I have made dozens of times without giving it a second thought.  Emma had never heard of one, let alone made one.  Again, something we didn’t have in common.  But as we each sat together and made a friendship bracelet, it gave us a chance to talk and get to know one another.  What I learned is that Emma is like me and so many other children across this country.  She loves her family, wants to have fun, wants to experience true friendship, and has big dreams for her future.  I learned that something simple can bring people together.  Emma made me realize that even though people are different, if they take the time to get to know one another and help one another, everyone gets the benefits.  I think of Emma often, and when I do, I smile.  I hope when Emma looks at her friendship bracelet, she continues to dream and plan for a bright future.

That is what doing God’s work in the world is all about, my friends.  It is about giving people a chance to dream and plan for brighter futures.  It is about responding to people and letting them know that they are God’s beloved children just as we claim that identity.  So we thank you for your care, support, and prayers.  Because with all of them behind us we were able to be missionaries on your behalf – doing God’s work that helped us to become more aware and will hopefully help others to have brighter futures.  Amen.