The Youngstown Initiative
When the words “mission trip” come up in conversation most people think of traveling to disaster areas, such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina or poverty-stricken Appalachia. Maybe they think about places out of the United States, like El Salvador where money and technology are scarce. The phrase mission trip rarely suggests work in your own backyard. Fortunately, for the city of Youngstown, Ohio, the people of St. John’s, led by the Rev. Jeremiah Williamson, noticed that there was a lot of work to be done in their city alone, and the Youngstown Initiative was born.
The Youngstown Initiative is a program where mission-minded groups can do accessible and affordable work in the Youngstown community. The projects can be custom-designed to fit a group’s availability numbers, and skills; the parish of St. John’s will search to find work in the Youngstown community that best fits the group’s desires.
Groups (no matter what size) stay at St. John’s for a small fee of about $30 a night which includes all of St. John’s facilities including their full-sized kitchen. For a $2 donation, showers at the YMCA of Youngstown are available. Another $2 allows guests to use the pool, basketball courts, weight rooms, and other facilities Also provided is a host from St. John’s who is on-call all the time for any reason.
Along with their mission projects, groups are encouraged to explore the Youngstown area during their stay. Williamson provides plenty of options for groups to choose from including ballgames, and concerts in the park. That isn’t the only “free” time that they have, though. Groups can organize their own devotions and group bonding time back at the church. Another option is a contemporary Eucharist or healing service on the last night of the trip, which the group can also help to design.
So far, two groups have participated in this call to help others. Church of Our Saviour, Akron, and St. Paul’s, Fremont, have worked with such organizations as Easter Seals and Habitat for Humanity to successfully create their projects. When asked to tell a little bit about the Initiative, the Rev. Daniel Orr of St. Paul’s, Fremont, responded that “I thought the idea of the initiative was brilliant. It is precisely the way we need to build the kingdom by becoming lighter on our feet and more responsive to the needs of our swath of Ohio.”
Upon their arrival, the St. Paul’s gang (6 kids and 2 adults) had a choice of 5 specific places where they could provide their services. After much deliberation, they chose Easter Seals as their mission. Two-by-two the kids went to specific classrooms to work with kids suffering from Autism and pre-school aged children, as well. Things such as helping with school work, going swimming, and a field trip to Pizza Hut were some of the activities for their particular three day mission trip. “The work [with the children] was very intensive, but the kids want to go back!” explained Orr.
After their 9 A.M.-3 P.M. work days, the kids just wanted to relax. Evenings were filled with swimming, volleyball, and exercising at the YMCA, high energy devotions led by the St. Paul’s youth themselves, and simply playing games in the church’s facilities.
The Youngstown Initiative provides a new way to give back to a community of people that need help It’s never too late to offer support to a place that needs it.