First Presbyterian Church of Greenwood - Illinois Youth Mission Trip 2009

First Presbyterian Church of Greenwood
108 East Cambridge Ave.
P.O. Box 426
Greenwood, SC 29648

Office Hours:
Monday-Thursday 8AM-5PM
Friday 8AM-12NOON
Phone: 864-229-5814
Fax: 864-229-3489

Illinois 2009

We had a great trip to Sullivan, Illinois this summer for our youth mission trip! Seventeen of us took a road trip out to the cornfields, stopping for the night at First Presbyterian in Nashville on the way there and back. We accompanied 400 students from all over the nation to join Group Workcamps in assisting this small community with various projects. We stayed in the local high school and slept on the floor in school rooms. Our work crews were composed of 5 students and 1 adult from various states who each worked on one project for the week. Our resident homeowners were encouraged to join us in lunch devotions and many of them established relationships with their groups. Each person in the group had a job, such as leading devotions, fixing the lunch cooler, making sure tools and supplies were on site, directing the project and reporting back to the leaders at the end of the day.
The theme for the week was "REVEAL" and was based on Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come." The first priority of Group Workcamp is spiritual growth and the organization sees to that with worship programs and youth group devotion time each night, and by the example they set themselves. We explored those things that oppress us from giving our whole lives to God. We felt like we really grew in our faith as a youth group and individually as we felt God at work around us and in us.
Our days began at 6:45 with breakfast, the morning program, and gathering our supplies and food for the day. We worked on the sites from 8:30-3:30, and then returned to the school for showers and dinner. We had some free time before the evening worship program and youth group devotions. We wrote care cards, which are notes of encouragement, to all in our work crew and youth group. These were hard to write, but a highlight for the trip home as we got to read our cards from others.
We all brought canned goods to donate and we totaled over 4,200 cans for this camp. Since all of the other Workcamp cities collected food as well, the total to date is over 100,000 cans that will be donated all over the country. Way to go! The people in Illinois were very welcoming and baked us lots of COOKIES! We are truly blessed to have had this experience and look forward to more service in the future.

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