Several teens from the Clifton Park area will be going on a trip for spring break, but their days won’t be spent lying on the beach.
The group, The Senior High Youth Group from Christ Community Reformed Church in Clifton Park (CCRC) will leave for New York City on Easter Sunday to embark on a week of missionary work.
“Our mission is to do work as an active act of faith – locally, internationally and internationally,” said the Rev. Johan Bosman, who has been at the church for eight years.
Nine high school students and two adults will be staying in the Bronx and working in cooperation with Priority 1 Ministries, an organization headquartered in Pennsylvania dedicated to teaching youth about missionary work through coordination of missionary trips between church groups and those inneed.
Ryan Golden, a sophomore at Shenendehowa High School, is looking forward to the trip. He’s been on a few in the past and says that with this one being to the Big Apple, it was interesting to him.
“Some people are not as fortunate as we might be. I get a perspective when I come back and realize that my brother and sister, when Italk about the trips, are listening and hear my side. Then maybe they’ll want to help out too when they can. My brother will be going to confirmation classes next year and will probably go on next year’s trip. I thought he’d be bored hearing me talk about it, but he’s interested,” said Golden, whose brother is 13 and sister is 10.
Golden shared an experience of a prior trip, saying, “We entered on to a farm where we helped raise animals that were being sent to another country. I thought it was really cool that we were able to help people from another country without having to actually go to another country. I realized how little other people have.”
On this trip, the group will be helping to prepare and serve meals, assisting the homeless and volunteering at a Bronx store house, among other work. Bosman feels strongly that these trips serve to teach their youth through being “hands on” and are vitally important.
“What we try to do at the church is take the kind of approach that we can care and serve each other. The kids learn from a very young age toget involved with community and to be serving, realizing it may not always bein the most comfortable situation and the food may not be the best. They really become sensitive to others. We expose them to the real world. We’re fortunate here,most of the kids are in privileged homes, and it’s good for the adults to see as well. It’s not always as good as we have it here,” said Bosman.
He added that the kids will be interacting with the homeless, an aspect that helps them to realize that most people aren’t homeless because they’re lazy, but that there are other factors involved.
Hutch Tibbits, an adult chaperone for the trip and member of thec hurch for nearly 10 years, has not been on a mission trip yet but is ready for the challenge. Tibbits, a retired guidance counselor from Guilderland Central School District, is also a Stephen Minister at CCRC. Stephen Ministers assist those in the congregation who may be having difficulties in their lives.
“Hopefully they’ll come away with a sense of compassion for how others have to live, to see for example where there’s no housing and people have to fend (for a place to stay) and for food,” said Tibbits of the potential influence of the trip for the kids.
“Johan (Bosman) is a regular guy, and so knowledgeable about so many things. He’s just a wonderful person and really knows people. He’s always available and interested. His wife Marie is very talented as well, especially in the choir, and the two of them are quite an engaging pair,” added Tibbits.
In addition to missionary trips, CCRC does fundraising locally year round and has contributed to CAPTAIN (Community Action for Parents, Teens and Interested Neighbors), food pantries, Habitat for Humanity and animal shelters, among other groups. Nationally they have traveled to the south to help rebuild after Katrina, and to South Africa for humanitarian efforts.
Bosman sees the impact of these trips firsthand. He recalls that after a trip to Washington, D.C., one young woman came back and decided to gointo teaching in the inner city.
“She’s a senior now, and she said it was what she was called to do,” he said.
“I believe to inspire for anything, there has to be a vibrant church. It does not exist for itself. It’s about being in touch with God by reaching out and helping others, it’s logical…,” Bosman added.
According to Bosman, the cost for the trip is around $300 for each student. Costs are covered by one of the church’s yearly events, The Mission Dinner, when kids raise money by preparing the food and serving thecongregation. The group will be returning to Clifton Park on April 13.
