2015 Youth Group Mission Trip
Dakota's Conference large group at the National Youth Gathering in Florida, June 2015.
A group of us attended the Dakota Youth Conference and Youth 15 Conference in Orlando, FL, June 21st – June 29th. The group included myself, Evonne Eichhorn, Olivia Eichhorn, Alyssa Etzler, and Jenny Puchalski. The first three days were spent doing mission work side by side with the approximately 240 other youth and adults that attended from the Dakotas. We were split into 25 crews and driven to many different work sites around Orlando. We remained with our same crews all 3 days. Some of our work included painting, cleaning, stocking shelves, unpacking boxes, and picking up garbage. None of us worked on the same crew! The site that I worked at on Monday and Wednesday was the Habitat for Humanity Restore – no air conditioning! All I can say is thank goodness for large industrial fans! Ha. Several of us also painted at a school in Bithlo, FL, for a day. If you’d like to read about an interesting town in FL, please Google Bithlo, FL. It served as a valuable lesson for me and our youth in how others struggle with poverty, lack of drinking water, poor housing conditions, and lack of adequate medical care, right here in the US (along with drugs, mental illness, and crime).
For the next 3 days we participated in the Youth 15 Conference that included about 5,000 youth and adults from all over the US. It was a wonderful experience for all of us – the worship was inspiring and the music top notch. The individual workshops that we all were able to attend were very informative and will help all of us as we continue to grow in our faith. I hope to be able to incorporate the GO ON theme in our youth group activities this year by identifying the needs in our own community and acting on those needs.
We ended our trip with a full day at Universal Studios. Other than Evonne having a bit of trouble with the heat, a good time was had by all. The hotel we stayed at was beautiful. The girls took advantage of the free time to enjoy the swimming pools, etc.
Special thanks to all who made donations for our trip. It was a once in a lifetime experience and we appreciated the congregation’s willingness to support us on our journey.
Joy Eichhorn, Youth Group Coordinator
A group of us attended the Dakota Youth Conference and Youth 15 Conference in Orlando, FL, June 21st – June 29th. The group included myself, Evonne Eichhorn, Olivia Eichhorn, Alyssa Etzler, and Jenny Puchalski. The first three days were spent doing mission work side by side with the approximately 240 other youth and adults that attended from the Dakotas. We were split into 25 crews and driven to many different work sites around Orlando. We remained with our same crews all 3 days. Some of our work included painting, cleaning, stocking shelves, unpacking boxes, and picking up garbage. None of us worked on the same crew! The site that I worked at on Monday and Wednesday was the Habitat for Humanity Restore – no air conditioning! All I can say is thank goodness for large industrial fans! Ha. Several of us also painted at a school in Bithlo, FL, for a day. If you’d like to read about an interesting town in FL, please Google Bithlo, FL. It served as a valuable lesson for me and our youth in how others struggle with poverty, lack of drinking water, poor housing conditions, and lack of adequate medical care, right here in the US (along with drugs, mental illness, and crime).
For the next 3 days we participated in the Youth 15 Conference that included about 5,000 youth and adults from all over the US. It was a wonderful experience for all of us – the worship was inspiring and the music top notch. The individual workshops that we all were able to attend were very informative and will help all of us as we continue to grow in our faith. I hope to be able to incorporate the GO ON theme in our youth group activities this year by identifying the needs in our own community and acting on those needs.
We ended our trip with a full day at Universal Studios. Other than Evonne having a bit of trouble with the heat, a good time was had by all. The hotel we stayed at was beautiful. The girls took advantage of the free time to enjoy the swimming pools, etc.
Special thanks to all who made donations for our trip. It was a once in a lifetime experience and we appreciated the congregation’s willingness to support us on our journey.
Joy Eichhorn, Youth Group Coordinator