Seventeen South Carolina teens turned heads in New England June 19-28 when they gave up sleeping late and other typical teen-centered activities to serve and love people around Boston, Mass.
South Carolina students join NAMB church planter James Thomasson in servant evangelism around Taunton, Mass.Nine students from Hampton County, led by pastor George Skinner and his wife Heather of Sand Hill Church, teamed up with 10 others from Saluda River Church in West Columbia for PowerPlant, a ministry of the North American Mission Board.
The missions experience engages students in church planting and evangelism. The South Carolina team and church groups from North Carolina, Florida and Kentucky learned church planting principles and evangelism skills each morning, then worked alongside new Boston churches in the afternoons and evenings.
The team helped MeetingHouse Church clean up its facility, located in a Taunton, Mass., strip mall. Then they reached out to the nearby community with expressions of God’s love.
“We picked up trash, filled expired parking meters, spread mulch at a city park, and gave away free drinks and Dunkin Donut cards,” said 19-year-old Meaghan Smith of Varnville. “We endured a lot of rejection, but other people responded very well.”
Despite frequent rejection, students like 13-year-old Chase Peeples learned valuable life lessons. “You have to have faith in God to give you strength to go out and tell people about him,” Peeples said.
“We learned that most people would be willing to go to church if we just invite them,” said Michael Cook, a rising 8th-grader.
Now that the team is back home for the summer, the students say their work in sharing God’s love is not finished. “When you’re not on the mission trip, you need to be doing the same stuff even where you live,” said Jordie Skinner.
“Evangelism isn’t just for a week or 10 days, it’s for every day of your life,” said 14-year-old Adriana Loza. “I learned that you have to be committed to what you’re doing until it’s completed.”
Trenton DeLoach and Chase Peeples of Varnville and Blair Price of Lexington shovel mulch to revive a Boston nature trail.