Background and Need Served:

Mission trips are an integral component of our youth ministry program.  Summer mission trips provide meaningful and life changing experiences for our youth.  These trips challenge youth to put their faith in action.  These opportunities for serving others take youth out of their comfort zone.  Meaning is found in serving.  God is encountered in unique ways. 

For the past eleven years, FUMC Ann Arbor has sent a group of Jr. High youth and counselors to the Upper Peninsula to lead Vacation Bible School at the Zeba Indian Mission.  Sr. High trips vary each year to offer different mission experiences, including: 

2005 – Puerto Rico and Brazil

2006 – Bulgaria and Zeba Indian Mission

2007 – Puerto Rico and Zeba Indian Mission

Outreach Project Purpose:

The core purpose of youth ministry is to nurture youth to make room in their lives for God’s presence and transforming spirit.  It is about equipping youth for life with an enduring faith, and discovering meaning through questioning and being challenged.  Opportunities are built into the youth program to stretch, to wrestle with tough issues and to attempt things they never thought possible.  The youth program is purposeful in getting the youth outside their comfort zones and into service.

Project Goals:

Looking forward, our goals are to:

• Build on the established relationship with the Zeba Indian mission by continuing to provide our annual junior high mission trip to lead Vacation Bible School on the reservation
• Continue to provide two options for senior high mission trips, with a variety of locations and projects
• Build our relationship with Camp Corson Methodist camp in Puerto Rico with yearly or every-other-year trips to offer a Vacation Bible School and do repairs at the camp and the local Methodist Church in Jayuya.
• Build and expand our established relationship with Yambol, Bulgaria, evaluating the feasibility for an inter-generational trip to Bulgaria in summer of 2008 or 2009 for youth and adults.
• Encourage youth to participate in FUMC inter-generational mission trips such as Kenya, Estonia and Appalachia.  Establish a scholarship fund to assist youth who desire to participate in these trips.

2008+ Project Goals

• June 14 -22, Senior High trip to New Orleans to do disaster recovery ministry through UMCOR and the Louisiana Conference of the UMC. Majority of project is interior work on local homes in New Orleans.
• July Junior High trip to Zeba Indian Mission to lead Vacation Bible School.
• Possible July trip to Bulgaria for a limited number of senior high youth and interested adults.

Current Team Members:

• Beth Miller
• FUMC Youth
• The Parent Council
• Adult Leaders of Youth

Estimated Project Costs/Resources Required

Project costs vary trip to trip.  The figures shown below are estimated project costs for 2008  trips.

Activity                                                          Funds Required

Jr. High  - Zeba trip (7 days)                              ~$400/youth

Sr. High – New Orleans (8 days)                       ~$540/youth

Proposed Source of Resources/Funds

All expenses are paid for by participants and group fundraisers (primarily Grocery Certificates and Bethlehem Inn Drama).  Nothing is budgeted through the FUMC budget.

Activity                                                   Goal                                   Projected Timing

Grocery Certificate Program                 ~$20,000                                     Ongoing

Bethlehem Inn Drama                              ~$2500                                     December

Jr High Trip Participants                     ~$320/youth (80% of trip cost)

Sr. High Trip Participants                   ~$420 /youth (77% of trip cost)

 

Date Completed: October 31, 2007
By: Beth Miller (beth@fumc-a2.org)