Wilmington Mission Trip Testimonies

Here are a few comments from some of our team members, both those who went on the trip and those who stayed behind to support us from home:

Earl e Harvey The mission team had a great opportunity to join in the work begin done by Urban Promise in Wilmington, Delaware. They are striving to create a program where the members of the community can see Christ in every day life. Here children, youth and their families can be led to spiritual growth and academic achievement. We had a chance to work with and know some of the young leaders that had been developed within the program. Some of these have been able to go on to college through the help of this program.
One of the most impressive times was in sharing with the college students who come there to become counselors to assist in the training of the youth in the various programs. These college students feel led to give up their summers rather than to spend it on themselves. They have felt and seen the need to share Christ’s love with those in need; they reflect love which gives hope to those where there may be little hope.

Isaac Dunn I went on the mission trip to see how other people live, outside of what I’m used to. I was really impressed by the street leaders, how mature and responsible they are, and what they go through living in the inner city. Andthey’re only teenagers! It was an amazing trip, and I want to go again.

Fred Wade "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” - Matthew 22:36-40 (New Living Translation)

Last month, I got a chance to see what the world could be like if we all really followed these commandments. I went to Wilmington with an open mind and from the first it was a moving experience. We started with a barbeque with the Urbanpromise staff and Interns. I was impressed with the commitment and faith of the interns. We talked to several of them who shared their stories, one was from Malawi in Africa who was there for the summer, he shared his long journey to get to Wilmington but it was clear that the experience was worth it. The other intern we talked to was a college Music major who shared that she had just come back from a short weekend with her family. We later learned that she visited her father who was terminally ill. It was a reminder that even in place of such faith and service that there are still difficulties but that shouldn't keep you from living according to God's purpose and calling.

It was at Camp Freedom that I was really blown away by what can be accomplished when we live according to God's word and especially when we love our Neighbors as ourselves. This was a place where as the director said 'if you don't see God at least 50 times a day you're not paying attention'. I saw God in the staff, the interns, the street leaders and the kids every day.

We were a little confused at first, we thought these beautiful kids couldn't be from the inner city and the environment of drugs and gun violence that we had heard about. The street leaders, high school kids, who are in training to be the next Urban Leaders, told us that indeed these kids come from neighborhoods where drugs and guns are rampant, but in Camp Freedom, they are free from these problems if even just for a short time. We were there because God had called us to serve and learn. We learned that God's love can overcome drugs, violence and racism and that Jesus is alive in Wilmington. My prayer is that the peace that we felt in Camp Freedom will spread to other parts of Wilmington and other inner city neighborhoods. I thank God for this opportunity and I would do it again hopefully with a bigger team including my wife. I know they would enjoy find the trip as rewarding and enlightening as I did.

Nathan Dunn

I wanted to see what poverty really looks like and to try to help. I really liked being with the kids and making new friends. Even though I got poison sumac (while doing yard work project), I’m glad I went and I would go again

Betty Lane In the books of Acts, we read how Christ taught his disciples for forty days after his resurrection. Later, after Christ ascending into the sky, the disciples and a group of believers were filled with the Holy Spirit. They spoke in tongues and later afater Peter addressed the crowd, many became baptized. I thought of this scripture when we begin planning the Mission trip, the first ever for Peoples' Church. At first I had planned on being a member of the group attending, but as it became clear that I would not be able to go on the trip, I turned to being a support member. There are many projects associated with a mission trip that goes beyond attending: supplies, fund raising, prayer vigils. Our congregation was so generous that it was almost over the top! When I looked at designing some time of "prayer wheel" or something that would give the group (Earle, Isaac, Nathan, Fred, Ellen and Gwyneth) solid prayer support, God let me to utilize "sticky notes!" Again the congregation came through and the feedback from both members of the team and members of the congregation has been positive and uplifting. I feel very much a part of the team even tho I stayed behind in Maine. The Holy Spirit is so alive in this project and I urge anyone who would like to know more and become a part of the team effort, in any way possible, to be look in the bulletin for the next meeting date.

Ellen Dunn
From the moment I first heard about a mission team being formed to go out from Peoples Church this summer, I had a strong feeling that our family was being called to participate. For years, Hank and I had given money and materials to a variety of mission efforts both locally and at a distance, and Isaac (age 12) and Nathan (age 10) had done the same through this church and their Catholic schools. But in my heart, I knew that it was time to go beyond this relatively comfortable way of serving God. I could hear Jesus calling me to get closer to people in need, to put my hands and feet and heart where my money and mouth have been. When I first spoke to Hank, he said, “Yes. I know.” The boys agreed almost instantly. And when I went to my first meeting with the mission committee, I was greeted with the words, “We had your family in mind all along!”

Our journey to inner-city Wilmington, Delaware, convicted me of my own complacency and self-centeredness. Even with my Christian faith and good intentions, my life over a couple of decades had become all about Me and securing my own physical and emotional comfort. My week in Wilmington more than challenged my middle-class values and sensibilities, it rattled me. And it was about time, too. The good news is that I caught a glimpse of God’s love and His call to follow and serve Him in a new, living, and exciting light.

In Wilmington, I saw God’s intense love for the people of the inner cities, a love that demands that we pay attention to them. When our team attended Mt. Joy UMC on Sunday, amidst the music and preaching and exclamations of traditional African-American worship, it occurred to me, “God got here way before I showed up! He’s been with these people all along!” When we met the Urban Promise staff, interns, and street leaders and worked with them at Camp Freedom, I saw the gospel of Jesus like a flood of bright, unstoppable light that burns and glows and longs to be released in full. I saw God’s saving love that perseveres because it is so pure and absolute, in spite of everything we throw up in His way. I saw that God’s love is so great that He can’t help but burst through all our muck and stupidity and pride, and that this gives God great joy! This was new for me, a shock, an awakening.

I also saw that for anyone who responds to this love and gets into and sticks with God’s ministry, there comes a time when you realize that you can’t do this by your own strength, skills, or good intentions alone. In a strange environment, in the heat and humidity, in the face of complex circumstances way beyond us, this became obvious very quickly. Like it or not, God’s love in action takes sacrifice and a willingness to be vulnerable to pain and discomfort. It requires a humble spirit and way of living. I’ll never forget how one staff member described Joel, a college-age intern who is a skateboarder kind of guy from Colorado: “He came here not to do good, but to listen and learn and help.”

At Camp Freedom, Isaac and Nathan were the only fair-skinned, blue-eyed kids in a sea of excited, open, dark faces. The campers didn’t care what color we were or where we were from or why. They were there to play and laugh, throw the football and climb on the monkey bars. If you ask my boys, they’ll tell you that being with the kids and hearing their stories was the best part of the trip. As I got acclimated and did little things like help pass out lunch and stuff envelopes, I realized that the kids, their families, and our team of middle-class white people from Maine were really in the same mess together. Black or white, rich or poor, we are all helpless in our sin, desperate for God’s intervention and salvation. It’s His salvation alone that qualifies anyone to do anything truly good, for oneself or for anyone else.

But that’s the good news! On our mission trip, I saw that God’s grace is available to all, sufficient for all, everywhere and at all times. It’s by His love and power that the Kingdom of God breaks through and things get better. Miracles happen. Real change occurs. And, as Kristin, Camp Freedom’s young director said over and over, “God gets the glory!” In Wilmington, I saw the glory of God, His light, love, and power. “And the darkness has not overcome it.” Praise be to God!

Pastor Gwyneth I remember when I was in Cuba in 1999 well before I became a pastor, thinking, “Wow, I could never lead a mission trip.” But God had a different plan, and I ended up leading Peoples first mission trip outside of Maine in July 2010. Preparation for the trip itself was amazing to me, how God put together the team, how devotional ideas for each preparation meeting just came to me, as if God spoke the ideas into my head, and how the whole team handled our last minute change in plan from Baltimore to unknown and finally to Wilmington as God guided us faithfully. Since this was the church’s first mission trip, I also needed to help the team discern how to involve the entire congregation in support so that it was a church-wide mission. We came up with a myriad of ideas, including the spaghetti lunch, mission material donation boxes, prayer buddies, send-off event, daily prayer vigil and Sunday School banner to present to the kids. We were all moved as we received pocket prayer cloths from Sue Angell at the send-off, and I was reminded of all of the prayers, and reminded to keep praying myself, as I’d reach into my pocket during the day and find comfort in that beautifully knit square with an embedded cross.

Our drive together was long, but filled with good conversation, games and a relevant movie, “Blindside.” We worshipped Sunday morning at an African American church, Mount Joy United Methodist Church, and everyone was very welcoming. The choir and preaching were phenomenal and didn’t even realize that worship was over 2 hours!

The team gladly accepted the idea of sharing the leadership of morning devotions, and it was especially meaningful to share communion together on several mornings. Since I know Philadelphia a bit from my childhood, I was able to take the team to South Street for cheese steaks and a tour of Penn’s Landing one evening, which was a lot of fun and team bonding time as well.

While at Camp Freedom serving alongside the street leaders and other staff, I was particularly impressed with the caliber of these leaders, some of whom had attended the camp just a few years before as kids! I thought that perhaps these leaders had different experiences growing up – maybe they hadn’t been exposed to drugs and gun violence, and lived in Christian homes with good parents. I was wrong, but I also learned that Urban Promise was providing a way for these young people to know Christ, and to make a difference in their community and in the world despite their many disadvantages, even supporting some to go to college.

The most meaningful aspect of the actual mission was helping the kids feel valued. This was particularly apparent on the field trip to Long Wood Gardens. We sung together and held hands as we walked, fed fish and played together, painted together and exchanged artwork. They loved taking pictures with my camera and seeing photos I’d brought of my family. The kids seemed to accept our presence with them for the week so easily. I’m so glad I have photos to remember their faces, and to remember to hold these precious children in my prayers.