Dozens of teenager headed out of town after a week of service in Logan County

 

[June 22, 2024] 

This morning, Saturday, June 22nd, the invasion of the teenagers in Lincoln will officially come to an end. For the past week, more than 200 young people from locations throughout the United States have been in Lincoln where that each day they rose and after breakfast and morning devotions headed out into the town and the county where they took on home repair projects for those who were unable to do the work or hire it done on their own.

Today, that group will leave town, some if not all will be heading east to the Virginia’s where they will once again invade another community performing the same type of tasks.

The young people and their adult leaders and chaperones are part of the Group Mission Trips, and for the last week have participated in Workcamp for Lincoln. Group Mission Trips is a faith-based organization that has been performing this type of service and mission work for more than 25 years. The youth are members of their church youth groups or other faith-based groups. Each member who participates has to raise money for their trip, so their commitment is solid, not just a bunch of kids roaming the earth looking for fun or maybe mischief.

On Thursday morning, an invitation only group of community leaders were taken to three of the worksites in Lincoln, where they heard from the kids and had an opportunity to ask questions.

The day began with a casual gathering in front of the Logan County Courthouse where Lincolnite Todd Henry and Brian Anderson, the Mission Director from Group Mission Trips.

Henry explained that he has been volunteering with this group for 26 years. In 2020 he thought to himself that this was a group that could do some real good in Lincoln, so he switched hats from being a volunteer to being a workcamp coordinator and brought the youth to Lincoln in 2021. Now in 2024 they have returned and are doing work in Lincoln, Mt. Pulaski, New Holland and Latham.

Video – Todd Henry talks about his history with Workcamp for Lincoln.

Anderson talked about the mechanics of the workcamp program and how that more than 200 kids with the furthest coming from South Carolina.

Video – Brian Anderson with Group Mission Trips talks about the camp, and the ultimate mission of growth in Christ.

After speaking, the two men fielded questions from the group.

At the last workcamp there was a group from Lincoln. Henry said this year there was not. He said it was understandable because the selling point for the youth is that they get to go on a trip, visit a place they have perhaps never been, serve people they don’t really know, but will get to know, and meet youth from other parts of the country. He said that to tell a kid that while everyone else is experiencing this new thing they will be staying at home takes away the excitement of the activity.

Henry was asked where the young people are staying. He said that Open Arms Church has opened up Ruth Hall for the kids. He said this was a great gift as a lot of the time, the kids end up sleeping on blow up mattresses on school gymnasium floors. He said for them to have a comfortable bed to sleep in each night has given them better rest and a more relaxing free time period.

Next Henry was asked if the kids have had the opportunity to get out into the community in their free time. He said they had. They had gone to the Lincoln Theater for movies, and on Wednesday evening, had divided into groups and gone to a number of the eateries in Lincoln.

Anderson recounted that the purpose of the mission is to serve God with their hands and skills, but also it is a great opportunity for witness. He said that a lot of the people served are more elderly and do not have as much interaction with kids as younger folks do. They learn about the kids and their faith. He recounted that there are times of devotion during the workday, and in one case he had heard, where the group was going to be working a short day and leaving early, the homeowner asked would they please still have their devotional before they left. The homeowner said it was the high point in her day to spend time with the kids.

Henry said that he had also spent time talking with the kids about the conditions in Lincoln. He said that he had recounted that the community has been reeling from the losses of the colleges and other economic threats. He said he thought it helped the kids put into perspective the true value of the work they are doing in the community.

Henry was asked about eligibility for the program. He said that Community Action Partnership of Central Illinois had been the application takers for the program. They had suggested the program to clients, it had been shared in churches and in press releases with local media.

With the courthouse meeting concluding, guests loaded into two vans and visted three worksites in Lincoln.

The first two sites, the homeowners were actually in the hospital and unable to be on hand for the meet and greet.

The first stop was to the Dispasquale home on North State Street. Tina Dispasquale has mobility issues, so the youth were building a wheelchair ramp. The homeowner had gone into the hospital before the kids arrived, and would not be returning home until after they were gone. She would come home to a new ramp that would help her in her day to day life.

The kids who were working on the project were from Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina. The kids talked about the work they had done. Prior to arriving the only access to the back deck were steps. The kids had built the ramp and were going to be finishing it up on Thursday.

The talked about digging the holes, cutting lumber and putting it all together with the right pitch and length so that Dispasquale would be able to navigate with little difficulty.

In addition to the team leader who was also from Missouri, Dob Dunovsky of Lincoln was assisting on this particular build. Dunovsky said that the teaching aspect of the event had been a lot of fun. He joked that he had given one of the girls on the team a sawsall and she loved it to the point she didn’t want to let go of it, She wanted to do all the sawing from then on out.

The second stop on the tour was to the Riggs home on North Kickapoo. Henry explained that Mr. Riggs had been an employee at Lincoln College for many years. So he has been dealt a blow with the loass of the college. Henry said he was also one who under normal circumstances would have been able to do his own work, but health problems had gotten in the way. He had requested that his home be painted.

Henry said that painting was the first objective, but once they got on site, they also noticed that the front porch of the home was falling apart. So, that then became a second project.

Henry explained that within the workgroups, there are smaller projects that can get their work done in a day or two. Those teams are then sent to help out on some of the larger projects. That was the case at the Riggs home, and with plenty of manpower it was decided that the home would get a new porch along with fresh paint.

Riggs was in the hospital during the construction and painting but was said to be getting out of the hospital on Thursday afternoon, so he would come home to almost all the painting done and a new front porch.

The kids were asked if they knew anything about Lincoln before arriving. Only one had a comment, and it was recognition of the World’s Largest Covered Wagon.

They were asked why they had decided to be part of the Mission Group Trips. Some said that they had been before and had found it a very worthwhile trip so they wanted to come again. Others were there for the first time, but had relatives that had done the projects in past years and had talked about them so much that it motivated the current young person to want to participate as well.

The kids were asked if they had learned new skills, and said yes they had. Some had found out that they were good at something, others had discovered that they were not all that great at painting.

One young lady who was covered with paint had dumped paint on herself just before the tour arrived and took quite a bit of friendly poking from her teammates for being accident prone and a sloppy painter. She took it all in stride, laughing at herself for her clumsiness.

The kids were asked if they had been out and about in the community in their free time. One spoke of going to an excellent meal at Guzzardo’s while another had enjoyed pizza at Sorrento’s. A third young mad said he couldn’t remember where he was but he well remembered what he ate, Mickey Mouse Pancakes, and he said they were delicious.

The third home was located on South Walnut Street in Lincoln and the homeowner was a lovely lady named Nancy. At the age of 80, she is making every effort to stay independent in her own home. She said that when she learned that she had been selected as one of the workcamp for Lincoln projects she was overjoyed. She said that the help she was getting would enable her to stay independent longer and that had been her hope and prayer.

In this group there was an older gentleman who was a volunteer leader with the group. He said that he had been approached in his church to join a workcamp. He had said he would need to think on it, and ultimately decided that he needed to join in. He said one of his motivating factors was he wanted to see how this kind of project with youngsters who were in their mid-teens could actually work. He said he had learned a great deal from the teenagers while on the trip. He had gained a renewed respect for Christian young people as a result of the time he had spent with this group.

The kids had a routine schedule throughout the week that included awaking at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for the day. Breakfast and morning devotions took place before the kids loaded up on buses and reported to their worksites usually by 9 a.m. Most of the workdays were supposed to be over at 3 p.m., but some of the kids on the larger projects chose to work longer to ensure they got the jobs done as needed.

When the workday was over, it was back to Ruth Hall for some time to clean up from the hard and hot workday, relax, enjoy a meal and evening devotions, then some evenings they were out in the community, going out to a movie or supper in Lincoln.

Then back to Ruth Hall to turn in for the night and rise at 6:30 the next morning to do it all over again.

Throughout the tour, kids talked about why they had come on the trip to start with. Many said that they felt they were doing the work of God, serving others as Jesus had served. Some added that they had heard from friends that it was not just a servant trip, it was also fun and rewarding.

One of the key components of the workgroups is that while a dozen kids may come from one church in one part of the country, once they arrive at camp they are split up for their workdays. Therefore, the workgroups can have a dozen kids from a dozen different parts of the country. Several of them said they had bonded and made friendships that they knew would last beyond this summer, which was just an added benefit to the summer. All of them who were asked said they would certainly want to do another workcamp in the future.

On Friday evening, several of the young people were out and about at the Third Friday in Lincoln event downtown. Three stopped at the Lincoln Daily News face painting booth. They were excited about having the week completed, and were happy to relax for a while downtown. They were also excited, because on Saturday morning they would load up in buses and head toward Virginia where they would spend a second week serving God with their hands and hearts.

[Nila Smith]