| Outreach & Missions |
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| God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:4-5 |
| Community Outreach Besides all the fun stuff, our youth are very involved in our Community Outreach events. They work as counselors during our Vacation Bible School, assist with our annual Easter Egg Hunt, All Saints Day Festival and represent various Bible characters in our Christmas Eve Living Nativity. |
| The youth have helped to serve food to the homeless at the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen. For several years, the Youth Group has sponsored a “Souper Bowl of Caring” on Super Bowl Sunday. Cans of soup are collected and given to the South County Food Pantry. The youth have donated between 500 to 1200 cans of food per year! |
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| Since 1994, our youth have annually packed approximately 116 lunches for the members of the Bethune Cookman Choir who perform at VNUMC. Our youth also ring bells during the holiday season for the Salvation Army. |
| Diaper Drive Annually, the Youth Group sponsors a “Diaper Drive” for the Venice Area Pregnancy Care Center, Inc. All sizes are collected from newborn to extra large in special boxes wrapped like baby presents. |
| Mission Trips Several of our youth have taken part in a mission trip to the Homeless and Orphan Outreach Center, Inc. (HOOI) in the Dominican Republic each year since 1999. Their duties have included making repairs to the buildings, paving a parking lot, plumbing, and playing with the children who desperately need some one on one attention. It has become a tradition during our Vacation Bible School to take up a collection of school supplies that are sent along with our youth to the orphanage. In 2003, we started adding children’s Bible story booklets written in Spanish. The youth group has also visited Dulac which was affected in Hurricane Katrina. |
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| Mission Project We are sponsoring a 6-year old boy, David, from Honduras. The youth bring $1.00 or more each week and that money is sent to David so that he can attend school. The youth are very dedicated to this mission project. We chose David from Compassion International at the “Acquire the Fire” Youth Conference. We communicate with each other through written letters. |