For the most up-to-date information concerning college mission opportunities, please check out the college and young adult website, the530.org
2011 College Mission to San Carlos Apache Reservation
Join Trey Wince from May 22 - 29, 2011 as we travel to southeastern Arizona for a time of service with Native Americans of Apache descent. This reservation is located 90 miles form Phoenix, is the third largest in Arizona, and is home to over 16,000 with an urgent need for housing.
Our mission group will partner with Amor Ministries for a week to offer hope to residents of this community by helping to fill the need for affordable housing. We promise your experience will include: Sweat. Outhouses. Joy. Apache Community. Family. Team building. Mud. Sore muscles. Bucket Showers. New friends. And More!
Contact Linda Morphis (lmorphis@fpcnashville.org or 615-298-9567) for additional information or to sign up for this service opportunity.
2010 Incoming Freshmen to Ecuador
Ecuador: a republic in northwestern South America that borders the Pacific coast. It’s population is a little over thirteen million people. The capital is Quito and the official language is Spanish. As I recently learned, however, this nation is so much more. I travelled with thirteen other recent high school graduates and four gracious adults to Quito, Ecuador for ten days in June to work with Youth World.
Unlike other mission trips I have been on, this experience revolves around relationships and people, not building a school or painting a house. The trip started with a day of sight-seeing in the older part of Quito, where the 19th-century Basilica stands. We spent the next few days with Remanso de Amor, or “Haven of Love” as it translates into English. Some of us played with the children attending school there, others helped with the ongoing construction, and a few visited homes in the area with women from the church. We painted an entire student lounge one day at the international school in Quito, called the Alliance Academy. The next day we went back to Remanso de Amor and took part in an all-morning Vacation Bible School. We attended church at Remanso de Amor on Sunday, then went to a craft market and took a gondola ride to the top of a 14,000-foot mountain in the middle of the city. We had a day of rejuvenation at El Refugio, the retreat center that was created to get children of Quito out of the city and into nature. Some of us hiked the ridge that is part of El Refugio while others rested in the tree houses built there. Our last day was spent with the teenage guys at Casa Gabriel, a home that rehabilitates street boys and helps them become leaders in their communities. Needless to say, we worked across the board with various ministries of Youth World.
As much as I would like to say that our group from FPC changed the lives of many in Ecuador, I think it is safer to say that the people we interacted with changed each of us. Whether it was a little boy named Oscar befriending the tallest guy in our group, the guys at Casa Gabriel sharing powerful testimonies, or a couple of teenaged-girls giggling with BJ during the assembly time at school, the light of God was shining brightly around us. I know I probably speak for more than myself when I say that I walked away from this trip with a greater hunger for and curiosity about missions. It is hard not to feel drawn into mission work after spending just a few days with children and adults in a foreign country that differs so greatly from the United States. Our group learned about God’s grace and the love of Christ reflected in those around us through our time spent in Ecuador. We have been challenged to dream big and change the world, whether on our college campuses or across a nation. What does God have in store for each of us now? Only He really knows, but that is the best part about it! He has a plan for each of us that He will reveal as necessary. Only time will tell exactly how God has changed the eighteen of us that went to Ecuador.
Olivia Coble
2010 College Mission Trip Heads to Baja!
In late May, six FPC college students and young adults traveled to Baja, Mexico for a week of service.
The mighty six were able to complete the building of a simple structure that will provide housing for a local family. They spent their days building and their nights under the stars and around a campfire in the dessert of Mexico. It was a great week!
Baja Mission Team: Rachel Styers (University of Vermont), Kevin Heim (Belmont University),
J.B. Hardin (Warren-Wilson College), Trey Wince (College Director),
Teddy Christenberry (2010 graduate of the University of Tennessee) and Worth Baker (Middlebury College)
2009 Incoming College Freshmen to Ecuador
Nashville is a little quieter a place now that our “graduated seniors” are officially college freshmen and are off learning their way around their new college campuses! Their summers were varied and busy and the beginning of a new chapter in their lives. Before she left for Savannah College of Art and Design, Lacy Lovell wrote the following paragraph describing the graduated 12th graders summer mission to Ecuador.
On June 8th, the graduated seniors of the class of 2009 met in the Nashville airport to head off to Quito, Ecuador. This trip was a fruitful experience for each of the 19 youth and 3 leaders on this trip. We began our journey touring the city of Quito but quickly got down to business on a church/school called Argilia Alta. Here we painted, welded, dug, mixed, lifted, and played along side some of the most amazing people any of us had ever encountered. For some these amazing people were members of our own church, for others it was the astounding men and women working at Argilia Alta, and for others it was the boys from Casa Gabrielle. Regardless, each of us got a glimpse this week of the kingdom of God and what true community looks like. We are so thankful for this opportunity we have been given so now we might be able to continue spreading the kingdom wherever our paths might take us in the years to come in college.
We wish ALL of our new freshmen the very best in this upcoming school year and look forward to welcoming them home as their schedules allow.
2008 Incoming College Freshmen to Ecuador
This June, our incoming college students spent nine days in Quito, Ecuador. While much of our time was spent serving in familiar mission trip fashion, the remainder was an experience that can only be described as "uncomfortable comfort." Rather than work our fingers to the bone in order to build a house in four days or less, we used some of our time to "get to know" Quito, Ecuador. Subsequently, we were forced to begin asking questions about the causes behind the conditions many were living in. This was the first step in "producing fruit" or taking our mission experience back home. Youth World demanded that we not only ask how we might help the people we met in Ecuador, but how they arrived at such poverty in the first place. Next, we were asked to begin thinking about what these lessons might mean back in our own culture. And lastly, we were called to action once we returned home.
It has been exciting to see what this class had done upon returning home. From letter writing campaigns to 4-square tournaments, they have been raising money to help build a vocational school in Ecuador so that the next generation living in Argelia Alta can begin stepping out of a cycle of poverty.
Thanks, as always, to everyone for your support and prayers that give our students the opportunities for experiences like this.
2008 Older College Students to Ecuador
On June 19, 15 young adults congregated at the Nashville airport, excited yet hesitant about spending the subsequent eight days in Quito, Ecuador. Hours later, in a foreign country on a distant continent, we were greeted by the smiling and familiar faces of Adam and Sarah DeVries, Debbie DeVries, and Trey Wince. Immediately I felt a unified sensation of eagerness, as each of us could not wait to embark on the incredible journey that lay ahead.
It is hard to capture the magic of our experience on a piece of paper, for the emotional roller coaster that we endured during our time in Quito was far more intense than I could have possibly envisioned on the days leading up to the trip. We spent the first day becoming acclimated to the city, absorbing the culture through sightseeing, tasting traditional Ecuadorian foods, and practicing our limited Spanish with the people we met. I think it is safe to say that we all fell in love with Quito that day, for our eyes were opened to the extraordinary beauty that Ecuador and its citizens have to offer.
We spent three days of our trip at Argilia Alta, a multi-purpose building located in an area of the city that is particularly impoverished. The array of ministries offered within this small building is amazing. Known as Remanso de Amor, or "Haven of Love," the dull, concrete walls house a school, church, and health clinic, as well as a central location for the Compassion program and several other services. Most of our time in this location consisted of playing and worshipping with the dozens of children that flock to Remanso de Amor daily. We were overwhelmed by the love and trust they showered on us, a theme we saw consistently with the different groups we worked with throughout the week.
The following days were made up of smaller projects, including an afternoon at the Quito dump and an evening watching a Liga soccer game with a group of boys that had spent a portion of their lives on the city's streets. Our group quickly adapted to the Ecuadorian way of life, an existence we quickly termed as "Flexidor." There was something incredibly refreshing about ignoring the value of a schedule, embracing relationships rather than the tasks at hand, and appreciating the Jesus and/or genius that we found in every situation, no matter how foreign or uncomfortable it felt. Our eight days in Ecuador were far richer than words or a photograph can express. I am so thankful for the time I spent there and the glimpse of Christ we encountered in each precious individual that we met.
Yes, you read correctly - it is trips plural. This year there were TWO college mission trips to Mexico. Each of the trips was filled with college adults eager to serve once again as soon as they finished college final exams in May.
We continue our work through Amor Ministries (www.amor.org) to build homes in Tijuana over just 3-4 short, but exhausting days. Many have made the mission trip over their spring breaks as high school youth and continue to feel a calling to this community.
It was a great joy for Sherri and I to minister alongside these young adults knowing that they return to their schools, workplaces, and homes changed men and women dedicated to serve God wherever He might call them.
Enjoy just a few of our memories from this year's trips.
2007 College Mission Trip to Russia
College Mexico Mission Trip 2006
This past May a group of 11 college students and Sherri and myself traveled to Mexico to build a home in Tijuana. Our working with Amor started about 7 years ago and is one of the most life changing trips that we take. We fly into San Diego and then travel into Mexico where we set up camp and start building the house. We are working with a very poor family who are in need of a solid roof over their heads. One of the best parts of this trip is the time around the camp fire. At night we cook our own food and then have devotion time around a sometimes large camp fire. I can tell you that there is nothing like spending time in the Mexican desert around a camp fire with others who want to help others.
College Russia Mission Trip 2006
This past July a group of 8 went to Tula Russia to help with a camp for around 75 children. These kids came from the town of Tula and other surronding towns. There was also a group of 17 who live at an orphanage in Tula and were able to attend the camp.
Over the years we have gotten to know not only the campers but also the leaders. As always it was so much fun to see old friends and to make so many new ones.
Our day started early and ended late. We had meetings in the morning and at night and all during the day we played games, sang songs, worked on craft swam in the very cold river and showed our love for these kids by just being there. The hardest part of this trip is that we aren't building a building, we are building a life long relationship. You see, all of our effort is so worth it when you see the smiles on the faces of the children who for the most part have very hard life. Laughter is rare.
During the time in Russia we did have a little free time. We visited Moscow and the town on Tula. To stand in Red Square where so much history has happened and to walk in the Krimlin and along the Moscow River is something that words can't start to explain.
Please pray for the childern and families that you see in the following pictures. They need to know that God IS watching over them.
