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Blessed to serve
By LINDA M. LINONIS
YOUNGSTOWN
Andrew Chamberlin, lead pastor at Youngstown Metro Church, characterized mission trips “as part of who we are.”
“God has blessed us here,” he said, and that’s motivation for the church to support a mission trip that a group will take to Nepal.
“It’s an opportunity to do God’s work,” Pastor Chamberlin said of the upcoming project. He, along with Jon Clark, Alyssa Perry, Nathan Stauffer and Jeff Worona, will be on an Adventures in Mission outing July 11-19 to the landlocked country in South Asia located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People’s Republic of China, and to the south, east and west by the Republic of India. Hinduism is the dominant religion.
“Adventures in Missions acts as the conduit,” Pastor Chamberlin said. The trip will be daunting in time and distance — the group said it will take about 45 hours of traveling for the trip of about 7,600 miles to Kathmandu, the country’s capital.
The pastor said there “was a lot of prayer” about a mission trip before a destination was decided; a team volunteered in Haiti in 2013. “We felt led there,” he said. The Nepal earthquake was April 25 followed by a major aftershock May 12. “We want to meet a need.”
Perry added that some Youngstown State University foreign exchange students from Nepal attend Metro services. “We had a good connection with the students in grad school,” she said, adding Nepal seemed like a natural destination. This will be her first overseas mission trip.
Worona said he has participated in other mission trips including one to New Orleans last year.
“The Bible tells us about serving others,” he said. “The people in Nepal need a lot of help to return to normalcy.”
The Nepal venture will be his first international trip.
Clark, who grew up in a church-going family, said he and his wife attended a church for a time then drifted away. A friend invited him to Metro.
“We thought we’d give it a try,” he said. “I believe it’s where God wants us to be. We felt the Holy Spirit here.” He said after attending a service for the first time, he received a text thanking him for the visit. “That resounded with us,” he said. “People were so welcoming.”
He continued that the spiritual meaning he derived from Metro led him to want to participate in a mission trip. The fellowship he and his wife experience at Metro prompted him to want to share it with others.
Metro has a Sunday attendance of about 85 people, and the age range is from the 20s to 40s. There are many young families. Local service projects of the church have included a recent free car wash, block parties and helping at Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley.
Pastor Chamberlin said, “The depth of community in Christ joins us together. The unity in Christ is our foundation.”
Clark added that while members share in that belief, it also brings them “to live life together.”
The pastor said the Metro congregation is brought together “by a deep belief in Christ and His desire for all people.” He continued that idea “resonates with people” and prompts them to follow Scripture and help the less fortunate.
He said his parents were missionaries in Spain, where he lived for a time. “Mission work is part of my life,” he said.
The Metro mission team does not yet know exactly where in Nepal they will serve or what they will do. They speculate it will be “manual labor” as part of the earthquake cleanup and rebuilding. Team members are raising money for their trips, and the church also will contribute but financial donations are appreciated. Worona works in the contracting and masonry business, so those skills may be put to use and Clark has experience in construction. The pastor said the biggest need is “manpower.”