Youth group of Ohltown UMC takes mission trip to New York

Staff report

The youth group of Ohltown United Methodist Church, Mineral Ridge, traveled to Niagara Falls, N.Y., June 5-10 to serve others.

The youth worked in several different groups as they helped repair the historic Oakwood Cemetery, provided meals and companionship at the Senior Citizens Center of St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, rebuilt a porch for an elderly woman, stained a fence and porch for her 80-year-old neighbor and cleared brush from an abandoned home.

They also worked with students of the Magdalene after-school project, packed meals for the Meals-on-Wheels program and worked on the Sustainable Sandals project, which recycles sandals discarded by tourists. Sandals are cleaned, disinfected, sized and packaged to be sent to other countries to be given to people who have no shoes and are at risk to contract deadly parasites through bare feet.

In addition to providing shoes for those in need, this project also keeps between 200,000 and 300,000 pairs of shoes out of the local landfills.

This Christ-centered mission trip allowed this group of teenagers and adult chaperones to connect to God, each other and communities through service to others.

Teresa Smolka is pastor.