Whitby 2007

On June 15, 2007 a team of eight students and five leaders embarked to Whitby, England. I was one of them. Our purpose: to serve the members of Whitby Evangelical Church both physically and relationally and to partner with them in reaching out to its community.

Since schools are required a certain amount of religious teaching in England, we had the opportunity to go into several local schools and share the Gospel through songs and skits. In the evenings we helped setup and participate in various events:

A Work Day
- where we completed a few projects around the church, such as painting.

A Sport’s Night
- where we played table tennis, darts, pool, carpet ball, badminton and sports trivia and two members from our team gave their testimonies.

A Church-wide prayer meeting
-where we prayed for upcoming events, ill members and people to put their trust in Christ.

A Craft Night
- where the ladies made cards, jewelry and decorative flowers and another team member gave her testimony.

Family fun day
- where we invited the school kids and their parents to come play games, get their faces painted, sing songs and listen to a story from the Bible.

Multiple Youth Nights
- where we had games, songs and a lesson for kids ages 6-10 as well as middle school & high school age teens.

Through the various events I was amazed at how much the members of the church desired to show Christ’s love to their neighbors! They were willing to go out of their way and go out of their comfort zones in order to build relationships, so that unbelieving people would become committed followers of Jesus Christ. I felt encouraged and convicted because although I claim to follow Christ, am I defined by Him? Am I entirely focused on bringing people I daily come in contact with to Jesus Christ?

Over the course of the trip, I was also reminded to find contentment in Christ alone and to stop trying to be my own god. If I totally trust Him, I know He will work out His plan and purpose for His glory. The only constant in life is God’s faithfulness and His promises.

Ultimately, He is the only thing that can bond people of all ages, races and backgrounds. So, whether in Whitby, England or Cleveland, Ohio “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, because He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23)

Allison R.

Quote to Consider

During our study in the book of Proverbs we talked about how we can be reckless with our words if we are not careful (Proverbs 12:18). This was a quote from that night that you asked for and I wanted to post it for us to continue to think about. Gary Brady, a pastor in London writes,

“Whenever we have in mind to criticize a person or praise someone; to reveal a truth to or about a person; to give people our opinion, or to tell them about what to do we need to think carefully about the effect our words will have.”

Great Experience at Merge07

Even though I attended Merge last year, Merge 2007 was still a major highlight of my year. I honestly must say though, going into it I was a bit skeptical of the trip as a whole, simply because I had such an awesome experience at Merge 2006. I was especially worried of experiencing all the same things I previously did - such as the schedule, the lessons, and the monotonous journaling. It was one thing I asked people to pray for - that I don’t become discouraged with the same stuff as last year and ruin the trip for the newcomers. Oh how wrong I was!

The first thing that was completely different was the change of the location. Last year’s Merge was held at John’s Hopkins University, and this year it was brought to Wheaton College - a Christian campus in suburbia Chicago. The campus was just perfect for the event. I was completely blown away by the facilities as well as the main venue where we did all our worship. The town of Wheaton itself was also exceptionally nice. As a group, we were able to walk to Starbucks numerous times to replenish and cool our dry and parched throats. Personally, I loved the individual air-conditioners in each room. Most of the guys were able to keep their rooms at a temperature of 50 degrees or lower AND use the air-conditioners as a fridge for our assortment of beverages. So yeah, the campus basically rocked.

Above everything, my relationship with God became significantly stronger through the lessons and stories. Because I heard all the lessons and stories last year, I sort of expected not to really get anything from them because I had already taken a lot from them last year. But God spoke to me through these stories in ways I never had thought of them. I really got to examine the stories - say, for example, Noah and the Ark - and ask deep questions I had never thought about before. One story that really touched me in ways I had never dreamed of was the story of the Passover. In one of our discussions, our group discussion leader, Nate, told us to place ourselves in the shoes of one of the characters in the Passover story. Being the firstborn in my own family, I placed myself in the shoes of an Israelite firstborn. Through this experience I really was able to comprehend the the total magnificence of God and how trustworthy he really is. I was able to see the amount of trust the Israelites must have had in God. Along with the Passover story, this year at Merge we were able to experience a long lasting tradition called a Seder Dinner. This tradition remembers the many steps the Israelites had to follow in order to escape from the Egyptians and follow God to the promised land. It was really cool experiencing a tradition from a different culture and looking at parts of the old testament that aren’t usually taught in a typical Sunday sermon.

Another aspect of Merge 2007 that I really enjoyed was the fellowship among our own youth group. I really got to know people I had never even spoken too before. I specifically enjoyed getting to meet and grow with all the “men” in the group. Every night, us men would have “guy time” and we would simply reflect on the day and discuss what we had learned. It was just an awesome time of fellowship and brotherly love. This fellowship among our group was something I didn’t take away from Merge last year and I am glad I got the chance to find new brothers in Christ that I am able to depend on.

Though it was my second time attending Merge, it really did feel like my first. God gave me the maturity and ability to see the whole experience through a different lens, and really understand how my story and His story merge together. I really encourage the newcomers who went this year to experience Merge again and again because there are always new ways to look at the Bible and experience what God’s story is for you.

Corey C.