VIM Trips by area churches accomplish God's mission
By Twanda Prioleau
This summer, churches throughout the Baltimore-Washington Conference participated in Volunteer in Mission trips at home and abroad. The Rev. Twanda Prioleau of John Wesley UMC in Baltimore shares her experience.
For a week this summer, Wesley Freedom UMC in Sykesville and John Wesley UMC in Baltimore journeyed on a mission trip to Belize together.
The trip, which included 42 people from the two churches, was under the leadership of Bob Jacoby, the youth pastor at Wesley Freedom UMC. Wesley Freedom has been doing global missions for years. However, this was the first time John Wesley UMC participated in hands-on global missions out of the country.
This connection between the two churches started more than 10 years ago when Wesley Freedom began bringing their confirmation class to John Wesley every January, a tradition that continues today.
We believe that this is the beginning of two churches doing missions together, but it was definitely a risk for us. We took a risk financially asking family, friends and our congregation to support us, and we took a risk by coming out of our comfort zones engaging in ministry with a different culture and individuals we would not ordinarily come in contact with in our day-to-day interactions.
We believe this has opened the door to doing greater things for the Kingdom of God.
We arrived in Belize excited, but yet uncertain about what this journey had in store for us. On Sunday, I had an opportunity to preach during morning worship at the Succotz Church of the Nazarene. We prayed that God would open the hearts and minds of the people we would come in contact with and, after worship, our group walked through the community praying for families and inviting the children to Vacation Bible School. One team came back with the report that a woman in the community had given her life to Christ.
We started our week expecting to see “God sightings” and ended our week with an abundance of testimonies of what we had experienced. It was a life changing experience for all.
Brenda Zalitto and Myra Stokes of John Wesley started a women’s ministry of crocheting with more than 20 women in attendance. Because of the impact of this ministry, John Wesley will continue to send crochet supplies to Belize for the women.
We ran a week-long Vacation Bible School with more than 200 children from the community in attendance. It was awesome to see our youth and young adults interact and connect with the kids in the community. The smiles on the kids’ faces were priceless. We ran a sports camp and realized you do not always have to be working; we can play and serve the Lord. We painted the exterior of a church, installed windows, a ceiling and a roof, and waterproofed a jungle gym. We also did food distribution in the community. The projects were financially supported by Wesley Freedom.
After we left Belize, we received an e-mail from Pastor Eric Reyes, the pastor of the Succotz Church of the Nazarene. I believe this e-mail is a testament of God’s work in Belize.
He wrote, “Please join with me to give thanks to God for his mercy and love. What you did here is still giving fruits. Tuesday night we had the Hernandez family, a family you also shared food with, where the head of the household had suffered an accident and hurt his spine, both husband and wife gave their life to the Lord. Alleluia…..Amen.”
This is a witness to what God can do when we bring two churches together to accomplish one mission -- God’s mission.
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