APRIL 2016 SPECIAL MISSIONS WEEK EDITION
C O L L E G E
CHCS News H E I G H T S
C H R I S T I A N
S C H O O L
by Sonya Wilkins, Missions Coordinator All In – what does that mean? For Missions Week at College Heights it means serving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. This is stated perfectly in our theme verse of Mark 12:30. For thirteen years our high school students have been giving one week each year solely to serving others. For some that means traveling to another country; for others it means filling a need in Joplin. For everyone, it means going out of our normal routines and comfort zones to broaden our world view and to see others through Jesus’ eyes in deeper ways. Middle School students serve as well on a smaller scale, and our elementary students get involved by praying for a specific group they are partnered with. Missions Week would not be possible without the support of our students’ families and friends through prayer, donations and financial gifts. To them we say a hearty “Thank You”! Please enjoy this special issue of CHCS News. You will be encouraged to see and read how God was glorified through our students!
CHCS News
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Jamaica
by Christina Hardy
Do you think of a tropical vacation when you think of Jamaica? Many people do! For Missions Team Jamaica we know really well of the impoverishment of this country. After 21 hours of travel to get to Kingston, we were greeted by our host church minister Gilbert Wesley. After a few hours of sleep we immediately hit the ground running and started out at the church service at Hillside Christian Church. Their form of worship is amazing! One student was able to share his testimony, while another student sang a praise song, and Mr. Horton delivered the sermon. All this took place while the remainder of our team led junior church for 35 kids. They used their puppet show, crafts and loved on the children for nearly two hours. Our activities also included visiting two very desolate areas with impoverished residents to pass out flyers advertising our upcoming Vacation Bible School. For three evenings we held VBS for ages 4 – 10 and watched our numbers grow to 85 children in attendance. Each morning, our team would travel to an area school. At these schools Team Jamaica would perform skits, puppets, do crafts, and share testimony depending on the setting. We visited two basic schools (preschool), one primary school (elementary), and two high schools. Our team’s favorite was the combination of the primary and high school that was a Christian School. Mr. Horton spent time visiting with the principals and our own students enjoyed this the most. They got to go into the classrooms and visit with the children, play soccer and other sports outside with them, and even sing and play praise and worship songs in their music room. It was a real God moment (or hour)! Our team also helped construct pieces for the church’s upcoming Easter production and helped with a Youth Rally where we participated and performed our skit. Another inspiring moment was going to the mountain to pray over the city and the students spontaneously broke out in praise and worship songs. On our free day, we visited Dunn’s River Falls. This was a lot of fun! We also were able to shop at the open air market in addition to some other souvenir type stores. We arrived back in Joplin tired and ready to be home, but knowing that loving on an impoverished child was an amazing experience and one we would not soon forget.
I love getting to worship as a school on Thursdays. And when in Jamaica we sang as a group with the Jamaican church on Sunday. We worshipped the same God. Two completely different cultures but the same God. I feel this really set the mood in my heart; a constant reminder why and who we were there for. —Matthew Estep (12th grade)
CHCS News
Mexico
by Jean Miller
This year’s trip to Mexico was extra special for Mrs. Miller and Mr. Harryman since we went back to the Juarez YWAM base, which is where we started our mission adventures so many years ago with Mr. Goldsmith. It was a joy to see how much the Lord has worked there in Juarez and to reconnect with the YWAM staff which has worked with us for the 11 years we have gone to Mexico. Fifteen juniors and seniors traveled by bus with Mrs. Miller, Mrs. King and Mr. Jordan to Mexico, and spent five days at the YWAM base in Juarez. We prepared by planning children’s crafts, puppet skits and songs, dramas, testimonies and music. We performed a program at two church services, one youth home, two soup kitchens and one day care. Our students were more than willing to be the hands and feet of Christ, and stretched themselves by getting up in front with a microphone and sharing how the Lord personally has worked in their lives, and by loving on the kids as they worked with them on crafts or playing games. We also spent one morning walking the streets near the YWAM base distributing Bibles. This was done in a very intentional fashion - small groups with translators would go door to door and ask if there was a Bible in the home. If not, we offered one along with a reading plan, and challenged the individual/s to read the Bible. Many times this led to deeper spiritual discussions; 217 Bibles were given out and ultimately to 9 salvation’s! Praise the Lord!! We also were able to support the YWAM ministry by spending 1-1/2 days working on projects around the base. Many of these projects are ones the missionaries do not work on themselves because it takes away from ministry time, so we felt we were able to be a big blessing to them by: painting 3 staff houses, digging up one septic tank (whew!), laying new gas pipe, repairing two pergolas, building one garden bed, and beginning to paint a gazebo. Our students were hard workers, and learned a lot about maintenance and repair, and blessed the Lord with their willing hearts and service.
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The people with the least always have the most to give. —Dawsen Worthington (11th grade)
As we were given the chance to hand the word of God to the people of Juarez, God showed me the living, life giving qualities of His holy scriptures, and how blessed we are to have this spoken into us each and every day as we attend College Heights. —Hunter Jones (12th grade)
Being able to give Bibles to families of Juarez has really revived my passion for mission work. That might look like me becoming a foreign missionary, or simply serving local. —Matt Gao (11th grade)
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Ozark, AR
by Mary Colin
Mr. Myers and I, along with 24 freshmen were blessed to spend a week on the campus of YWAM Ozark, AR. We spent time in the chapel learning about exhaling distraction and inhaling Christ, participated in missions activities and team building games, and traveled around the area serving and performing Bible stories. One of the many highlights was prayer walk through the city of Ozark, and evangelizing that evening at a shopping mall. Christ revealed Himself in really neat ways! At the conclusion of the trip, the students were energized for Christ and unified as classmates.
It was such a good experience. We went on prayer walks and prayed for people at the mall. I met a lady with an autistic grandson and I prayed for him. I also met a kiosk worker. He has never been prayed for before. He was so grateful and gave me a free emoji pillow. I went back to the grandson and gave him the emoji pillow. His face lit up and he began to hug the pillow. That feeling was indescribable. —Karli Hardy (9th grade)
I have never been so close with my class. The bond we shared is unbreakable, the love we have for each other is indescribable. —Emily Sanders (9th grade)
CHCS News
Life House Eric Johnson and I took a group of about 25 students to the Life House again this year to minister to the children in that area. On Monday, we spent the entire afternoon at the Life House cleaning and organizing prior to the arrival of the kids. Once they arrived we played games, had praise and worship time, taught Bible lessons, and provided dinner for all the children before they went home. On Tuesday we went to serve at the Joplin Sports Park. We swept, mopped, cleaned windows, and organized prior to Missions Week is a blessing. While heading over to the Life House where we repeated at Life House we worked with kids, the VBS style program we did there on Monday. and sometimes you can’t tell if On Wednesday we went and worked at the Joplin you’re making an impact or not. On the last day the director of Life Boys’ and Girls’ club before going to the Life House came up to me and told me for our VBS program. On Thursday, part of our team House the little girl I had been with told stayed at the school and did some general cleaning him I made life better for her. That definitely touched my heart and and reading to elementary kids. Mr. Johnson took me that just showing love to several boys to do some work for a family that needed showed someone makes a difference. assistance at their house. Again, we finished the day —Madison Arnall (10th grade) out at the Life House conducting our VBS program. On Friday we went to Walmart. It was our Random Acts of Kindness day. Each year we raise money and then go to Walmart and look for people in need and assist them in paying for their groceries. This is one of the most powerful days because our kids are impacted at a deep level as they see how much of a blessing this is to others. We always finish the week out by taking our team out for lunch. It was another great week for our team. Most of them really enjoyed working with the children at the Life House and felt they were doing something useful while serving those children. I have gone to Life House for two years. This year when I went back and I was talking to Alex, this kid came up to me and said, “you were here last year” and I said “yes,” and he said that he was so happy that I came back. I didn’t know that kid remembered me because I was in the kitchen most of the time both years. —Kim Kelly (11th grade)
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by John Blankenship
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Crosslines Crosslines Mission team, headed up by Mike Endicott and Charmagne Stanley and involving ten hardworking students, had a busy week this year. Monday began with helping the ministry clean and haul items as they prepare to open at their new location. The rest of the week was spent in various tasks including staining trim, unloading and bagging food for distribution to needy families and as well as assisting in the distribution itself, moving items from their temporary facility to the new facility, building raised bed garden boxes and planting those boxes, cleaning up the site from construction debris and rocks, and adding plywood walls to the framing to protect from shipping carts and pallets. These kids worked very hard this year and represented College Heights in an amazing way.
CHCS News by Charmagne Stanley
CHCS News
Hometown Bound Our group consisted of nine CHCS students. We stayed Monday through Saturday at Shoal Kirk Retreat Center located in Diamond, Missouri. The ministry we focused completely on this year was CHCC Thru The Roof. It is a ministry for people with disabilities. The group took out the linoleum in the kitchen, bathroom, and entry way and replaced it with new linoleum tile. Other projects at the Thru the Roof house we accomplished were raking the yard, trimming the hedges, cleaning toys and cleaning windows. We were also able to help out the CHCC Nursery by spring cleaning their nursery rooms. We helped make some decorations for TTR’s annual Jesus Jam and put up flyers in town to help advertise for the event. Wednesday and Friday nights were the highlights of the week. On Wednesday night we joined with TTR at CHCC for our second annual talent show. Everyone enjoyed the evening sharing talent, glorifying God, and just having fun. Friday night we hosted the Parent’s Night Out for TTR at the Shoal Kirk Retreat center. We had dinner together and played group games. Everyone made new friends and were blessed by the time spent together. The CHCS group also enjoyed many special times together; having devotions together, playing games together, swimming in the creek together, and campfire time together. We serve a great and wonderful God! I had never realized how much the Holy Spirit could actually do. God’s power and the meaning of worship were clearly displayed through the people of Thru the Roof. —Matthew Roberts (11th grade)
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by Pam Green
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God’s Resort God’s Resort is a wonderful ministry and outreach to Joplin, and our group was privileged to serve there. At God’s Resort we worked doing many things that they depend on volunteers to do. We spent time cleaning a fence row, and eventually replacing the fence; we built a swing/pergola for their commons area; the group did a tremendous amount of outside cleaning, which saved God’s Resort close to $50,000 in man hours; we also went down the street and helped a retired pastor and his wife work about their house. The group stained their fence, replaced storm windows with screens, painted the foundation and built a shelf to help organize the garage. On another day we went a few blocks away to help a lady who volunteers at God’s Resort repair her yard and paint a door. There was a room at the Community Center which students put together shelving units and helped organize. Students cleaned the Community Center and set it up for church services. We painted an apartment, and did hours of landscaping. One of the highlights was having a barbecue lunch with the residents and getting to interact with them, showing that through our service to their neighborhood, we were showing the love of God.
CHCS News by Todd Johnson
CHCS News
Missouri Baptist Children’s Home by Kim Hamilton Missouri Baptist Children’s Home is a Christian agency looking to help parents who want to adopt, become foster parents or need help regaining custody of their children. They provide clothing in emergency situations and play rooms for parents and children to have supervised visits. They are busy doing the work required to help these families, and our missions group was eager to help. We sorted donations, cleaned, organized and folded mounds of clothing. We washed all of the toys the children who visit play with and laundered all of their stuffed animals. In addition, the boys helped by steam cleaning the carpet in the parent/child visitation rooms. Lastly, we compiled and copied information to create packets for prospective foster/adoptive parents. We were thrilled to help, and the employees of MBCH were very appreciative. Even though we did not have a lot of interaction with these children or parents, we were the hands of feet of Jesus behind the scenes. I am so proud of the CHCS group of students who went. They encouraged each other, worked diligently and got a lot done. Way to go!!!
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Red Bird
by Tabitha Davison
This year’s Redbird trip was wonderful as always. We traveled to Louisville and stayed in Southeast Christian Church host family homes. On Sunday we attended services at SECC and then traveled on to RedBird mission work camp. We had three groups. One group roofed a trailer home in the community. The second group worked on campus cleaning and painting the commodities building called God’s Storehouse. They also poured a concrete drive to make deliveries and pick-ups easier. The third group also worked on campus praying for the teams, preparing a craft project, doing laundry, cleaning up after lunch and generally serving the rest of the workers. On Friday we shared chapel with the Redbird school students and presented our craft which was greatly appreciated by all. The craft was a Popsicle stick sign with a scripture acrostic of each child’s name... all 210 of them. Missions Week gives us an
opportunity to spiritually renew ourselves. It acts like a springboard for our spiritual life, springing us into the ministry with a running start. —Jonah Wilcox (11th grade)
Going away for a week gives you a chance to put aside the worries of home and dig into what God has for you. Not only did I grow in the Lord, but I got to know the people in my group – their hurts and their lives – and we did things together that I never thought I would do (like sliding down a mountain in the mud, stargazing, or making an endless amount of popsicle stick crafts). —Emma Greathouse (10th grade)
Missions Week helped me to grow spiritually and was the cause of building strong relationships with people in other grades I had never talked to before. —Emma Davison (10th grade)
CHCS News
Social Justice
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by Janene Russell
The Rapha House group became the Social Justice group this year. The goal was to take a closer look at what human trafficking looks like closer to home. We did serve two days at the Rapha House offices - cleaning the space in preparation for their move to permanent space and tagging merchandise. On Wednesday, we met with Chip Root, Joplin Police Department Cyber Crimes detective and watched the documentary Nefarious: Merchant of Souls. Both of these encounters caused nearly everyone to have an eye-opening/heart breaking moment of realization that Joplin, MO is not exempt from the trafficking crisis and that the need for people to be involved is great. On Thursday and Friday, we went to Kansas City. We had a fun evening at the Escape Room followed by BBQ at Jack Stack. The next day, we went to the Department of Justice and the FBI. At the DOJ, we met the US Attorney, Tammy Dickinson. She took a few minutes to welcome us and answer questions. Les Kerr, Law Enforcement Coordinator, gave a presentation about what the DOJ does regarding Human Trafficking and highlighted a few cases he had personally worked. After his presentation, we were treated to a tour of the chambers and courtroom of a federal judge. After the DOJ, we headed to the FBI. Five agents took two hours out of the afternoon to spend time with us. Again, they told about the work they do regarding human trafficking and a few of the cases they had worked. The students were allowed in both places to ask questions. They had many good ones and a few silly ones, but the agents enjoyed that time. I could not have more pleased with the week - both the group of CHCS I was entrusted with and the things we were able to do and experience.
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8th Grade Missions The eighth grade class enjoyed a beautiful day outside while doing service for Maranatha Bible Camp in Everton, Missouri. Students did numerous projects to help prepare the camp grounds for summer camp. Some students cleaned the entire hiking path around the camp of brier bushes and fallen twigs. Another group laid and leveled gravel for the new pool foundation while others began to clear an area for a new shooting range. Overall, the students worked well together to accomplish almost all the tasks given us. We would like to thank our parents who went with us, graciously giving of their time.
CHCS News by Nancy Ohmart
CHCS News
6th Grade Missions
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by Kelli Barnett
On March 17th, 2016, the sixth grade class at College Heights Christian School served at various places in the Joplin community. Students arrived at school with a servant attitude and their gloves and rakes in hand. The day began in Humphrey Park raking leaves and picking up trash. Next, students walked to the Frisco Trail raking and picking up more debris. For lunch, students walked back to Humphrey Park to eat and play before the last community project of the day. Autumn Place, an assisted living facility, provided students the opportunity to share and interact with residents and spend time helping them decorate cupcakes. All in all, the day was well-spent, and students enjoyed being outside.
7th Grade Missions
by Ginger Kitchen
Seventh graders went to Seneca House in Seneca, Missouri. This is a residential care facility for both young and old. Students made 75 vases of flowers and passed them out the residents. Students were able to visit and play games with the residents in the morning. In the afternoon, students pulled weeds and cleaned out the flower beds at the side of the building and they also stuffed thousands of eggs for the city wide Easter Egg Hunt. Inside every egg, students placed a Bible Verse. Some of the residents at Seneca House are indigent, some are disabled. Other residents are terminal and on hospice. One of the residents we met was totally blind and unable to walk. She was sobbing when we arrived and very depressed. Many of our students ministered to her and she was able to tell us about her childhood and how she used to ride to the store on horseback. What an amazing group of students we have with great servant hearts. Way to go 7th grade!
Elementary Students Love Missions Week Too! Each elementary class was partnered with a high school group or middle school grade and asked to pray for them regularly. At the conclusion of chapel on March 10th, each pairing grade/group met together for a time of prayer and send off. It was sweet to see the interaction between the “big kids” and “little kids.” In addition to prayer, our elementary students were a great encouragement by donating much needed items for our high school groups to minister more effectively. Thank you elementary students for your love and prayers!
ECFA ACCREDITED – On November 12, 2012, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability announced the accreditation of College
Heights Christian School. Accreditation is based on the ECFA’s Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship, including financial accountability, transparency, sound board governance, and ethical fundraising. When an organization is accredited by ECFA, it demonstrates its willingness to follow the model of biblical accountability.
MISSION STATEMENT
CHCS glorifies God through excellence as a Christ-centered learning environment that produces servant-leaders with a Biblical worldview.
COLLEGE HEIGHTS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL n 4311 E. NEWMAN ROAD n JOPLIN, MISSOURI 64801 n 471-782-4114 n WWW.COLLEGHEIGHTS.ORG