THE PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL We ask that you pray for us on our trip this coming week, joining your hearts to ours in spirit. “...Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” - Luke 10
Meet our YouthWorks! Mission Team We ask that you pray for us on our trip this coming week, joining your hearts to ours in spirit. Lydia Berger Charlie Boyer Lexie Breitling William Burns Amelia Caudle Bailey Caudle Sam Clark Gigi Currie Max DeBruhl Abigail Dwiggins
Matthew Epermanis Leah Fisher Ben Fowler Jordan Gross Cate Hettinger Joanna Holden Eva Hollar Jacob Hollar James Jernigan Ford Morrow
Lealand Oakes Anne Overman Doug Peninger Tammy Pollock Anna Setzer Finn Wachtel Fletcher Wachtel Ben Wilson Lilly Zaks
Where We Are Serving YouthWorks provides Christ-centered mission trips for thousands of teenagers and adult leaders in communities across the U.S. and beyond. We believe that these kinds of mission trip experiences positively impact the communities we partner with, the teenagers who are stretched and challenged through a week of service, and the adult leaders who build mission trips into the ongoing discipleship of their teenagers. Our staff has been creating mission trip experiences for teenagers and adult leaders for more than 25 years, and in that time, the Holy Spirit has led us to be about these things. Everything we do points to Jesus. In case you couldn’t tell, we create mission trip experiences because we want to point all sorts of people to Jesus. We seek to restore relationships, love others and serve communities because Jesus set that example for us. Everything we do comes out of our desire to follow the greatest commandment that Jesus gave us—to love God and love others. When we get this right, we help people experience unconditional love and care for one another through the lens of Jesus Christ. In Milwaukee, WI, we will have the opportunity to serve alongside some great organizations that are working to support the Milwaukee community. These organizations include food pantries, soup kitchens, local gardens, and intergenerational care centers. Many of these organizations are interconnected in the process of reducing food insecurity throughout the community. In the evenings we’ll participate in a local worship service, prepare and serve a community meal, go to the beach of Lake Michigan, and hear from a community friend who works with teenagers and adults that grew up in the inner city. YouthWorks has partnered with this community since 1999. 2
SATURDAY • JULY 17
Pack up, pray, and begin our journey to Milwaukee, WI. (Stopping in Cincinatti overnight) Dear God, please surround this work team with your Holy Spirit. May their journey be a safe one and may You bind them together as the Body of Christ to do the good work You have called them to. Amen. “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called” - Ephesians 4:4
SUNDAY • JULY 18
TUESDAY • JULY 20 Second workday!
God of Wisdom & Love, today, as this team returns to the worksite, may they pick up right where they left off yesterday. Give them wisdom in how to continue the work and give them Your heart as they continue to build relationships with one another and the people they serve. Amen. “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” – 1 John 3:18
Wake up in Cincinnati, OH, worship, pack up, pray, and continue our journey to Milwaukee
WEDNESDAY • JULY 21
Heavenly Father, as our team wakes this morning to worship you and continue their journey to YouthWorks!, may you continue to be ever present in the buses, knitting them together as a team. Create in them a heart to serve you, to serve one another, and all those they come in contact with today.
God who gives the weary rest and provides strength, give each of these missionaries the strength to make it through the middle of the week. This hard work they are doing will help the person they are serving live life a little easier. May they rejoice in the comfort they are bringing to these precious people and in the comfort, You give them! Amen.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” –Psalm 51
MONDAY • JULY19 First workday!
Almighty God, as this team meets those whom they will serve this week, give them encouragement that they go where You already are. Help them to see everyone they encounter with your eyes and love to those they will serve this week well. Amen. “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” –Matthew 28:20
Third workday!
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:14
THURSDAY • JULY 22 Fourth workday!
Dear Lord, as this team completes their projects today, give them a sense of accomplishment and joy! As they place the finishing touches on their work and say goodbye to those they have served, may they have a true understanding of how You have worked in them and through them this week. May our closing worship reveal to our mission team how deeply they are loved by the One who created us for one another. Amen. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17
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FRIDAY • JULY 23
Camp cleanup, pack up, and head into the city for fun, adventure, and a BALLGAME! God of Sabbath, rest, and fun. Just as you rested and delighted in Your work of creation... give this team rest and allow them to delight in the work they’ve accomplished through You this week. May they enjoy exploring Milwaukee and ending the day with fun at the Brewers baseball game. Keep them safe and return them to us quickly. Amen. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.” - Genesis 1:31
SATURDAY • JULY 24
Pack up, and head to Cincinnati, OH to spend the night. Loving Lord, as our team begins the long journey home, keep us bound together and focused on you. Give us the fortitude and wisdom to keep loving each other well and those we encounter. May our patience be generous and our words kind and may we rest in knowing you are in our midst...now and always. Invigorate us by all we have experienced this week. Again, we bid the angels to surround us and guard us from harm as we travel. “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” - Proverbs 16:24
SUNDAY • JULY 25
Worship, pack up to head home! Merciful God, as these sweet church babies and their leaders make their way home, help them to take the lessons they have learned this week and practice them in our community and neighborhoods. Help them to continue to live out their faith here in Winston just as they so faithfully did in Milwaukee and all along the way to and from. May they continue to nurture the friendships they have made through this team, always. And may they know they all belong to one another in Christ Jesus. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” - Romans 12:2
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