Unlike other mission trips where youth travel hours away to help the less fortunate in another city, the Grace youth stayed in their hometown, committed to helping a poverty-stricken area of Springfield.  

This mission trip continues the work they started in July 2009. Last year, Ransom Kent, Grace youth minister, told the youth they would be taking a mystery mission trip. They prepared to minister at their mystery location. Unknown to them, the mystery location was their hometown.
“It was an eye opener for our youth,” said Ransom Kent, Grace youth minister. “Springfield has more poverty than we realize.”

Surprised, but humbled, the youth ministered to people at Changing Lives Now Ministries, Inc., an organization that helps the poor change their lives by radically transforming the world they live in with a message of hope and salvation. Changing Lives Now Ministries is an “out of the pews and onto the streets ministry.”

This year, the Grace youth offered a Heroes of the Bible Vacation Bible School to children in the neighborhood of Changing Lives Now Ministries, Inc. They ministered to families of the neighborhood through Adopt-a-Block and Doors of Hope. They also ministered to the neighborhood by doing a trash pickup. They worked on light construction projects. The Grace youth also volunteered at the Pregnancy Resource Center. They arrived July 14 and concluded their ministry on July 17.

“We felt we made an impact. We are committed to helping the people in our hometown. For our youth, this is their mission field,” Kent said. “Our youth ministered with a grateful heart and with the help of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”