2024 Youth Mission Trip
June 17-21, 2024
This summer, CHN youth (currently in grades 6-12) traveled to Minnesota to learn about and serve in the Twin Cities. YouthWorks has actively partnered with local organizations in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area since 1996. Over the years, they’ve mobilized groups like ours to serve through children’s programs, housing programs, outreach to the elderly and those experiencing homelessness, and supporting movements to help address key issues like food insecurity and systemic racial inequality.
Itinerary
Day 1
Monday
June 17
8:30 am: Meet at CHN
9:00 am: Depart from CHN
Travel to Twin Cities, MN
Arrive Twin Cities around 5:00 pm
Dinner, Orientation
Day 2
Tuesday
June 18
Service Day
Feed My Starving Children
Global Health Ministries
Day 3
Wednesday
June 19
Service Day
Lyngblomsten
Afternoon: Fort Snelling and the Philando Castile Peace Garden
Day 4
Thursday
June 20
Service Day
Loaves and Fishes
Kids In Need Foundation
Day 5
Friday
June 21
Travel Day
Lunch and activities in Wisconsin
Evening: Return to CHN
Our Service Partners
YouthWorks partners with several community organizations in the Twin Cities. As we learn which partners we'll be connected with, we'll highlight them here.
Global Health Ministries (GHM) is an independent Lutheran nonprofit (501c3) established in 1987, and specializes in capacity-building for Lutheran health systems in under-resourced countries, serving some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
"We believe all people should have access to a healthy life. But they don’t. Together we can make a difference.
Each year thousands of volunteers gather in our Minnesota-based warehouse to help sort and pack medical equipment and supplies to share around the world. At the request of our international partners we also offer grants and volunteer consultants to help build their capacity to move the needle on health in their communities and effect sustainable and enduring change."
We volunteered in the warehouse, sorting medical supplies to be shipped around the world.
Every year, millions of children die from preventable causes such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and undernutrition. Hunger is still causing nearly half of deaths in children under 5 years old. Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) believes hope starts with food. As a Christian nonprofit, FMSC is dedicated to seeing every child whole in body and spirit. FMSC works with food distribution partners that stay with communities for the long haul, empowering them to move from relief to development. FMSC meals are developed by food science and nutrition professionals to supplement nutritional needs and reduce problems with malnutrition. Nutrition allows children to grow, thrive and develop to their full potential.
We will be helping to pack meals for people around the world.
Lyngblomsten is a Christian nonprofit organization enhancing the quality of life for older adults of all faiths and cultures through its healthcare and housing facilities as well as through its community-based outreach programs for seniors living independently. Lyngblomsten is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and is partnered in ministry with 30 Minneapolis/St. Paul-area congregations.
This is a relational site, and we will be there to spend time with residents and participate in any activities!
Kids In Need Foundation (KINF) helps create equitable learning spaces through the distribution of supplies and resources, investing in teachers and students in underserved schools. With the belief that every child in America should have equal opportunity and resources to engage in a quality education, KINF focuses its programs and initiatives on teachers and students most under-resourced, those where 70 percent or more of the enrolled students are eligible for free or reduced-cost meals through the National School Lunch Program. In 2022, through its programs, National Network of Resource Centers, and coast-to-coast local partners, Kids In Need Foundation and our national network supported over 7.7 million students and 333,169 teachers in 17,472 under-resourced schools, with KINF distributing more than $143 million in free school supplies and classroom resources nationwide at no cost to schools or teachers.
We will learn about KINF, receive a tour of the Teacher Resource Center, and assemble backpacks or boxes with essential school supplies that will be delivered to under-resourced schools.
Loaves & Fishes is a nonprofit organization with a mission to serve free, healthy meals to Minnesotans where the need is greatest. We are guided by our vision that all people - regardless of socioeconomic, cultural, religious, or ethnic background - deserve to meet their basic needs for food, dignity, and respect. We meet hunger through multi-faceted meal programming, including community meal sites, summer meals and snack for students, street outreach, and partnering with local nonprofits to provide meals.
We will be helping in the Commissary Kitchen. We will be helping the onsite chef to produce large quantities of food to go to a meal site. The chef will guide us and tell us more about what Loaves and Fishes does in the community.
Gallery
Many Stories, One Place
Minneapolis has three nicknames:
“Twin Cities” together with neighboring city Saint Paul, “Mill City,” and “City of Lakes”
Minneapolis is third to New York and Chicago for having the largest theatre market.
With shorelines of 90,000 miles, Minnesota has more than Florida, Hawaii, and California combined.
