Home | St. John's Home |

St. John’s Senior High

Building the Kingdom of Heaven…one brick at a time

Nazareth Farm Mission

Nazareth Farm Mission Trip, West Virginia – click here for the Nazareth Farm Website:
Click here for information brochure: Nazareth Farm Brochure for St. Johns 2010

A NEW Nazareth Farm Mission for College Students from St. John’s Lutheran Church! This summer, May 16-22, 2010. Click here for the Sign Up Form: Nazareth Farm letter for Sign Up 2010

nazare1
This is a wonderful opportunity for a life-changing experience. You should seriously consider going to Nazareth Farm. This is an incredible experience of community, service, simplicity, and prayer.

Here are some of the St. John’s college students who have gone to Nazareth Farm: Chris Wolf, Andy Etheridge, Brian Temple, Alyssa Rathbun, Alyssa Ludwig, and Jessica Rathbun. They will tell you how amazing this week of service and prayer is.

We will be taking 6 youth to the Farm this year. Get your application and registration forms in ASAP! There is a $100 deposit fee due with your sign up – application/registration. The total cost this year is $275. The remaining $125 is due by April 1, 2010. (Scholarship money is availab – contact Steve if you are interested!)

Get your Nazareth Farm Registration Forms Here:
Volunteer Contract
Hold-Harmless Agreement
Health Insurance 18 and older
Recommended Packing List_Summer
Nazareth Farm letter for Sign Up 2010

All Nazareth Farm forms should be turned in ASAP to secure your spot for this year’s College Appalachian Mission! Remember to turn in your Registration Form along with a deposit of $100 (toward total cost of $275.

Read below to learn more about what the experience to Nazareth Farm is like. Last year’s trip is described below. You can also see the video upon request to Steve Terry, the Director of Youth Ministry. 

Nazareth Farm 2007 was our first trip to West Virigina! 
It started with Jessica Rathbun, Brian Temple and Alyssa Ludwig gathering at the Church to leave promptly at 7:30 PM.  We traveled the next 10 hours to Center Point, West Virginia to Nazareth Farm.

When we arrived, we discovered that there were four groups there from Duke University, LeMoyne College in upper state New York, Illinois State University and University of Illinois.  There were a total of 30 college students and 7 fulltime staff persons at the farm this week.Our day started each day with wake up to music and then morning prayer.  This prayer always started the day in peace and praise for the beauty around us.  It often challenged us to make that day count for something.  Then after prayer we went to chores so that we could take care of our home, the Farm.  These chores included cleaning the tool barn, taking care of the snow, the dogs, and the garages.  After chores we had breakfast – a hearty meal with oatmeal, french toast, pancakes and juice or water.  There were always plenty of coffee, hot chocalate, and tea availbe at any time of the day.                     

After breakfast we prepared for our work day of service.  We had five different sites this week.  Each group was set up from amongst the different schools and the adults.  At each site there were staff who ran the site and helped us with each site’s tasks.  The sites ranged from setting up a permanent separate roof to protect a trailer, building a porch with stairs, reparing ceiling and ceiling tiles in a home, to screening in an existing porch.  These work sites were at homes of people from the local communities.  At each site we first met and then prayed with the home owners.  Throughout the day we would take turns visiting each home owner and getting a chance to learn their story and share our own.  It was these wonderful encounters that most affected the students.  We met people of great faith, hope and perseverance.  From Evelyn who was 84 and had been baptized at 59 and received her degree form Liberty University at age 70, to Trish and Kirk who were in their 40’s and were permanently disabled with nerve damage and spinal damage from work accidents and just trying to survive and care for their children.  They maintained their faith and were always generous with what little they had.Another work site was home crew – which was just as important as any other service.  On home crew you would take care of our home on the farm and cook the meals and prepare a great welcome for all the workers when they returned cold, exhausted and hungry.  This ministry of hospitality was essential for the community of Nazareth Farm.  Finally, the home crew prepared evening prayer and helped us in our journey of spiritual awakening throughout the week.       

After returning from our work we would have some time for fellowship before dinner.  At dinner we always shared our day’s experiences by doing the Reviews of the Day.  Theses were often humorous reinactments of the day’s events.  The best review of the day of Alyssa’s group’s Service Review Dance to a haunting “Chariots of Fire” soundtrack.  It was brilliant!

After dinner we again had some time for fellowship until evening prayer.

At evening prayer we often shared our deeper experiences with each other.  Experiences of great faith, humility, prayerfulness, and courage.  We had two communion services during the week – each with its own themes, including Peace, Service, being the light of Christ for others, and living a simple life of faith.  The prayers were always inspiring and full of great joy in Jesus.

Finally, our day ended in fellowship – either by playing games or having wonderful personal or group conversations.  Taking walks or sitting up in the O’Connor room, we were always getting to know someone at a deeply and more personal way.

Look for the slide show of all the many pictures of our week at LIGHT, CHAOS or here on the website later in the month.1 1

<

Your comment: