Hello, friends. If you are reading this blog, we assume you have discovered one of our flyers or facebook posts about our upcoming mission trip to Haiti. We thought we would create this site to help you understand a little bit more about where we are going, what we are going to do, and why we are doing this.
Who We Are
We are the
Zion Church Ten10 Youth Mission Team. Zion is a church in Clarion, Pennsylvania. We call our youth group Ten10 because of John 10:10, where Jesus said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." At Zion, we believe in God's power to deliver us from sin and give us abundant life. Our youth group has a long and storied past of missions work including trips to Bolivia, Costa Rica, New York City, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
This year, we will be sending a team of nine students and three adult leaders back to Haiti to help people who are far from God discover life in Jesus.
Who We're Partnering With
For the second year in a row, Ten10 has decided to partner with
LeaderTreks, an organization that seeks to build up tomorrow's leaders in today's teens. A LeaderTreks staff person will accompany us on our trip to help shape our students into the leaders we know they can be.
Where We're Going
This year, the Ten10 mission team is going back to Haiti. However, this trip will be a bit different from our trip to Haiti in 2012. Previously, we went to Port Au Prince, Haiti's capital city, and worked directly with some orphanages and missionaries living in the city.
This year, we are flying into
Cap-Haitien, a much smaller city on the northern part of the island. We will be working in a more rural area and will be partnering with LeaderTreks and an organization on the ground in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, called Kids Alive.
When We're Going
The dates of the trip are June 12th - 20th.
What We're Doing
We will be working with Kids Alive to provide a Vacation Bible School for the impoverished children in the Cap-Haitien area. This VBS will include skits (performed in Haitian Creole), crafts, and snacks centering around the themes that God rescues, God provides, and God loves. We feel that these themes will be very relevant to children who are quite literally relying on God to be their daily bread. In addition to the VBS, our team will likely be involved in some building, landscaping, and/or clean-up projects at the Kids Alive complex, helping the ministry to better serve the children of the area. All the while, our teens will be receiving leadership training and encouragement from the LeaderTreks staff, adult leaders, and their peers.
Why We're Doing This
In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus told His followers, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Believing that God has called us and goes with us, we desire to be His hands and feet, taking His message to people in every part of the globe. We long to bring Christ's hope and love to the dark and weary nation of Haiti.
What You Can Pray About
As we prepare for this trip, we ask for your prayer in the following things:
- That God would prepare our hearts and the hearts of all we will encounter on this trip for the things He has planned for us.
- That we would fine-tune our eyes, ears, minds, and hearts to know and follow God's will in all things.
- A blessing on each person who will help to get us there and back again: the prayer warriors here at home, those who donate to our cause, the pilots and flight crews, the LeaderTreks staff, and our own team members and their families.
- That we would be successful in learning enough Haitian Creole to effectively communicate with the people we meet on the island.
- That all of the financial needs will be met for us to go on the trip.
- That we will have safe travels from the moment we leave Zion's parking lot to the moment we pull back into our own driveways.
- That God will move mightily in the lives of the Haitian people.
If you would like to pray for our team by name, we would appreciate that as well.
- Zach - LeaderTreks staff person
- Josh - adult leader
- Hannah - adult leader
- BreAnna - adult leader
- Mike - student leader, senior
- Chara - student leader, senior
- Belle - senior
- Angela - junior
- Taylor - junior
- Luke - sophomore
- Eric - sophomore
- Christian - sophomore
- Seth - freshman
