By Marissa Witkovsky-Eldred
We invite your prayers for the 2023 FaithX summer season.
The first FaithX trip will kick off this Sunday, May 28, as 18 adults from Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kansas, and Massachusetts gather in Spain to serve with the Spanish Church of the Brethren congregations in the Gijon region.
FaithX commissioning resources are available, to be used by congregations for the sending out of their FaithX participants. This is a wonderful practice to connect congregants to their FaithX participants and to support the service and experiences of their youth and adults who are going out into the world to be the hands and feet of Jesus. The commissioning resources are now available online at www.brethren.org/faithx and are being emailed to pastors whose congregations have FaithX participants this summer. For more information, contact the FaithX office at faithx@brethren.org or 847-429-4337.
A total of 11 trips will occur between late May and early August. In all, about 170 individuals will take part in one of the trips.
Junior high youth will travel to Rodney, Mich., to volunteer at Camp Brethren Heights (13 participants); Roanoke, Va., to spend time with the Roanoke Rescue Mission (21 participants); and Harrisburg, Pa., to work with Harrisburg First Church of the Brethren Vacation Bible School (8 participants).
Junior and senior high youth will come together in Winston-Salem, N.C., to partner with SPARK (33 participants) and Knoxville, Tenn., to volunteer at the Knoxville Dream Center (17 participants).
Senior high youth will visit Cle Elum, Wash., to help out at Camp Koinonia (16 participants); Portland, Ore., to support Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) project site SnowCap (11 participants); Palmyra, Pa., to assist at the Capital Area Therapeutic Riding Association (19 participants); and Washington, D.C., to work with a variety of food banks (10 participants).
Youth and young adults with intellectual disabilities will join the We Are Able trip held in Elgin, Ill., to serve at a food bank and horse farm (7 participants).
— Marissa Witkovsky-Eldred is interim coordinator of Short-Term Service, including FaithX, as part of the staff of Brethren Volunteer Service. Find out more about FaithX at www.brethren.org/faithx.
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