March 15, 2000

Texas WMU draws youth into mission action
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___WACO--Teenagers dug, shined, mowed, cleaned, sorted, surveyed, played, sang, visited, planted, talked and walked as they experienced missions firsthand during CARGO

MISSIONS PROJECTS took youth participants in CARGO 2000 to a variety of sites around Waco. Katy Reavis and Stephanie Scherb of First Baptist Church of Nederland sort clothing in the clothes closet at Hillcrest Care Center.

2000, sponsored by Woman's Missionary Union of Texas.
___More than 900 students from about 100 churches across the state participated in the event, which featured a Saturday morning missions experience at 110 sites around Waco and McLennan County.
___"We wanted to expose them to missions during a two-hour experience," said Judy Patterson of Lorena, who headed up the missions effort.
___"We hope that these experiences can serve as a catalyst to help youth groups see they can do missions where they live and that what they do has world implications," said Nancy Hamilton, youth consultant with Texas WMU.
___Patterson--whose husband, Mike, is pastor of First Baptist Church of Lorena--said she had 110 sites participants could choose from, from doing backyard Bible clubs with Mission Waco, to helping clean and refurbish a house that provides help for lower-income families, to prayerwalking, to visiting nursing homes, to planting flowers and trees at a city

TRAVIS ALLEN and Heather Frame of Garden Road Baptist Church of Pearland plant flowers.

park.
___Patterson, an accountant, did a similar missions experience project for Acteens Impact last year, which made the coordination effort easier this time. Directors at many of the sites the young people visited then wanted them to come back again this year, she said.
___"The backyard Bible clubs were the most popular events," she said, adding the teens and their leaders were able to choose from a list of options for their missions work. "Friends for Life, a Waco organization which helps older adults who still live in their own homes, was second."
___At Highland Care Center, a helping ministry of Highland Baptist Church, manager Eva Harkrider and her husband, Darrell, were kept on the run placing and supervising about 60 teens and adults who came to help clean up the facility.
___Teens planted flowers and shrubs, mowed the lawn, picked up trash, swept, cleaned, sorted clothing and food, shined the windows and generally spruced up the house. One team--a teen and an adult--even did data entry on the facility's computer.
___Other groups did surveys at First Baptist Church of Lorena, planted trees and shrubs at a city park, prayerwalked at an elementary school, a middle school and a high school and did Bible clubs at sites around the city, sponsored by Mission Waco.
___At an inner city housing project, a group of teens and adults from churches in Killeen

FOUR TEENS from First Baptist Church of McAllen assemble toy cars for distribution to the children of Waco. From left are Stacey Enslow, Amanda Salas, Dezarae Pena and Jennie Lafara. The CARGO 2000 conference was sponsored by Texas Woman's Missionary Union and involved more than 900 students in missions education and hands-on ministry.

and Kerens did a Bible club about a mile from the offices of Mission Waco.
___The black, brown and white children from the project played and sang with the teenagers. Not far away was a city street sign warning that the area was a "high drug area" and that anyone loitering would be subject to arrest.
___"This was wonderful," said Daniel Harris, a senior at Killeen High School and member of the group from Eastside Baptist Church in Killeen.
___"It makes me very happy that these kids can learn about God and Jesus Christ. It is good to go out and have fun, and to be serious at the same time."
___"It was a blast," said Jennifer Martin of Woodland Place Baptist Church in Magnolia, whose group did door-to-door visitation and surveys in Lorena.
___"I really enjoyed the mission projects and the sessions," said her friend, Tiffany Waites.


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