The first ever “Families on a Mission” trip took place from July 30 to Aug. 2.
Local families are on a mission to give back to their communities with the first-ever family oriented mission trip organized by Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Tabernacle.
Families set out on the “Families on a Mission” trip, starting July 30. Over the course of four days, they completed a variety of tasks to help the local community.
“To me the goal is always to have people understand there are people in need everywhere in the community, and there’s ways that we can help no matter how old we are,” Donna Yates, coordinator of Families on a Mission said. “I always say we’re the hands and feet of Jesus.”
Starting on Monday, the volunteer group visited Jake’s Place in Cherry Hill, a handicap accessible playground, where they worked together to clean and organize a pavilion located next to the playground. In addition, they beautified the grounds by cleaning up the landscaping.
On Tuesday, they worked with Urban Promise in Camden. According to their website, their mission is to equip Camden’s children and young adults with the skills necessary for academic achievement, life management, spiritual growth and Christian leadership.
Wednesday’s mission took place at St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Cherry Hill, where they worked alongside Little Hands Little Feet — which is an organization founded in 2004 with the goal of collecting children’s clothing to create bundles of clothing to be donated to local families.
Little Hands Little Feet works with social workers who send in clothing sizes of need that week, where volunteers then bundle together full outfits, new socks and underwear, pajamas, a jacket and a stuffed animal or book. Last year, Little Hands Little Feet served 982 community members.
Pastor of Lord of Life, David W. Jones, emphasized the importance of hosting their first family oriented mission trip, stating that when parents lead by example, kids will follow.
“When a child sees a parent doing something and serving, they say ‘wow, this must be important to mom or dad, I guess it should be important to me as well,’” Jones said. “They catch that spirit of serving.”
The last stop on the Families on a Mission trip took place on Thursday at the Alice Paul Institute in Mt. Laurel, where they worked outside to upgrade the landscaping and received a tour of the institute.
Shamong resident Tammy Miller has been attending church with her husband at Lord of Life since 2001. They found Lord of Life while seeking a nearby church they could grow into once they had children.
She stated Lord of Life has provided an immense number of volunteer opportunities for children to get them involved in the community.
Miller has volunteered her time as a Sunday school teacher, along with being a part of the communications team at the church.
“It’s great for a family connection and it’s great for the family to connect with the community — I think they’re both really important,” Miller said. “It’s something we can do together, instead of the kids going off in one direction and the parents going off and doing something else, I think it’s good that everyone’s joined together.”
Yates and Miller expressed hopes to return to their church and share their experiences from the Families on a Mission trip to encourage even more families to join on their next venture.
