The 406 Youth Group just completed our first ever at-home-mission trip. “406 in the 402: The Ripple Effect” was a way for us to serve others and share God’s love without leaving our homes. It turned out to be an incredible way to be missionaries where it matters most: right where we are.
It is often believed that in order to do meaningful mission work you have to get on a plane, or a bus or hop in your car for hours in order to reach a place that needs you, but the truth is, God placed us in corners of His kingdom where we can already make a difference. No travel needed, which is pretty great, considering the corona virus threw a serious wrench in our original mission plans. Nevertheless, we persisted and had a great week!
The “Ripple Effect” is the idea that even the smallest actions make a difference. When a pebble is thrown into a pond, no matter how small, it causes a surge of energy to move through the water, disturbing the once still surface, and causing a formation of concentric rings which move out and across the water. During our mission, we became the pebble. The one small thing that can cause a surge of energy to travel out and all around us, impacting places we didn’t even know we could reach.
We started with our families. We began the week with helping extra with chores, spending extra intentional time with our loved ones, and we even made dinner for our families! The joy that we were able to bring to the people we live with everyday was so awesome to experience. God showed us that we can make a difference in our own homes by honoring our family.
Next up was our communities. This could be any community we belonged to. Our neighborhoods, our schools, our small groups, our extracurriculars like dance, debate and athletics all became spaces for us to make an impact. We spent the day writing letters to the people in these communities, or leaving encouraging notes for others in our neighborhood to find. Community day showed us that wherever God has placed us, he has a purpose for us there, and that’s pretty cool when you think about it.
Wednesday we focused on learning more about our city and our local mission partners. WE researched faith makeup and even did some interfaith research as it related to the new TriFaith Initiative which is the first of its kind starting right here in Omaha. We made donations to local food banks, and volunteered our time helping out some of our other nonprofits in need. Learning about our city helped us to learn how God is working here, and how we can be a part of that work too.
Thursday was a day of reflection on our country. We wrote about ways we want to see change in our nation, and how Jesus could be a part of the way we help influence its future. We also wrote letters to friends in different states, to make contact and spread the word that God loves them. By reaching out and reflecting we discovered that even though we may feel small, we are walking with a God who is anything but that!
Our final ripple reached out and touched different parts of the globe. We got to have some enriching Q&A Zoom calls with some members of our mission team who were kind enough to share their stories, struggles, and blessings with us. We got to hear about trips to the holy land, and mission work that shows just how big faith is, and how God has no zip code. He is everywhere working things for good, and he calls all kinds of people to reach out beyond their borders and help share his news.
Just like a ripple in a pond, we started small, and throughout the week we grew more in our knowledge, understanding, and faith. No matter how small we may feel, God stands at our side and tells us that anything is possible through him. We can’t wait to take what we learned and apply it to our everyday walk with Jesus.
Check out our instagram .youth for our day by day recap for even more information on what we were up to! (Also there are quite a few pretty fun pictures for you to browse as well)
The 406 has so much more to do in the 402, and we are excited to see where God calls us next.