Youth from three El Paso LCMS churches work together to paint the Parsonage House

Many youth ministry church-workers will attest to always seeking ways to help inspire growth in the faith lives of the youth they serve.  For the last three years, Ascension Lutheran Church’s (El Paso, TX) youth group has been getting involved with Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) in an effort to grow in faith through service and fellowship.  From doing food drives in November and toy drives in December, they have also contributed volunteer hours for the Food and Joy Distributions.

Lunch and dinner was provided for both days to enjoy after hard work, games, and Bible studies

In 2019, the Ascension youth group did their first mission trip through YLM’s Servant Event program, spending four days doing food distribution, filling over two hundred backpacks with school supplies, and painting the hallways of the Dormitory building.

“We planned to do a quarterly adoption of the Food Pantry in 2020,” Rachel, then-chair of the Youth Board, shared, “But with Covid, we were not able to follow through.”

As things are getting back to normal, Ascension reached out to YLM to do a two-day retreat on their campus, committing to painting the Parsonage house.

“With only three of us, I thought the small house was a good size for us to complete in two days,” Luz Soto, Director of Youth Ministry at Ascension, explained, “But we ended up having to reschedule from June to July, then I thought of reaching out to Zion Lutheran Church in central El Paso and invite their youth…which was good, because the project turned out to be bigger than I envisioned!”

Bella (Ascension) and Mia (San Pablo) work together to fill in nooks and crannies with paint

With a total of seven people from three El Paso churches—Ascension, Zion, and San Pablo Lutheran Church—90% of the seemingly small house was completed.

“In my mind, I saw it as small,” Luz laughingly explained, “Kind of like a Snoopy house, so I can say I am truly grateful God made way by bringing in more kids from Zion and San Pablo to achieve majority of the work necessary.”

The remaining four youth, from all three churches, completed majority of the painting by the end of the two-day youth retreat

With the back wall butting up against the sidewalk fence, and some of the higher spots, it was inevitable the job would not be fully completed by the team of middle and high school kids.  However, they worked hard during their service project hours to achieve as much of the painting as possible.

“It looked really nice and it felt good that we were able to finish most of the painting,” Madison, one of the young girls from Ascension, shared on the last day, “It’s pretty awesome to be able to say I helped paint that house.”

“I enjoyed coming back to YLM,” Bella, a sophomore in high school and part of the 2019 Ascension mission team, added, “It’s a lot of fun to work with other people and achieve something meaningful together.”

Jaden, a youth member of Zion Lutheran Church, shared at the end of the first day how his favorite part of the day was everything.

Creating meaningful moments and projects for the purpose of faith-growth is one of the many things possible at YLM, and their willingness to help facilitate great experiences has allowed for continued growth in God’s kingdom through Word, service, fellowship, and praise.