The Meet Hope Podcast
The Meet Hope Podcast
133: What do Weeding Gardens and WhirlyBall have to do with God? HOPE Youth share about Mission Trip 2025!
Hope Youth middle and high school students share their experiences from their summer mission trip to Detroit, Michigan, reflecting on service projects, memorable moments, and spiritual growth. Youth Director Jason Shinn discusses how the trip focused on transforming students from casual followers to true apprentices of Jesus, making incremental shifts that lead to lifelong change.
We're cheering these students on as they continue into the rest of 2025!
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Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope. Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online. We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others. Welcome to Hope.
Speaker 2:Hello listeners, did you know that Hope Youth middle school and high school students recently returned from their summer mission trip to Detroit, michigan? We were excited to get to catch up with a few of them, as they told us all about their trip, what projects they did, what their favorite parts were and what they're taking with them. We hope you enjoy this episode as they share with us. So tell us your name and grade and a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 3:My name is Corinne. I'm going into seventh grade and last year was my first year in youth group and I really liked it so far.
Speaker 2:Awesome, so this has been your first full year, cause you're going into seventh. Yeah, so this was your first mission trip. Yeah, yeah, uh, how would you?
Speaker 3:describe your trip? Um, it was very fun and a little bit chaotic cause there was a lot of stuff going on, but it was really great. Yeah, a good um experience.
Speaker 2:So you have an older sister who's already gone on trips, right? So I'm sure you have, you like, looked forward to getting to go when you were younger.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I've seen, like my sister getting like a lot of like having a lot of events, like having a lot of fun. So I really just wanted to.
Speaker 2:Did it live up to what you thought it would? Be? Yeah, definitely Awesome.
Speaker 3:So what projects did you work on on your trip? So we helped in a garden called Detroit Abloom and we helped with just projects there and then we went to a lot of different homeless shelters and helped mopping and making food and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:What was your favorite part of one of the projects that you worked on?
Speaker 3:one of the projects that you worked on. I really liked going to one of the homeless shelters because everybody was so nice there and they let us have like some snacks, and they were really nice.
Speaker 2:So you got to interact with the people who were there while you were helping surf. Yeah, that's awesome. What would you say is your best memory from the trip? What are you always going to remember?
Speaker 3:I'm always going to remember all like the inside jokes that me and my friends like made up, and it was just really fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do you like getting to spend so much time together with your friends? What is one way that you want to be different because you went on this mission trip?
Speaker 3:I want to start listening to like more Christian music and like getting closer to God and like reading my Bible.
Speaker 2:Okay, if someone your age was thinking about going on a trip, what would you tell them to convince them to go?
Speaker 3:Because it's a real opportunity to get closer to God and your friends and help out.
Speaker 2:Tell us your name and your grade and a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 4:Okay, my name is Isabel Cavalieri. I'm going into the eighth grade and I'm part of Hope Youth.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So what number mission trip was this for you? Number two Okay, how would you describe your trip to Detroit? Like the way there, yeah, or the whole trip? How would you describe it? Like, I'm sure when you came home your parents were like how was the trip? Like what would you say?
Speaker 4:It was really fun. It was a really fun experience and I feel like it really put things into perspective for us, because you see what a lot of people don't have, and getting to help them was really cool. What projects did you work on? Um, we were at Detroit a bloom which was a garden, and we did like planting and weeding, we painted a deck and a bench and, yeah, we just did like garden jobs there what was the?
Speaker 4:garden for um. It was just to make like detroit like more beautiful place that people could come and like spend their time at and look at the plants and the greenery and stuff that's really cool were you there the whole week? No, we went. We also went to the other three days. We went to homeless shelters and we were mopping the floors, we cleaned bathrooms, we organized closed closets.
Speaker 2:What would you say is one of your best memories from this year's trip? What are you going to remember?
Speaker 4:Definitely my small group because we had a lot of good conversations. I really liked my leaders and the people in it.
Speaker 2:What is one way that you want to be different because you went on this mission trip?
Speaker 4:I feel like I want to be different by, like spreading the word of god to others and serving and having a me last attitude putting others first, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Um, what would you say to someone who's your age, who's thinking about going on a trip and they've never gone before?
Speaker 4:um. Definitely to go, because it's a lot of fun and you really get to grow closer to um the people you spend your time with, like your friends, your leaders and the people you serve Just like it's a really fun experience, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So those are all our regular questions. Is there anything else about the trip that you would want to say or you would want people to know?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I really liked. So the one homeless shelter Kotz was the name and we got to meet some of like the little kids there. We got to play with them. That was just really fun. That's really fun. Yeah, some of the little kids there.
Speaker 2:We got to play with them. That was just really fun. That's really fun, awesome. Well, thank you, isabel. You're welcome, so tell us your name and grade.
Speaker 5:I am Mayor Dom. I am in 10th grade. I am the mayor of Hope Church.
Speaker 2:Tell us more about how you became the mayor. Mayor Dom.
Speaker 5:You could say I took it over. When I walked in my first mission trip I had I had my sash uh-huh. Ever since then I've customly printed on my mission trip shirts to say mayor on them I love that you have embraced this role as mayor.
Speaker 2:Where did it come from, like? What gave you the idea to become the mayor? Do you remember? I think it just like popped in my yeah, yeah in sixth grade.
Speaker 5:I think it just like popped in my yeah yeah In sixth grade. I think it just popped in my head one day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you just full on, took it on, as this is going to be your role. I like that kind of commitment. So you just went on a mission trip. Where did you guys go?
Speaker 5:Went to Detroit, michigan. We did some service projects around this. Middle schoolers went around the city. We went to a Dutton Farms yeah, Okay. It's like a camp for disabled people and it was really fun working there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what do you know? What number mission trip this is for you?
Speaker 5:This is my fourth mission trip.
Speaker 2:Okay, so how would you describe the Detroit mission trip If somebody I'm sure lots of have your families asked you? I'm sure other people have asked you?
Speaker 5:How would you describe the detroit mission trip? This was my favorite mission trip that I've gone on because I felt like it was like the best parts of all the other ones to combine. Like like all the boys sharing room was fine, but like that was fun because I got to see everyone. The big community area was fun because we got to talk, we got to play like games in there. The service projects were fun to work on. I really liked my group the god squad that's.
Speaker 2:That's a group. Yeah, so it sounds like all the components of the trip were your favorite, like they all lined up together, that you liked being rooming together and hanging out together and projects together and even the drive wasn't bad, like I thought that was really fun.
Speaker 5:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:What projects did you work on?
Speaker 5:Yeah, at Dutton Farms we like a few groups there it was us and one other group from Hope. We did either. That group would move stuff to the animal pens. We did a lot of weed whacking At least I did. We dug up these old flower beds there, a lot of weeding in general, so a lot of small outdoor projects, and then at the end we cleaned out their garage. And then we went to a thrift store on the last day and we cleaned out some stuff there. We organized the shelves there as well. And on the very last day of the trip we or last day of working at least we went to another kind of disabled person camp and we did some other outdoor stuff around there, like cleaning out the flower beds, taking off branches of the trees there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. Do you have a favorite part of a project that you worked on?
Speaker 5:a part. I don't know, I never weed whacked before, so that was. That was fun, like I've mowed lawns and stuff like I never used a weed whacker um, so what?
Speaker 2:this might be a tough question, since you it was. You said it was your favorite trip, but what is the best memory that you have of this year's trip?
Speaker 5:I really liked hanging out with my friends at the water park. That was they usually do. One fun day in the trip. We went to either. We went to Whirlyball.
Speaker 2:Which? What is Whirlyball for people that don't know?
Speaker 5:So go-karting and lacrosse and basketball in one sport.
Speaker 2:But you said you liked hanging out at the water park.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I hung out with my friends there. It was fun, and then I enjoyed when we got back from the work projects. We played bounce, which was fun.
Speaker 2:What is one way you want to be different? Because you went on this mission trip. What is one way you want to be different?
Speaker 5:because you went on this mission trip I've been trying to get into, because every morning we did a devotion from Jason's packet that he made. I'm trying to do like a Bible app kind of just like log in in the morning and like read that's awesome. Whatever?
Speaker 2:the today's verses, or something like that. Why is that the thing that you chose, that you'd like to keep doing? I?
Speaker 5:don't know. It was a fun thing to do in the morning, like when you're still waking up and stuff and you just like to read that from the Bible. I felt like that was, I don't know, a good way to wake up.
Speaker 2:What would you say to someone your age who's thinking?
Speaker 5:about going on a mission trip. I would say I did not want to go on my first mission trip and I wanted to go on all the ones after, especially this one. And I'd say I missed out on mission trip because of COVID, so I couldn't. No one went on that one because we couldn't. I'd say, do it when you still can Like especially my age, you only have like two, you can still go on. So I'd especially say, if you want to try it, it's a week of your summer, one week. It's fun, at least I think it is.
Speaker 2:And you said you didn't want to go on your first one, but now you've wanted to go on every single other one.
Speaker 5:Yeah, every single one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what made it worth it?
Speaker 5:I don't know, just hanging out with the entire youth group, just being out there serving others, just, I don't know, a week away, it's fun.
Speaker 2:Tell us your name and your grade, and a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 6:I'm Abby Apello. I'm a senior. I just graduated from high school. What are you doing after high school? I'm going to college for early childhood education. That's awesome For being a preschool teacher.
Speaker 2:Very cool. So how would you describe your mission trip this year?
Speaker 6:It was really fun and it was a lot, but it was really fun to get to be with a senior group this year for my last mission trip. So were you with all seniors? Yes, all seniors and one junior, but he was the only junior.
Speaker 2:That's really fun to get to be kind of the oldest You've been there the longest to get that final hangout time together. What projects did you work on?
Speaker 6:So we worked at a place called dutton farm and they help with like special needs people, mostly adult special needs and for the first two days we were there we worked like in the grounds and like carrying stuff and with the animals they have. And then the other day we went to a smaller campus of theirs and a few of us actually got to work with the special needs people there and that was really fun. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:So you got to work with the community you were serving. That's awesome. What was your favorite part of one of the projects you worked?
Speaker 6:on Probably getting to work with the special needs people because we ran a game for them and, like we read a book to them, it was really nice getting to like talk with them also.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Had you ever done anything like that before?
Speaker 6:I have not, not with older special needs people Like I've worked with younger kids, but not as much.
Speaker 2:What has meant the most to you as a student in Hope Youth Ministry.
Speaker 6:Getting to make relationships with this other students and with my leaders, because all of the leaders and adults involved are so supportive of everything like that All of us do and they're so supportive of us and how we, how they want us to get to grow.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, and I hope that you know that, even as you step out of being a student, that those adults are always going to want to support you and cheer you on so including me. So tell us your name.
Speaker 7:Jason Shin.
Speaker 2:Hi Jason. So we thought that, just like we asked a bunch of your students about their trip, that we maybe should ask you, as their fearless leader, of their trip, and we thought we'd maybe just ask you the same questions. Obviously, you're going to answer them a little bit different, but as the youth director. But how would you describe the Detroit mission trip this year?
Speaker 7:I think it was good. I wanted to go home, and so I took 41 of my closest friends to my stomping grounds, and so we went with a different agency this year and we had lots of projects. The high schoolers were at one project all week, basically, and the middle schoolers much like their attention span, were at a different project each day, which was good.
Speaker 2:Perfect for them.
Speaker 7:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So what projects did you work on?
Speaker 7:We did a urban garden in downtown Detroit. We worked at the Detroit rescue mission for two days and then we worked at a mission that specialized in families in crisis, getting them back on their feet, called COTS, which dealt with like families specifically. So they got a building that housed up to 250 people and we did a lot of work cleaning up after a flood.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and the high school was at another project.
Speaker 7:The high schoolers were at a special needs farm that works, that is, a farm that employs people with developmental needs and employs them and creates inclusion events, and so they did a lot of work. I think a lot of these nonprofits were just happy to have extra hands, because I don't know if you know this about nonprofits, but it's really it's like one or two people and a lot of this work just just piles up, and so we were able to come in and free this stat, the staffs up of all these different places, to serve their communities in an even more effective way.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I used to work for a nonprofit before I worked here and I know the list of like someday we'll get to that, but we got to keep it running. We were that someday we'll get to that list. Yeah, that's such a blessing. Um, so what was a favorite part?
Speaker 7:of a project that you worked on, I think just being with the students, like we had a really good group of middle schoolers that just love to be around each other and they I really feel like we weren't chasing them very often, like they worked hard in hot environments and I wasn't actually a part of this. But I think a favorite memory for a lot of the kids is they worked in a kitchen at the Detroit Rescue Mission and they made sandwiches. I think they made a hundred, 150 sandwiches in a very hot kitchen and the kitchen staff was basically in tears and just being able to talk to the directors of the different places we worked at and just hearing how thankful they were for us was probably cool.
Speaker 7:We got a nice email from one of the directors just sharing how excited they were to have that group from New Jersey, which everyone was fascinated with.
Speaker 2:New Jersey, yeah, I love that and to have that group from New Jersey, which everyone was fascinated with New Jersey, that's so cool. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Then you've made connections with people all over just from moments like that.
Speaker 7:Yeah, exactly what about a really great memory from this year's trip for you? I, I would love to say I mean I wasn't necessarily part of the small groups, but I heard the small group conversations were great, just seeing the group come together. Like one of the things we talked about before the trip was wanting to see connections, and so we this the church that we stayed at had a ping pong table and we played the hope traditional game of called bounce, which which involved up to like 10 people running around a ping pong table like crazy, and I think You've never played Bounce.
Speaker 2:It looks like chaos, but it's not.
Speaker 7:It is almost too detailed, I can't keep track of it, but I think a favorite memory for me was we had a couple of students that were really unsure of coming and they got sucked into this game of balance and they just were playing it nonstop and they were involved in the group and it was great seeing our high schoolers take some middle schoolers under their wing, and so that was good. And then, of course, I introduced these guys to a Michigan sport called whirlyball.
Speaker 2:We heard about it.
Speaker 7:Did you and?
Speaker 2:one of the students. I was like wait, you have to stop and tell us what whirly ball is. And they said it was uh, lacrosse and bumper cars Exactly.
Speaker 7:Five on five lacrosse bumper cars, where they have those little scoop things you buy from a dollar store and you're passing a wiffle ball together trying to score on a basketball hoop. It's so stupid, it's amazing and you can't explain it.
Speaker 2:Does it only exist in Detroit or in Michigan? I've only ever seen it there. I've never heard of it anywhere else.
Speaker 7:Yeah, it's, it's. It's a place normally like they have like a little, like a little restaurant attached to it. They have they have a bar attached to it and it can only become from. I think it's a. It's a winter people, we can't get out much, so we make up indoor sports. I love that.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So we asked a bunch of the students what is one way they want to be different after this trip. But I know we asked you before the trip. We asked you during a Sunday service what your hope was for students going into the trip. Now that you've done the trip, what would you say your hope is for students as they go forward in their lives after this trip?
Speaker 7:I think with any trip you want to see life change and that's a hard thing to measure. We spent a lot of time. I read a really cool book which I know Pastor Rick has done small groups on it. I read a really cool book called Practicing the Way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just listen to the audio book of it.
Speaker 7:Yeah, John Mark Comer, and so I based all of our devotionals, I based all of our evening sessions and small group questions around this idea of being not just a casual follower of Jesus but an apprentice. I love that. So for a lot of our kids, when you ask them to be a follower, it's a click of a button on Instagram. I'm a follower.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a really good point. Language makes a difference.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and so we really spent a lot of time talking about the difference between an apprentice and a casual follower, and so I'd like to see this year an emphasis on not just Sunday night or Sunday morning following Jesus, but what does it look like to be an apprentice of Jesus every day of our week? How do we make that a priority? And so that's something I'm really thinking about as we gear into the fall, and what does that look like? And I think one of the cool things we did is we actually had the small groups dream really big about how would they change Hope Youth if we had an apprentice mindset, and so like they talked about doing Bible studies that may or may not include gaga ball, but hey, you do what you gotta do, you do what you gotta do, but also service projects, whether it be the food pantry or I.
Speaker 7:have a personal connection with my wife working at Urban Promise, but they have service days. Hope has an amazing tradition of mission trips, but what does that look like? We're really good about taking a whole week and disconnecting from our phones, but what does that look like for us to do it, maybe a little bit during the year too? I think we had a good discussion around that, and so I'd like to carry it.
Speaker 2:So you were just talking just now. I was thinking if a student is listening to this podcast which I know they will be, because the ones that I interviewed said, hey, let me know when it comes out If a student is listening to this podcast and they're hearing you say being an apprentice in your day-to-day life and they're like where do I start and you probably talked about this on the mission trip what do you think it looks like for a teenager anyone middle school or high school to make like a one degree shift towards being like an apprentice in your, in your everyday, go to school, go sports, go to youth kind of life.
Speaker 7:I think the book which I really thought was amazing really talked about what an apprentice means, especially in the first century, how the apprentice lived and breathed. They just were with their teacher 24-7. Now, obviously, obviously, we're not advocating for students to drop out of high school and just sit in my office and watch me do.
Speaker 2:But that's part of it. Right, being with Jesus doesn't mean being in this building 24-7. Yes, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 7:And so what does it look like for us to have a mindset of Jesus, to take that mindset of Jesus with us as we go to our sports, as we go to our job, as we jump into a theater program, as we're in our families? What does that look like? And I think that's going to be a big emphasis. So I would say, jump in with us at Hope. We're going to hopefully start some small groups. Some of the students are doing online Bible studies just using the Bible app.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 7:So there's plenty of space and we would love to start grabbing more and more students to jump in with us as we kind of consider I like what you said the one degree shift. We're not asking you to become a monk here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw that from a different book I read years ago called Love Does by Bob Goff. And he talks about in his book. He talks about it can feel like you have that mountaintop moment right, Like you go on a mission trip and you have that like devoted time all week long, no distractions, and you come back like ready to like make this big change in your life, but then like life is life and you do it for a week.
Speaker 2:You do it for a week and then it falls off again, and it's like it doesn't have to be that everything stops in order for the shift to happen, and so it's like if that feels really overwhelming. I love the language of like what is a one degree shift in your life? So maybe it's you know the person that you sit next to at lunch, who you never talked to, you introduce yourself, or you know like, those little shifts over time are what make a difference in our life.
Speaker 7:Yeah, and so reach out to me. You can connect with me, obviously, in person, obviously. Drop me an email or drop me an Instagram note or something like that. But let's get connected and just consider, and it could be adding a devote, like we do devotions every morning on the mission trip. It could just be adding a five minute devotion in your morning, it could be, or whatever time works for you. I am not a morning person, which the staff here at hope have learned and adjusted to.
Speaker 2:No, I wasn't when I did youth ministry either. I I am now, because I have small children that wake me up at six six I am now because I have small children that wake me up at 6, 530.
Speaker 7:But if I had, I'm a night owl at heart and I always will be yeah, I don't even know if I'm a night owl. I'm a mid-afternoon kind of guy. All right, I respect it. My game is from 230 to three.
Speaker 2:I am on top of it, I respect it, I love it yeah.
Speaker 7:So that one degree shift is a great phrase, and so the cool thing is, if I have students starting in sixth grade and we're making one degree shifts each year after a mission trip or during the year, that's going to make major life change, which I think the goal is here at Hope is we want to see life change and life transformation for a lifetime, not for this little sliver of time. I mean, it's an important sliver of time, but in the grand scheme of things it's a sliver of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. Is there anything else you'd want to share with us?
Speaker 7:Uh, if you're interested in coming on a mission trip, it is an experience and you are invited to come talk to me.
Speaker 2:Awesome, great. Well, thank you, jason, and uh, we wish you well as you prep and head into the fall with Hope Youth Yep.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being a part of the Hope Community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope. If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand. You can learn more at meethopeorg or find us on socials at meethopechurch.