These are powerful words from the book of Isaiah. Israel, God’s people, are in a mess. The Northern half of the country had been taken captive by the Assyrian Empire, and the Southern half was busy worshiping anything they could except the one true God of everything. It is into this difficult context in which God is looking for a messenger to go out to the people to tell of His just judgement and beautiful salvation. Isaiah steps up to the plate, “Here I am. send me!”

Although our context is different, God is always looking for messengers, people who will go, do, and tell. Today, a group of 12 young disciples, and four ragtag team leaders, have heard the voice of the Lord and have responded – ‘Here I am. Send me!’

On April 30 this team will leave for Boston, where we will meet up the ‘Center for Student Missions’, and then spend the week doing some things the prophet Isaiah was passionate about – feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless.

The Center for Student Missions (CSM) is a short-term, non-denominational, urban mission organization. It is committed to “provide an effective urban ministry experience that transforms lives, influences churches and communities, and honors Christ.” This will be the goal of our trip. While we go and serve God’s people, our hope and prayer is to have lives transformed, our lives! We hope that this trip is part of a bigger discipleship process that gets young people excited about being leaders and missionaries in our own local churches and communities. We are not going to Boston to save lives. Jesus has already done that 2,000 years ago. We are going to Boston in response to the Good News, and in an effort to get people excited about responding to that Good News in our own churches and communities.

To do all this though we need help. We need your help! Both financially and prayerfully. On Tuesday night, March 21st from 4:30-6:30, here at St. Paul’s, the group will be having a fundraiser spaghetti dinner. Please come out, bring your friends and your wallets and your friends’ wallets! Also, please consider giving directly to the cause. And just as important, please keep this group in your prayers, as we meet a couple times before the trip to read more of the prophet Isaiah, during the trip, and after the trip, as we will continue to meet to read more of Isaiah, and discuss how we can serve God and His people here in New Brunswick.

Join us on Sunday as we hear more about this answer to God’s call from the Director of Youth and Intergenerational Ministries: Colin McDonald, the Rev. Deacon Dan McMullen, and our own Jessica Gowan, Chandler Scott and Colton Scott.