Update on Our 'Week of Hope' Mission Trip

There are still a lot of questions about the Week of Hope mission trip. Several that have come up in the past few days:

Where will we sleep?
On air mattresses at a school in Canandaigua. Showers, breakfasts, lunches, and all but one of the dinners will be provided for us as part of our registration.

When should we get our $50 deposit in?
The deadline was last Sunday, October 8. But I set that deadline for us at Friendship. The quicker we get our registration in, the more secure our spots will be. The other deadlines you'll see below are from Group Workcamps, the organization that puts the Week of Hope together.

How many adults are needed?
We need one adult for every five youth. So far, in addition to myself, four adults have indicated a desire to attend. Their registration costs the same as the youth participants' registration.

A more detailed information packet will come to us once we've officially registered.

Below, you'll find other information shared here after the youth decided where we will be going for the Week of Hope:

We chose June 17-22, 2007 and Canandaigua, New York as the date and setting for our Week of Hope mission trip. Below are some details on the trip.

1. The cost is $239.00 per person.

2. After we've registered for the trip, we'll learn what we may be doing. It could be:

* Tutoring little kids
* Serving elderly people
* Working at a food bank
* Assisting at a day camp
* Sprucing up a social service agency office
* Helping needy people with their house or yard work
* Doing VBS outreaches

3. Built into the experience will be some time for us to get to know people from other youth groups, to explore the community in which we're spending the week, and to grow in our faith.

4. Registration cost includes:
Lodging
All meals but one
Materials
Camp T-shirt
Professional coordinating staff

5. You can defray your expenses by participating in our fundraising. Every household that participates in a fundraising event, will split the take for that event. (Example: If ten households participate in the Sam’s Club event and we raise $300, each household will be credited with $30, reducing their registration by that amount. If people who don’t have youth in the group participate in the TGIFriday’s fundraiser, what they raise will be split among those youth households that participated.) We're trying to schedule as many of these fundraisers as possible so that everybody’s costs can be reduced.

5. When do you pay?

• The first payment of $50, a nonrefundable deposit, should be ready to send in by October 8. (Make checks payable to Friendship Lutheran Church. Give them to our treasurer, Mike Cheney. Be sure to put Canandaigua Youth Trip on the memo line.
• Payment 2: 50% of the balance due must be paid by March 15, 2007
• Payment 3: The balance due must be paid by May 15, 2007

6. We will have a blast!

The Week of Hope video will answer a lot of our initial questions. Here it is.