Volunteers find mission in-state

ThisWeek CW 07/21/2011

http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/canalwinchester/stories/2011/07/20/volunteers-find-mission-in-state.html?sid=104

Members of Bloom Baptist Church in Canal Winchester didn’t have to look far to find a meaningful mission trip.

Instead of traveling out of state, five volunteers — youth group pastor Devin DelGrosso, his wife, Megan, daughter, Emma, and church members Thomas Wimbash and Tabitha Limpaph — spent July 11-14 helping people in need here in Ohio.

The Emerge Mission Project encourages young people to become involved in their community and has taken part in projects locally since 2008 after being founded by youth minister Nick Osborn of the First Baptist Church of Kettering.

“I did my internship with (Osborn) so I’ve known him for 10 years now,” DelGrosso said.

In addition, he said, his family is from the Dayton area so he is familiar with the Emerge Mission Project’s work.

Program manager Phil Greene said the Emerge project originally took youths on missions as far away as Canada, but that changed four years ago after some of the participants asked why they couldn’t volunteer closer to home.

“The Dayton Christian Center has had about 20 kids per year attending the Emerge summer camp,” Greene said. “(Osborn) developed the program so that smaller churches such as Bloom that might not be able to support a program like this alone instead can come together with other participants here.”

The summer camp lasts three and a half days, which includes mission work during the day, bookended in the morning and evening by worship services.

“I definitely enjoyed the week; it was an eye-opening experience,” 19-year-old Bloom Baptist member Thomas Wimbash said. “We think that Dayton is like our backyard, and you don’t think of it as a mission field, but when you get there, you see it is a community that deserves our help.”

Emerge Mission projects run during the summer and in the fall and are open to students through college age. Both Wimbash and fellow Bloom Baptist member, Tabitha Limpaph,15, are hoping to attend this fall’s project.

“This is my second year at Emerge and this time, I went to a nursing home and I was around dementia patients,” Limpaph said. “We sang Christian songs — like little kid songs — because they knew those songs and could sing along. To see the smiles and reactions — it was amazing

“I just loved going and making their day,” she said. “I’m looking forward to going again, including this fall for the weekend event.”

DelGrosso brought his wife, Megan, and 7-year-old daughter, Emma, along to participate this year. They also volunteered at the nursing home.

Wimbash spent the week working with children at the Miami Valley Daycare Center, where he helped host a soccer camp. According to Greene, other volunteers worked on neighborhood clean-up projects and an urban farm run by the center.

“This being my first Emerge, I definitely had a fun time and a different experience, and I’m really looking forward to fall for the next Emerge project,” Wimbash said.