Local Students Serve In Operation Barnabas Ministry
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Local students fed the homeless in Chicago and painted a church in Mexico this summer while involved in Operation Barnabas.
There are eight students from Warsaw Community High School and Grace College participating in the organization. The students attend Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church and Winona Lake Community Grace Brethren Church.They have joined with approximately 81 other high school and college students from other churches in the United States, ministering since June to people whose paths they cross.
The students minister through manual labor projects, visiting and helping community service organizations, and offering free drama programs.
Operation Barnabas began in 1974 with one team that was mainly a music performance team. Over the last 35 years, the organization has grown to include four teams.
There are three teams traveling in the United States and other countries, including a Midwest team, Continental team and MidAmerica team. There also is an international team.
Operation Barnabas is a summer ministry training program for high school and college students sponsored by CE National, an organization with headquarters in Winona Lake. Operation Barnabas gets it s name from Barnabas, a man who is known in the Bible as the "Son of Encouragement."
CE National's purpose is to provide Biblically accurate and culturally relevant ministries to children, youth and adults, according to Tim Kurtaneck, Operation Barnabas program director.
Kurtaneck said the students are selected for the program based on being active in their church, having a personal relationship with God and demonstrating leadership potential.
"Many of the students who participate in Operation Barnabas go on to be leaders in their schools and churches," Kurtaneck said.
This year, the three domestic teams started in California and traveled cross-country. They will travel to Ohio for a leadership conference this month.
The MidAmerica group's experience began June 13 in California when they participated in orientation and training in drama, music and puppets to use the tools to minister to others. While they were in California, they played with children in neighborhoods, fed the homeless and provided park programs for children with skits and puppet shows.
The international team with Grace College students are serving in Cameroon, Africa, and Paris, France.
MidAmerica team students stopped in Warsaw last week to complete projects before going to Ohio last weekend for a youth conference.
While the MidAmerica team was in Warsaw last week, they cleaned up after the Kosciusko County Community Fair and visited with residents at Grace Village Retirement Community. They spent time with youth groups at Community Grace Brethren Church, Warsaw, and Winona Lake Grace Brethren Church. They also helped unload a food bank truck Tuesday at Combined Community Services.
"They all had a good attitude, and the project that usually takes an hour and a half for volunteers to complete took the students a half hour to complete," said Peggi Lisenbee-Wright, CCS director of client services.
Claire Bassford, who will be a junior this fall at WCHS, said she has learned a lot about herself while serving in Operation Barnabas.
"I have learned a lot about servanthood and being exposed to places and people I would not have known or met otherwise," Bassford said.
Cori Catron, who will be a senior at WCHS, said he enjoyed an experience in Phoenix, Ariz., when his group participated in a neighborhood ministry cleaning a home and doing yard work for a home that houses pregnant teenagers.
Eric Miller, a team leader who grew up in Warsaw and graduated from WCHS in 2000 and Grace College in 2004, said he was a student with Operation Barnabas 10 years ago and now oversees the students.
"It is good to work with students and minister to others," Miller said.
The MidAmerica group visited a Navaho Indian Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they performed a program for the congregation and painted a church in Mexicali, Mexico.
They visited Beaver City, Neb., where they did seven-minute ministries by washing windows for a few hundred homes in the town.
They sandbagged in Waterloo, Iowa, to assist with flood damage.
For more information about Operation Barnabas or a blog on the students' experiences, visit www.OperationBarnabas.net
