This past Sunday evening, a few students and leaders from the youth group at St. James Brethren Church stopped by to serve a light dinner to the residents at The Hope Center.

The youth group at St. James Brethren Church is no stranger to The Hope Center. They’ve helped fill food boxes for our food bank ministry multiple times and have even taken a tour of the facility and briefly met some of our residents.

But this time was special for the group. And it was special for our residents as well. The youth group prepared the meal and served it but then also spent some time interacting and talking with our residents.

At one point in the evening, some of the men gave their testimonies for the students and leaders. But then the leaders at St. James were able to give their testimonies for the men to hear.

It was a wonderful evening of food & fellowship for our residents and the youth group from St. James.

Sara Moore, the youth leader at SJBC, was so thankful for the opportunity for her students, and the leaders, to serve in another capacity at The Hope Center. The chance to actually serve the men and then talk to them was something special for the students.

The kids enjoyed the evening so much that they want to come back and do it again! And it’s important for the students to see and hear how God is changing lives at The Hope Center. It gives these young Christians proof, outside of their own world, that God has the power to not just conquer sin, but also renew a life – and that every person, no matter how lost or destroyed by sin, has value and is important to God.

Teaching young people the importance of service is vital. It gives them the opportunity to understand that they are called by God to be the hands of Christ to people in need and it gives young people the chance to see that there are people in their own city who may not have had the wonderful life that they’ve been blessed with. It helps to create a compassionate heart in each student that they will, hopefully, be carried with them to adulthood.

But teaching Christian service isn’t the only lesson that can be learned. These students from SJBC learned how human the residents at The Hope Center are. They learned that these are not just “homeless” or “addicted” men. These are people. These are the people that Christ died for, just like He died for them. They learned that with God, there is always hope. And that is a valuable lesson for anyone to learn.

We are so thankful that Sara has a heart for her students and for The Hope Center. She is teaching her students that being a part of a church means being THE church and showing God’s love to the least, the last and the lost.

We will always welcome the youth group from St. James Brethren Church to The Hope Center anytime! Thank you students & leaders from SJBC!

And we would welcome any youth group to stop by and volunteer. If you have a youth group, civic group, boy scout or girl scout troop that would love to help at The Hope Center then please call us at 301.739.1165 or email us at hagerstownrescue@verizon.net. For more info about The Hope Center at Hagerstown Rescue Mission please check out our website at www.hagerstownrescue.org.

If you are looking for a local church to be a part of or you have children or grandchildren who need a solid church program then please visit St. James Brethren Church at 17718 Lappans Road, St. James, Maryland. Or for more info just check out their website at www.sjbchurch.com.