DUNLAP -- Inspired by a recent church mission trip, recent Concord High graduate Matt Schnaars decided to get moving.
"I just realized the need to start giving back what I have and start helping out others," Schnaars said. "I had plenty of time and resources and just decided to start using those."
Schnaars' youth pastor at Sugar Grove Church, Joel Wolfgang, gave him the topic of AIDS relief as a challenge, a concept Schnaars viewed as "a good place to start."
Wolfgang said Schnaars was motivated from the start.
"He came back (from the mission trip) really like 'I want to do something,'" Wolfgang said. "I told him about Blood:Water Mission and he decided to go for it."
Blood:Water Mission is an organization that contributes to AIDS relief in Africa by providing money to dig wells in villages without a clean water supply. A clean water supply fosters a clean blood supply, which leads to fewer AIDS cases transmitted through blood transfusions, Wolfgang said.
On Saturday, Schnaars will head up a walk-a-thon, rummage sale and bake sale from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Concord Junior High School practice track, 24050 C.R. 20, with all proceeds going to the organization.
"We're definitely hoping for over 300 people to show up," Schnaars said. "And a total of at least 1,000 miles walked that day. We're hoping to raise over $3,000."
Wolfgang said participation is easy, from shopping at the rummage sale to taking a few laps around the track. Because several local businesses have offered per person or per mile pledges, Schnaars will be asking all participants who walk to sign in and then record how many laps they walked.
"He's got fliers up all over this area asking people to come," Wolfgang said.
I'm really excited about this. When I was in college it was drilled into our heads that we would never see real success from youth ministry while the students were in our groups, but here is a great example of success. I'm so pumped about this. Shari and I are walking from 3 to 6 tomorrow.
If you've never heard of Blood:Water check out their site. They are doing some tremenous things!
2 comments:
Very cool. Joel, you'll never know who all you can reach!
last count they raised just over $2000 in two weeks. I'm just so impressed by what they have been doing.
The funny thing is that some of the adults in our church are being challenged to do something as well.
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