Texas Church Sponsors $25 Mission Trips

For $25 each, 40 members of Sunrise Community Christian Reformed Church in Austin, Tex., were able to take part in a mission trip. In mid-August they traveled to Houston to do mission work with Square Inch Church—a small church plant in Houston, Tex.

“A lot of the people in our church can’t afford to go on a mission trip, and we really wanted them have the experience of serving,” said Sunrise mission director Joli Kindler. “We wanted it to be open to everyone, whether they had the financial resources to go or not.”

The $25 fee included everything from a T-shirt to food and lodging provided by New Life Christian Reformed Church in Spring, Tex.

“Formation by mission is a principle of Sunrise,” pastor Mark Hilbelink said. “There were two main purposes of going: to form our people and to encourage Square Inch Church.”

Sunrise and Square Inch worked together to find organizations to work with and to find work for all age groups and physical abilities.

“One group went to Lazarus House, a house that serves people with muscle degenerative diseases,” Kindler said. “It’s a gym where people can go work out and not be judged for their disease. The other two groups went to Bread of Life, where they sorted food, and to the Emergency Aid Coalition, where they helped sort clothes.”

“It was a good opportunity for us to come together and bridge that divide, serving our neighbors and transforming our city,” said John Eigege, church planter at Square Inch. “Essentially that helped us grow beyond ourselves as we served others. When churches partner together, the message of Jesus Christ is multiplied, and people see that. It helps us be a better witness to who Jesus is and who he has called the church to be.”