Sarasota, FL / 7 July, 2005 – A group of young people from the Church of the Redeemer’s Youth Program recently returned from a week-long mission in the Dominican Republic. Led by the church’s Youth Minister, Scott Merritt, the group traveled from Sarasota to the Dominican Republic to do mission work for the Santo Tomas Episcopal Church located in the small town of Gautier, about 30 minutes outside of Santo Domingo.

The Church of the Redeemer is the first American group to help Santo Tomas and the surrounding Gautier community with its annual bible school program, which provides bible lessons and activities for approximately 150 local children ranging in age from 4 to 15 years old.

The Youth Group arrived in Santo Domingo on Saturday 11 June, and traveled by bus to Andres Boca Chica, an impoverished community on the outskirts of the more well-known tourist destination of Boca Chica, where they stayed in the small bungalow facility of Eco Village. Each morning the group, along with their chaperones, would rise for a 7 a.m. breakfast and morning prayer before boarding a bus to Gautier, where they spent each day working on the church and helping to run the Vacation Bible School program.

Over several mornings, the group was able to repaint the entire interior and exterior of the church. Additionally, working with a few members of the local community, Redeemer youth also painted the exterior of the local public school.

Afternoons were reserved for work at Santo Tomas’s Vacation Bible School. Each day, the Redeemer group was responsible for leading all of the craft activities for the various age groups in the school. In the months before their visit to Gautier, Redeemer youth had carefully planned and designed craft activities, prepared all the materials in advance of the trip, and brought the supplies to Gautier to be used by the children during the weeklong bible school.

The mission team was sponsored by the Church of the Redeemer, with additional funds generously provided by the parish through various Youth Program fundraising activities throughout the year. The Redeemer youth group returned to Sarasota on 17 June.

In addition to Merritt, the youth were accompanied on this mission by Doris Schweppe, Missionary for the Hispanic Mission at the Church of the Redeemer, who served as a translator and facilitator for the group. Merritt and Schweppe were joined by volunteer chaperones Beth Cave and Kelly Watts, who also donated their time in painting and helping run the bible school activities.

The 13 Redeemer youth on this mission trip included: Casey Altier, Adelaide Boedecker, Patrick Brown, Priscilla Brown, Erica Cave, Megan Clark, Victoria Dumbaugh, Lizzy Hamlet, Brad James, Brandon James, Clifton Lewis, Craig Stevenson, and Nick Watts.

This is not the first time the Church of the Redeemer has done mission work at Santo Tomas. Several years ago, the church was nearly destroyed by a hurricane, and the Church of the Redeemer visited Gautier with a construction mission team and worked to restore all the pews and the interior of the church. At that time, the team also built the altar, bishop’s chair, baptismal font, and wooden cross that are used currently by the clergy and parish of Santo Tomas.

The Youth Program at the Church of the Redeemer provides a safe, fun, and educational opportunity for youth to participate in mission and outreach work, on a local and international level, particularly in third world countries. Church youth regularly volunteer their time and energy to such organizations as Habitat for Humanity and Resurrection House, as well as making annual sojourns to other churches where they contribute their time and energy to help improve the lives of individuals in other communities.

The Church of the Redeemer’s Youth Program invites and encourages middle school (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) students throughout the community to come together with other youth from their own age groups.

Middle school students participate in “Junior EYC (Episcopal Young Churchpeople),” which meets on Wednesday nights and high school students have “Senior EYC” on Sunday evenings; both group meetings include supper, and are held throughout the school year. Additionally, bible study breakfast meetings, hosted in a Church member’s home, are held each Friday at 6:30 a.m.

The Youth program runs parallel to the school year and kicks off in August of each year, generally concluding with a day of celebration in late April, when youth members serve as lay readers, speakers, ushers, acolytes, and musicians, during the Eucharist, and end the day with an afternoon of fun, including the annual Wacky Olympics.

To learn more about EYC and Youth activities at the Church of the Redeemer, please call 955.4263 and ask to speak with Scott Merritt, or visit our website at www.redeemersarasota.org.