Thursday, November 16, 2023

UM ARMY Transformed Trucksville Area

Trucksville UMC

By Darlene Thomas

GOD @ WORK: TRANSFORMED was the theme for this year’s U.M. ARMY (United in Mission: Action Reach-out Mission by Youth) summer mission weeks. U.M. ARMY is a national youth mission organization that offers youth mission opportunities across the United States each summer. 

Several Susquehanna Conference churches were involved in this mission organization this past summer. The mission week was hosted by Trucksville UMC. Three churches from our conference participated in the week: Trucksville UMC, New Creation Community Church (Dover), and Shiremanstown UMC. In addition, two churches from Connecticut and one church from Missouri traveled to Northern Pennsylvania to join us. 

Shiremanstown UMC

Armed with hammers, paint brushes, yard rakes and other tools, this group of 60 youth and adults served the greater Trucksville area, helping both individual families as well as local social service organizations. We truly felt GOD @ WORK through everything we did and we were TRANSFORMED through our work and our relationships. 

In addition to the work we undertook, we also worshiped together each morning and evening; enjoyed wonderful food prepared by the awesome kitchen team; had lots of fun with games; had an end-of-week picnic; visited a local dairy farm where we got yummy ice cream; and strengthened our walk with God through lunch devotions and a prayer journey. The highlight of the week was our Community Celebration Dinner where we invite the neighbors we served to a dinner and program to celebrate the projects we completed and all the lives that were touched in this mission.

New Creation Community Church, Dover

GREAT NEWS!! U.M. ARMY is coming back to Trucksville in 2024, the week of July 7, and we would love to have more churches from the Susquehanna Conference join us. Check out the U.M. ARMY Northeast on Facebook or our website umarmy.org/regions/northeast for more information. You can also contact Gina Grubbs at ginagrubbs@umarmy.org or Darlene Thomas at gabrielt0303@gmail.com to discuss the possibility of your group joining us. 

Please prayerfully consider joining us to help us continue to TRANSFORM the Trucksville community! 


Michelle Schwartzman
VIM Coordinator
vim@susumc.org