Youth Unlimited Serves Hundreds in Chicago
Students gather for worship before heading out to volunteer through The Chicago Project.
Peter Clevering
After gathering in Trinity Christian College’s Ozinga Chapel for prayer and worship each morning, nearly 300 students, leaders, and other participants in Youth Unlimited’s Chicago Project headed to various sites around the Chicago area to work as volunteers.
Serving others was at the heart of The Chicago Project, Youth Unlimited’s initiative to dedicate three full days of volunteer work to more than 25 partner organizations near Trinity’s Palos Heights, Ill. campus, the host site for the project, July 27 through August 1.
Youth Unlimited, a non-denominational ministry based in Grand Rapids, Mich is part of Dynamic Youth Ministries which also includes the Calvinist Cadets Corps and GEMs Girls Clubs.
In the Chicago Project, student teams were assigned to many work sites and tasks, such as:
- Painting the interior of Ira F. Aldridge Elementary School in Altgeld Gardens.
- Leading crafts and activities for older adults at Providence Health and Rehabilitation.
- Trimming trees and removing invasive species with the prairie restoration project at Kickapoo Woods.
- Helping with lawn care and home repair for elderly neighbors in Worth with the Neighbors in Needs program.
- Volunteering at By the Hand, Roseland Christian Ministries, Restoration Ministries, and the South Chicago YMCA summer youth camps.
- Helping repaint the By the Hand Cabrini Green site.
- Assisting Grace and Peace Community Church clear five acres of land for a new church building and charter school.
Keynote speaker and Trinity alumnus Zantesah (Zan) Ingalls, senior pastor of Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Newark, N.J. delivered encouraging messages throughout the weekend.
Ingalls has been involved with Youth Unlimited’s projects since 1993, speaking at various events throughout the country and in Canada. He is also a member of the organization’s board of directors.
Morning and evening worship was led by Trinity alumnus Vinnie Adams and his team. Adams is the director of the special needs ministry and the campus worship leader at Faith Church in Dyer, Ind.
