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Barwell Ministries
Purpose The Barwell Ministries was organized in 1998 to enable Shiloh to establish a closer relationship with youth from the Barwell Housing Project. In the main, Shiloh members volunteer to provide Christian education and spiritual training to the youth of Barwell. Activities 1. For the first four years of the program, volunteers from Shiloh met with children from Barwell to provide biblical training, Gospel hymns, games, activities and snacks. 2. Starting in 1999, Shiloh Baptist Church in conjunction with Waukegan Housing Authority and the Waukegan Township has sponsored 25-33 youth on a three day camping trip to the Wisconsin Dells. This trip has enabled a number of unique outdoor experience for the kids. During this three day period, the kids get to learn church experience, outdoor activities, discipline, teamwork. More importantly, Shiloh members seek to demonstrate in a personal way how Christian people can work together to glorify God. Click Here to see some of the photos from the camping trip to the Dells in 2004 3. Thanksgiving Dinner. Click Here to view photos of the dinner on Saturday November 13, 2004 at the Barwell Center. Challenges 1. It has been extremely difficult to gain the support and participation of Barwell parents in the program. 2. Maintaining enthusiasm with the kids for regular activities beyond the Wisconsin Dell Project. 3. Gaining the cooperation of the Housing Authority to help us in communicating our activities to the kids and to make sure that we have consistent access to the Barwell Center for our scheduled activities. 4. Maintaining a solid group of core Shiloh members to volunteer with the inconsistent access to the Barwell Center. For example, volunteers have traveled to the Center from as far away as Hoffman Estates only to find that they can not gain access to the building. This has been the biggest obstacle in keeping a core group together. Future Direction 1. Going forward, we plan to focus on getting more Barwell Youth involved in programs already established at the church i.e. Awana, Boys Scouts, other CYM activities. 2. Weekly meeting at Barwell have been canceled and we are currently considering meeting monthly or quarterly at Barwell. 3. During our last camping trip, we had a number of kids to step forward and accept Christ. Unfortunately, we have not done the follow-up required to enable them to take the next step in that process. The biggest obstacle in bringing these kids to Shiloh is that many of them are already members of other churches. Nevertheless, we hope that some of them will eventually become Shiloh members. |