On Friday, April 12, about 40 youth from around the Arkansas Central District, gathered at North Little Rock First United Methodist Church for “Imprint,” a Central District Youth Ministry annual event. “Imprint” focuses on fighting food insecurity and promoting and improving childhood literacy in Arkansas. This annual event is the third one since the Covid pandemic and continues to grow and inspire youth to become more involved in their communities and churches.
Over 24 hours, these youth, their ministers, and chaperones worshiped together, played games, and worked on several mission projects. Not only did youth members plan and lead the worship services and devotionals, they also spent some time getting to know other youth from around the district.
The youth worked with the NLRFUMC Indian Hills Feeding Ministry to provide “mug cake happies” and made simple children’s cookbooks to give to the children at the local elementary school in partnership with the Arkansas UMC Conference’s 200,000 More Reasons grant. They collected non-perishable food for the Gardner Food Pantry in North Little Rock, delivered the food to the pantry, worked on a few projects there, and delivered “Best Day Boxes” (birthday supply boxes) that the First Kids of NLRFUMC assembled.
When the youth arrived, they brought children’s books (fiction and nonfiction), which they divided among several missions: the NLRFUMC Little Free Library, Blue Star Mothers of Arkansas community group, Canvas Community, and five local elementary schools. In addition, they packed around 200 “Blessing Bags,” also known as “Compassion Bags,” to be distributed to those in need. The youth also made 10 poppy seed chicken casseroles for the NLRFUMC Pastoral Care team to be distributed to those who have experienced a loss or have a baby and need support.
“It was so fun to help and be around different people in a new environment,” one youth, Annie Eubanks, said. “I also felt so proud that I got to work and help different organizations with whatever they needed. It was also really fun that we got to hang out at our church together.”
Another youth, Samuel Allen, said he enjoyed working on mission projects close to home.
“It makes me feel like we’re actually impacting people around us instead of somewhere else — which is still important — I just think it felt more impactful,” he said.
“I’m delighted at the gifts of our connectional church that bring together the passion of youth from various UMCs to serve beyond themselves,” Rev. Sara Bayles Charlton, senior pastor, said. “It was a joy to worship together and so much fun to celebrate community with games, late-night s’mores, worship, learning, and serving. As someone who spends sleepless nights worrying about the future of the universal church, my heart burst with hope through this Imprint weekend as dozens of teenagers learned to thrive and serve together in community.”