Mission Year offers an amazing opportunity for hundreds of young adults to live and work together as full-time urban missionaries in inner-city neighborhoods throughout the United States.
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. It takes teams of people, places them in an area of need, and helps them to serve people and create community. Mission Year is committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor.
Last year Mission Year completed its 16th year of ministry in inner-city neighborhoods. Since EAPE and Bart Campolo founded Mission Year in 1997, these urban missionaries have contributed over 1.5 million hours of community service in 10 different cities throughout the United States. In September of 2023, 70 urban missionaries were deployed to love and serve their inner-city neighbors in Atlanta, Houston, Chicago and Philadelphia.
This year we committed to help Mission Year place a third team of six urban missionaries in Philadelphia. We need your help to underwrite their year of service.
It costs $57 a day, $400 for a week, or $16,000 for the whole year to house, train, feed and insure each Mission Year team member. Your support will help sustain these young missionaries as they follow Jesus’ command to “Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Latest from Mission Year
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Mission Year: Who Serves, Why & What Do They Do?
Mission Year, one of EAPE’s Core Ministries, is a yearlong opportunity for Christian young adults to live out their faith by serving as urban missionaries. Mission Year team members come alongside what God is doing in the city by partnering with local churches, providing over 84,000 hours of service to ministries and non-profits, and reaching out to hundreds of neighbors with the love and hope of Christ.
Who Serves?
Mission Year has 70 yearlong young adult team members living and serving in 10 under-resourced communities in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia. You can learn more about 4 of these urban missionaries here:
Sophillia Hubbard
Hometown: Lynchburg, VA
Mission Year City: Philadelphia
Neighborhood Placement: Southwest Philly
Service Placement: Calvary Christian School
What breaks my heart: Hatred and closed mindedness
Why I’m giving a year: It will add a year of wisdom, understanding and experience to my life.
DeMyron Haynes
Hometown: Shreveport, LA
Mission Year City: Chicago
Service Placement: Breakthrough Urban Ministries Youth Department
What I’m passionate about: Seeing people come to know Christ. I am passionate about relationships being restored, community being formed and seeing people of all different cultural backgrounds worship together.
Why I’m giving a year: I feel lead to do so. It’s another chance for me to do life with other believers and watch how God unites us to serve a beautiful place.
Sara Contreras
Hometown: Springfield, VA
Mission Year City: Atlanta
Neighborhood Placement: Pittsburgh
Service Placement: George Justice Project
What breaks my heart: When people are mistreated and no one stands up for them.
Why I’m giving a year: I want to love on people and show them that everyone is valuable.
Heather Chappell
Hometown: Greenwood, SC
Mission Year City: Houston
Neighborhood Placement: 5th Ward
Service Placement: Pleasant Hills Community Development
What breaks my heart: Lost teenage girls that don’t know the love Christ has for them.
Why I’m giving a year: I want to minister through art, and present Christ in a loving way to a lost nation.What Do They Do?
The Mission Year Network, launched this year, has an additional 70 yearlong volunteers that we provide training and leadership support in Memphis, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, and London.
Mission Year provides 84,000+ hours of community service to over 40 local organizations and ministries saving them $800,000 each year.
Mission Year is working in areas of education, homelessness, human trafficking, food justice, legal aid, healthcare, and public policy to give hope and bring about lasting change in our communities.
Diversity is a commitment for Mission Year. While the average percentage for ethnic and cultural diversity in Christian mission organizations is between 3-5%, Mission Year is at 25%.
Mission Year team members are encouraged to share their faith in authentic and relational ways. Team members share their faith by praying with people (81%), sharing their personal testimony (62%), inviting someone to church (62%), leading someone to Christ (2%), leading a Bible study in the community (19%), having spiritual conversations (89%), and sharing the gospel through actions (89%).
Mission Year team members seek to meet holistic needs in their neighborhoods. Team members mentor youth (46%), start community gardens (44%), visit elderly neighbors (81%), help neighbors find jobs (25%), visit people in prison (15%), have meals with the homeless (85%), and connect neighbors to resources (64%).
Mission Year impacts the lives of our team members by strengthening their relationship with God (84%), helping them see the world differently (88%), using their gifts and talents to make an impact (67%), helping them become more appreciative of diversity (78%), and becoming more aware of injustice and their role as Christians in addressing it (86%).
Last year, 50% of our team members continued to live in one of our Mission Year cities after the year ended (8 are doing the Eastern Masters program, 8 are doing Mission Year’s second year leadership program).
When you give to EAPE, you invest in a network of innovative, holistic and effective ministries, like Mission Year, and make it possible for urban missionaries like Sophillia, DeMyron, Sara and Heather, to impact lives and communities in Jesus’ name.
If you have questions about Mission Year, or any of the ministries we’re investing in, please call EAPE’s office at 610-341-1722 or use the “Contact Us” form below to send an email.
