Youth Unlimited Serves Hundreds in Chicagoland

After gathering in Trinity’s Ozinga Chapel for prayer and worship each morning, nearly 300 students, leaders, and other participants in Youth Unlimited’s* Chicago Project head to various work sites around Chicagoland to volunteer.

Serving others is 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 campus, the host site for the project, July 27 through August 1.

Youth Unlimited is a non-denominational, non-profit ministry organization that assists the Church and its many local congregations with their ministry. Student teams are assigned to various work sites and tasks, including:

• Painting the entire interior of Ira F. Aldridge Elementary School in Altgeld Gardens
• Leading crafts and activities for older adults at Providence Health and Rehabilitation
• Helping Lake Katherine develop their Spider Maze
• 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
• And much more!

Director of Admissions at Trinity, Jeremy Klyn ’02, served as the Trinity liaison. “I loved seeing students serve as the hands and feet of Christ,” said Klyn. “Every year I read college applications in which students talk about their faith being influenced by acts of service. I can’t wait to read some in the coming years that talk about The Chicago Project as a point of growth in their faith.”

I loved seeing students serve as the hands and feet of Christ.
– Jeremy Klyn ’02

All of the volunteer site coordination was arranged by Trinity’s AmeriCorps VISTA / Community Partnership Coordinator Carrie Timmermans ’11.

Welcome back Pastor Zan

For keynote speaker and Trinity alumnus Zantesah (Zan) Ingalls, it was the second visit to campus since his graduation from the College in 1988. The senior pastor of Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, has been involved with Youth Unlimited’s projects since 1993, speaking at various events throughout the country and in Canada. He also serves on the organization’s Board of Directors.

Ingalls, who earned a bachelor’s degree in theology at Trinity, delivered encouraging messages to help students understand the importance of the work they did and how God would make flourish the seeds they planted through service.

“This is awesome,” Ingalls said of being back on campus as part of The Chicago Project where he witnessed participants’ lives changed as well as those they served.

Thanks to the great worship team

Morning and evening worship was led by Trinity alumnus Vinnie Adams ’10 and his team. Adams is the director of the special needs ministry and the campus worship leader at Faith Church in Dyer, Indiana. As a student at Trinity, where he majored in special education, he led the student worship team Outcry.

Vinnie Adams ’10 (lead from acoustic and drums)

Richard Bodden (electric and acoustic)

Anthony Bolkema ’07 (keys)

Katie DeGraff (keys)

Pete Meyer ’07 (bass)

Linelle Muse ’08 (drums)

Eric Rosario (electric)

More about Pastor Zan Ingalls ’88

In addition to pastoring his church, Ingalls is the president of the Congress of Christian Education of the New Hope Association, New Jersey General Baptist Convention. He is the former vice principal of United Academy (a K-8 private grammar school) in Newark and is also a former member of the gospel recording ensemble, Special Edition. He has hosted the weekly radio broadcast, There is Hope Ministry out of Yanceyville, North Carolina. Ingalls received his Bachelor of Arts in Theology at Trinity and his Master of Divinity from Lighthouse Bible College. He and his wife Liane have three children, Zantesah II, Jaazaniah, and Leilani.

* Youth Unlimited is known  ThereforeGO as of 2021.