Manor Church will host a live auction to benefit its student ministries' mission trip to New York City this summer.

The auction will be held on Saturday, March 22, starting at 9 a.m. in the church's gymnasium, 530 Central Manor Road, Lancaster. It will run until all the items are sold.

Breakfast food items, including breakfast sandwiches and fruit, will be sold in the morning, and lunch items such as hamburgers and hot dogs will be for sale in the afternoon. Food proceeds will also benefit the mission trip.

The students going on the trip serve on the day of the auction, helping with child care, running auction items, and preparing and serving food.

Auction items will include gift certificates, baked goods, and home decor.

For more information about the auction, email student ministries director Beau Walmer at beauw@manorchurch.org or call the church office at 717-285-3138.

Walmer said auction proceeds will be used to give local high school and middle school students the opportunity to serve and make an impact in New York City.

The Manor Church group will be serving with Adventures in Missions (AIM).

Adventures in Missions is an interdenominational mission organization that focuses on discipleship. AIM emphasizes prayer and relationships in work around the world.

Manor Church's group will work in Bushwick, a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, from Saturday, June 21, to Friday, June 27. 

The focus will be homeless outreach, city cleanup, children's ministry, and prayer and street outreach, although the itinerary will not be finalized until closer to the trip.

Manor Church's traveling party will comprise students in seventh through 12th grades. Last year, 30 people participated, including group leaders.

In recent years, the church has gone to Viper, Kentucky; Waldorf, Maryland; and Harlingen, Texas. On those trips, the student volunteers have assisted with projects at a Christian camp, organized and distributed food from a pantry, and helped with a vacation Bible school.

"Every trip has looked different based on organizations and ministries we've been partnering with and their needs," said Walmer. "All three trips were very unique in terms of not just where we went, but also the ways that we served."

The director stated that the neighborhoods the mission serves are not the only ones who benefit. "Our students are exposed to a new and different community from what they're familiar with here in Lancaster," Walmer said. "They're also great opportunities to students to grow in different areas of their lives, spiritually, and sometimes it's learning a new skill, serving in a way they don't usually serve. And it can be a way to challenge them in their faith."

Manor Church's student ministries meet regularly on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights and take trips during the summer in addition to a fall retreat, all designed to build camaraderie.

"A big part of the mission is the serving piece, but there also other things people don't think of when they think of a mission trip, like the debriefing, the relationships that are being built, whether that's a new relationship or ones strengthened during the trip," Walmer said.