‘Why Would You Sign Up for This?’ Youth Answer the Call at Summer Local Mission 2026

Why would 52 teenagers sign up to sleep on a church floor, shower in a portable unit and spend a week digging, planting and moving gravel in the July heat?

That’s the question the Rev. Todd Schmidtetter, rector of Holy Apostles, Satellite Beach, found himself asking the youth gathered before him during the closing Eucharist of Summer Local Mission 2026. “I’ve been watching you all throughout the week, and I just can’t get over it,” he said. “What magical words did your youth minister use to convince you to come?”

It’s a fair question. And the answer, as the week showed, had less to do with the invitation and more to do with what happens once someone says yes to it.

Multiplying Ministry

Formerly known as Soul in the City, Summer Local Mission brings youth groups from across the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida together for a week of service, worship and community in a different host church each year. This year’s event, held in Satellite Beach, welcomed 52 youth and 11 adult leaders from 11 churches across the diocese from July 13-17. Holy Apostles was the host church for the week, with St. John’s, Melbourne, serving as co-host by housing the boys in its parish hall.

Churches involved were All Saints’, Lakeland; Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando; Church of Our Saviour, Okeechobee; Holy Apostles, Satellite Beach; Holy Trinity, Bartow; Holy Trinity, Melbourne; St. Edward’s, Mount Dora; St. Luke & St. Peter, St. Cloud; St. Mary of the Angels, Orlando; St. Matthias, Clermont; and St. Michael’s, Orlando.

The week’s theme, “Revived in Christ,” drew from Matthew 14:13-21, the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. The synopsis leaders built the week around was simple: Offer what you have, trust God to multiply it and become part of something greater than yourself.

That theme played out in the work itself. Youth teams tackled church grounds projects at both Holy Apostles and St. John’s and assembled more than 160 lunch bags for Matthew’s Hope Ministries, a homeless outreach center where they also spent time organizing and serving. Other teams led prayer ministry downtown and among the local homeless population, cleaned beaches and parks, and served residents at Zon Beachside, a residential assisted living facility. Several groups also visited elderly residents of Satellite Beach in their homes, weeding gardens, washing windows and cleaning porches for people who couldn’t do the work themselves.

“The activity at Zon, the assisted living facility, affected the youth in such a way that it made them think about their own relationship with the elderly and potentially their careers when they get older,” said the Rev. Garcia Barnswell-Schmidt, Lower School chaplain at Holy Trinity Academy, Melbourne, and one of two diocesan youth coordinators. “As we were leaving, some of the elderly people were crying, and our youth could see the effect they had, so they were crying too. They didn’t want to leave the people there. One of them said, ‘They’re so lonely, and I could see that what we were doing matters.’ … It made such an impact on those students.”

The Rev. Kevin Bartle, the other diocesan youth coordinator and rector of St. Mary of the Angels, Orlando, also saw God’s multiplying work throughout the week. “For the past two years, I was the lead coordinator for the event,” he said. “This year, Rev. Garcia took the helm, and she did an amazing job — a big job, especially considering it was also hosted by her home church, Holy Apostles.

“The congregation at Holy Apostles must have taken ‘You give them something to eat’ – Jesus’ words to his disciples in the Feeding of the 5,000 – and replied, ‘Here I am, send me’ [Isa. 6:8] because they showed up, and the crowd of youth and adult leaders from across the diocese were fed and filled to the brim,” Bartle said. “Volunteers arrived every day to prep, cook and serve meals; help with projects; clean meeting spaces; and even staff altar guild and tech roles to set up and assist with worship each night.

Barnswell-Schmidt agrees. “Smaller churches like St. John’s, Melbourne, and Holy Apostles, Satellite Beach, rarely have the opportunity to host diocesan events,” she said. “It was such an honor and a privilege to be able to come alongside our youth and say yes to a call to host this year’s Summer Local Mission.

“It was a profound experience of – for the first time – having to put everything together and to truly begin to understand what it takes to make our youth programs in general successful,” she said. “There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that I think people just take for granted, like ‘Where will they sleep? What will they eat? Who will serve?’ because you want to free the youth up to be able to do the work over the entire week and not to have to worry about any of that. So doing the background work for the first time really made me appreciate events like this even more. I also had an amazing team of youth leaders who stepped in and told me to take a break when I needed to. … It was just a wonderful and amazing experience.”

“I was blown away by how much the church brought what they had, and how we were all fed and full each day — physically and spiritually,” Bartle said. “One of the service projects on the last day was, quite literally, filling trays with leftovers to give to those who were hungry.

“We were also blessed by St. John’s, Melbourne,” he continued. “Holy Apostles is a bit limited on space, and we weren’t sure there’d be room for everyone to sleep. Father Timothy [Rutherford, rector] and St. John’s were incredibly gracious in allowing us to use their parish hall — which helped the event feel more like a true community gathering.”

Mark Cole, director of youth ministries at St. Michael’s, Orlando, also saw the “loaves and fishes” theme come alive all week. “The most beautiful experience I get from this week is the amazing impact that we have and leave with a community,” he said. “He will make five loaves and two fish able to feed 5,000 and have leftovers.” The week left him grateful for how God works through people, whether or not the favor gets returned. He pointed to Matthew 25:40: “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

The youth felt it too. “It was amazing to see how much God can do with the little that we have to offer,” said Elizabeth, a youth from St. Michael’s. “Our differences can be used to connect with people and serve in a unique way.” Jamie, also from St. Michael’s, said the week met her in a season of feeling distant from God. “This trip has shown me that even though I feel like I’m not enough for God, I can still give myself to God,” she said.

Just Say Yes

By the time the group gathered for the closing Eucharist, Schmidtetter had the answer to his question, even if the youth hadn’t fully worked out theirs. He told them it didn’t matter why they’d said yes. What mattered was that they had. “Every time people say yes to the invitation, Jesus meets you in those moments,” he said.

He didn’t hold back on what that yes had meant for his own congregation. “You all did real ministry here,” he told them. “You affected the lives of people not just in the church, but in the entire community. You should be proud of yourselves.” He described hearing from Satellite Beach residents who called him, unprompted, just to say how much it meant to have the group in their homes. He told the students, “What we do have is a great congregation that loves doing ministry, and having them interact with you all has been a complete blessing to me.”

Schmidtetter closed with the same invitation that opened his message. “Every time you hear that invitation, drop everything you’re doing,” he said. ‘Come, follow me, and I will show you the glory of God.’ Take it. Every opportunity that falls before you, take it, because you will see the glory of God.”

Plans for next year’s Summer Local Mission are already underway, with the diocese continuing to rotate the event to a new host church each year. For churches considering opening their doors or youth groups looking for their next mission trip, this year’s youth and their host churches have made one thing clear: It’s worth saying yes to the invitation.