FROM STAFF REPORTS

Helena’s Trinity Church of the Nazarene youth group has been selling pumpkins for several years now and this month will be the same.

The church’s front lawn will turn orange from an array of pumpkins and fall scenery that will be placed there as a service to the community.

But the pumpkins have paid off in another way as well.

This past summer, the Nazarene Youth International group from Trinity headed the inner city of Indianapolis, Ind., to work in four city parks, cleaning up trash, clearing fences, running children’s programs and encouraging the neighborhoods.

Trinity’s youth joined with hundreds of others from around the world at the Nazarene Youth International General Convention.

Cleaning parks was just one aspect of the project. Home repair, lot cleanup, fence painting, roofing, minor construction and major reconstruction of older homes were all a part of the list of projects the teens and adult sponsors participated as part of the church’s Work & Witness program.

This summer’s event marked the fifth out-of-state trip for this group. Other trips have taken them to Monteclova, Mexico, in 2001; Island Encounter, The Bahamas, in 2002; Houston, Texas, in 2003; and Nassau, Bahamas, in 2004.

The Trinity Pumpkin Patch opened again on Oct. 3 at the corner of Shelby County Highway 58 and Laurel Woods Drive