Provide Orthodox Christian youth an opportunity to put their Faith to work.
Total participants across 13 mission trips from five jurisdictions (OCA, ACROD, GOARCH, Antiochian, Romanian). Roughly 150 participants from a dozen Northeast parishes, and another dozen satellite teams mentored across the country.
Families helped with home repairs, a new church foundation laid, a church school provided for over 40 children, and countless meaningful connections made.
Individual donors across 15 years of service. 70 Godparent Donors ($500+ donation in one year).
If our 70% participant return rate tells us anything, it’s that at the Orthodox Youth Mission Team is special. Our youth and adults will tell you themselves: OYMT is a family, and once you’re a member of our team, you’re a member for life. See below for just a tiny glimpse of what makes OYMT the incredible experience it is.
When our founders, Susan Sulich and Beth Ryzyk, started OYMT in 2010, their goal was simple: to provide a short-term missions experience designed specifically for Orthodox youth. At the time, no such opportunity existed elsewhere for Orthodox youth to participate in missions without their parents and to live in community with other Orthodox youth across jurisdictions.
From the very beginning, OYMT has been a pan-Orthodox mission team. During our summer mission trips, youth and adults are able to live in Orthodox community in a setting that simply goes beyond the experience provided by jurisdictional camps. Further, since 2018, OYMT has had the unique ability to fill an entire ASP volunteer center each summer, ensuring we are living and serving exclusively with Orthodox Christians and allowing our clergy and adult leaders to provide additional Orthodox programming beyond what ASP can offer.
OYMT has always, and will always, travel with an Orthodox priest. The priest is the spiritual director of our team, and our lay Team Coordinator is simply there to handle all the logistics (ensuring a manageable workload for any clergy members of OYMT). In 2o25, we were blessed to travel with three Orthodox priests from three states and two jurisdictions, as well as several subdeacons, readers, and seminary-track students.
OYMT's Youth Participants refer to their adult leaders by first name. Our youth are treated like adults during the mission trip, and given adult responsibilities, unless and until they give us a reason to treat them otherwise. This fosters confidence, commitment, and communication skills far beyond those of their peers and prepares our youth for adult mission work if they are so called.
We believe very strongly in fostering long-lasting connections between Orthodox youth across state and jurisdictional lines. These connections carry our youth the trials of college and beyond and ensure they remain lifelong members of the Orthodox Church. We have seen these connections formed first-hand among our Youth Participants, and we've even witnessed the union of some of our members! Our youth regularly organize their own mini-reunions, even after graduating from the program.