Connected to a network of Catholic churches, Mission Youth is your average church youth group-- except that they also "train" these children as missionaries. About once a month, they bus these poor kids into Philly to pray in front of a clinic as part of their training. When a clinic is left undefended, they will kneel right in front of the entrance and try to intercept patients as they walk by. They can be the largest anti-abortion presence when they manage to bus in 40 or 50 children and parents, taking up the entire street, and sometimes bringing a sound system and a guitar to more thoroughly disturb the neighborhood. On Easter, they're the ones carrying giant wooden crucifixes around Center City like a derranged pagent show.
You can recognize them because of their matching clothes with the Mission Youth logo (orange and yellow with a crucifix). Besides their pastor and a few youth leaders, they generally do not seem to bring the same group of kids each time. Many of them appear confused and uncomfortable, so we let them draw their own conclusions (and blur their faces in photos). They never dance with us, anyway.
