mission trip

Take It Home – Mission Trip “The Challenge”

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Every year the mission trip provides a great shift in perspective and helps you realign your thinking about what is truly important and it inspires you to want to be different when you get home.  The hardest part about the mission trip is when it is over everything else in your life hasn’t changed since you left.  The only thing different in your life when you get home will be you.  The challenge then becomes to live your life differently and with purpose in your everyday life otherwise your experience and exposure slowly becomes just a memory and the fire and inspiration that began on the trip fades away.

Today was my first day back to “life” and it was hard to adjust.  I pray all of us will strive to keep the fire burning is some way.  Maybe in small ways at first and bigger ways every now and then. Thankfully we are part of an excellent church community that provides support and opportunities to serve.  If you ever get the chance to go on a short term mission experience try it…you will be amazed at what you will learn about yourself and others plus it is the best way to light a fire in your soul that may just give you the boost to…”Take Your Faith With You”  after all it was after I returned from a mission trip a few years ago that I was inspired to start this blog you are reading today.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip this year and I will post again soon.

May God’s peace be with you today and always.

The Heart Of It All – Mission Trip “Breaking Down Barriers”

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Everyday we all want to be doing something that is significant to somebody somewhere in the world. Whether it is volunteer work or our everyday job.  Many times we come upon a barrier of some sort that slows us down or may even stop us completely.  These barriers can be fear, selfishness, anxiety, worries about what if, etc.  It often takes great courage to break down these barriers especially in our everyday life.

As this mission trip week continues I am observing our youth breakdown some barriers that have been difficult to handle in the past.  These include interacting with people in need and building relationships with kids that may be living in difficult home situations.  I am also observing youth breaking down barriers within our group of mission trip people.  The mix of kids is very diverse with many groups of friends that in everyday life may hardly spend anytime together at all.  As this week continues new friendships are beginning to form and new connections are being made that may never have existed due to the barriers of everyday life at home.

One of the reasons you get so much out of a mission trip is you get to remove so many barriers of life and just be present with a group of youth and adults that are working together to experience life in a different way.  I feel blessed to be part of this opportunity and pray my contribution is making a difference in the lives of others.

Peace to you.

Open My Eyes – Mission Trip “Community Engagement”

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Today we began to dive into our new surroundings for the week.  My group is spending the mornings all week at a Day Camp for middle school kids.  We met a wonderful group of local leaders and other volunteers who spend their days with 30-40 youth…playing basketball, talking in small groups and teaching them about preparing healthy foods.  Our group did a great job of jumping in and started the process of building relationships with the kids.  It is amazing to watch the young people from our church be so willing to get involved in a unfamiliar environment and to share their God given gifts with people they just met today.  They are amazing.  

The second part of the day is a “Prayer Tour” around several different parts of the city.  This is by far the best way to fully understand information about different neighborhoods and the history behind social issues and how things ended up where they are today.  This part of the experience provides a clear foundation for the week to help you open your eyes to all the things that are happening in a community.  It makes me think about our community at home and how we could help make a difference their once we return.

The opportunity to step back in life and be present where your are is a wonderful and transforming experience.  Better yet to watch the youth of our church soak up the information, ask questions and begin to get engulfed in their surroundings is truly a blessing.

I leave you with Matthew 6:34

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble if its own.

Perspective and Attitude – Mission Trip “The Beginning”

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We have ventured out again on a mission trip with senior high youth…this will be my third year of going on this adventure in faith.  This year is a new city, a new group of kids and some repeat participants.  The starting weekend we spend time “getting started” finalizing and adjusting logistics that can and can’t be controlled to the best of our ability and making our way to our destination.  It takes a shift is perspective and attitude to process through some of these issues.

As questions and issues arise you need to be solution oriented and trust that no matter what God will be holding you through it all.  As always, the opportunity to get away from the day to day concerns and issues of everyday life and just focus on your relationship with God and others gives me such a sense of peace.

The youth and adult leaders that I am blessed to be with on this trip are amazing individuals and I can’t imagine my life before these trips…I never knew what I was missing.  We can look at a situation like a traffic jam, which on an ordinary day would cause frustration and anxiety as we now knew we were going to be arriving late for our schedule but the shift in attitude and perspective the kids took was to make friends with people in the other cars on the road.  They were waving and yelling Hi out the window and few people rolled down the window and chatted with us about where we were going.

A positive attitude and a perspective that we are here to help and serve others in the community that is the way we are trying to live and hopefully we can bring that home with us when we return.

Please pray for us and our journey this week!

Peace be with you.

 

 

 

Leaving For a Mission Trip Today

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I am heading out with a few other adults and 20 or so senior high youth from our church today to go and serve others in need.  We are hitting the road driving to a city much larger than our own but it could be any city, including our own, that has people in need.  Our bible verses surrounding us for this trip come from Luke 10:1-12…

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.  He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals and do not greet anyone on the road.  When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house’.  If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.  Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages.  Do not move around from house to house.  When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you.  Heal the sick that are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’  But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you.  Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.  I tell you it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.”

I have come to understand that the only way we can grow in our spiritual life is to try new things and challenge ourselves regarding faith.  There was a time in my life that a mission trip was the last thing on my mind and yet that probably means God was the last thing on my mind as well.  I am glad that times have changed…

I pray for our group on the trip that we can all grow in faith and grow closer to God and that all people we encounter will see the love of God through our actions.

I will post as often as I can as we go to share my thoughts and reflections…Peace to you.