Day 2!

 Houston Skyline from LINC offices downtown

Hola from Texas!

Yesterday was awesome! God safely brought us here, to Houston, Texas! We were welcomed with opened arms by Dorinda, our LINC leader and her team that will be with us this week. Then we enjoyed a delicious dinner, an introduction to what LINC does and how we will be serving this week! 

After the introduction, we had a picture scavenger hunt around the city to see the culture and what lies below the skyline. Many murals of music, heritage, and passion filled the, used to be, empty walls of buildings. By the end of the hunt we all ended at Communidad de Gracia(Community of Grace) where we will be staying until Friday. We were truly blessed with air conditioning in the sleeping rooms and two showers each, for boys and girls!(:

Already we were greeted with open arms by this church community! There is so much love for people and God here! This was an amazing start to a blessed and exciting week with new friends and one big family.

Day 1

Good Morning from Louisiana! 

God is good y'all!

Yesterday our team drove ten hours and arrived at Covington, Louisiana last night around dinner time! It was a nice evening of relaxing and talking about being "restored" through Christ before our eventful week starts Monday! 

Psalm 23 talks about our Shepard who "makes us lie down in green pastures" ,  "leads us beside still waters", and ultimately "restores our soul". This week, please pray for our students along with their mentors that they would find peace and rest in God throughout the week. That this week, we are here to serve, love, and show others this peace we find in Jesus Christ. All while allowing Him to take over and restore OUR own hearts in the process.

Differences

(Youth at Service Tonight)

Tonight we were honored to attend a service with New Covenant Mission Baptist Church. We sang and danced all while praising our Father together as one community. This church was in a community that was run down and mostly african american. (You could say that this community and church was the complete opposite of our little Oviedo community.)  In today’s society, it is easy to get caught up in the stereotypes that we all place on one another. Even if this isn't our intention, we still can sinfully look at each other differently than our Father looks at us; as his children. This evening, the High School Youth were shown how no matter where we come from or no matter how different we are, we are ALL His children and we are SO loved.  As Christians, we all want to serve him and love others the way he loves us no matter how different we may act, look or seem on the outside. Why is it hard then to fully love and accept one another like Christ does?

Malachi 2:10

“Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?”

A Senior Youth and I had a discussion this week about why it is so hard to work with some of the children in the area. The organizations that we are serving all have children who have grown up in poor and underdeveloped neighborhoods. The oldest children raise their younger siblings and take care of them as if they were their actual parents. Kids here don’t know when or how they will get their next meal and violence seems to be the only way to communicate.This is a new experience for our Senior Youth. These children are different then them which  can make serving frustrating, agonizing and most of all heartbroken. As the youth and I talked, we went on about how the kids were different and why that was. Then the light bulb clicked. These kids are hurting and in pain.This world is broken. Sin is real. God is all we have. These children need Him just as much or more then we do. How can I, as a Senior Youth do that?

These are the moments in ministry that make all the hurt and pain subside. When our Youth experience and see God in a whole new way. In a way that they can then turn to others who are in need of His love and grace. A way where they can put aside their differences and truly see that person for who they are; God’s child.

This week is not over yet and I can’t wait to see how else God works through our youth and how the community works through them! Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts on our trip!

Living on Mission

(Youth at Hearts & Hands Thrift Store)

   
Thank you all for your continuous prayers and thoughts! Today wraps up day four on our Mission Trip. The youth along with the adult mentors have served in various places and  different organizations the past two days. We have done many task from working with kids at the local Boys and Girls Club to sorting clothes at a non-profit thrift store. When we go on these mission trips and adventures we all have expectations. Expectations on what the people will be like, how the community will look and most of all what we will be doing the week that we serve. Each and everyone of us also can say that we have expectations not only for these times of outreach but also for our everyday lives.  What your coffee SHOULD taste like in the morning or maybe even how your kids SHOULD act. Realistically, we have all seen our expectations be completely demolished by the world around us. Or is it the world around us? Throughout the bible, there are countless stories on figures who know what they want or have expectations on what should be happening in their lives. For example Moses. Moses never saw himself as a leader or even a public speaker, yet God had different plans for him and his life. His expectations were not what God intended.

During this week of service, there have been times where we have not had too much to do at our work sites. Sometimes we end up just talking with the people or playing sports with the locals. This is not what you expect on a mission trip. Many of us came into this trip with our own expectations on what it was going to be like and how serving connected to Missions. Our expectations have been shattered. When you think of a Mission Trip, you most definitely think about manual labor or working with your hands and it can be frustrating when that isn't the case at all. However, this isn’t what God always intends for us on these trips.

Missions isn't just about serving others in a way that makes us feel good or to conquer our own expectations. But it's about living day to day in relationship with God and others around us. Sometimes, we forget that our expectations are not what God has instore for us just like Moses. We stray away from our relationship with Him and lean into our own understanding and expectations. The Mission not only test  these High School youth and adult mentors but also test every single follower of Jesus. Our lives should be about being on Mission and leaning into our Father for guidance instead of our own.

Psalm 143:8

“Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.”

West Virginia... Mountain Momma!

We have made it to West Virginia!!!! Thank you all so much for your prayers and good thoughts while we travel! We are all ready for a hot meal and bed before we start in our work groups tomorrow!

WE MADE IT!

We have made it safely to our hotel for the first night! Please be praying for a refreshing night so that we are ready to go bright and early tomorrow!

Thursday and Friday...

Two entries for the price of one (sorry for not posting last night...)

We have had an amazing last few days here in Bayou La Batre Alabama. We woke up Thursday ready for another day's hard work. After a filling breakfast we had some deep devotions going further into what being a part of the kingdom of God looks like. We split into our groups and had a great last day of Kids Club with safari day and continued to paint houses in the community. We all gathered back up to host a community cookout at a local park. Some of the local kids joined us in our exploits on the monkey bars and our frisbee game. The park was right on the bay and we were able to enjoy a great sunset together on the pier. Our last night at the Community Center included a foot washing ceremony symbolizing Christ willingness to serve others in the same way we should serve others. It was an emotionally draining night.

Friday morning we awoke VERY EARLY to breakfast, cleaning the building up and an emotional goodbye to our home for the past week in the Bayou.  We are now settled in at Laguna Beach Christian Camp for the next two nights for some rest and relaxation at the BEACH!  It is spectacular here and we have spent time in the Gulf of Mexico and the pool already.  Tomorrow we plan on a canoe trip and some more beach and pool time.

Home around 2:30 (ish) on Sunday so we may not blog tomorrow... we will have to see.  Lots of tired and emotionally spent people on this trip so far.

Thank you for your continued prayer and support.

Wacky Sock Wednesday

Day four in Bayou la Batre, Alabama is complete. The day started off with a nourishing break fest that gave everyone a boost to get to there service projects. The service projects consisted of painting, weeding and helping out with kids. These projects went on from 9 A.M. to 3 in the afternoon. Everyone did a great job and kept everything running very smoothly. 

As everyone started to finish up there work projects, dinner was a must. Dinner served fresh pizza from Little Caesars and watermelon on the side. It was a great meal to end the day with. After dinner, the vans were prepared to leave and take the kids to Friendship Baptist Church. Once they arrived, a pastor took the time to talk to the kids about worry. He explained to them that you should never be worried about material things and to just let God take control. He helped the kids realize that God is always in control and that worrying is a waste of time. After the sermon, the kids all gathered in a big circle and cheered there friends as they played basketball. It was a complete success. 

To end the night, root-beer floats were made as a night snack. The lesson to close the day off was sacrifice. 

The kids learned that giving up something for the people you love is beyond important. At the end of the day, Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice. He saved us from our sins and we will always be  grateful for that. 

Today was a good day in sunny Alabama. 

Also... for those headed to BAyou La Batrie... remember Wednesday is "Weightless Wednesday" at Cafe Yo.

YouthWorks Goin Up.. On A Tuesday

Another successful day of work projects and kid's club! More painting took place, as well as some tree branch cutting, which Brad Kramer totally owned. It was also Lori McNatt's birthday today! She spent the day in the sun with her work group painting, like a champ. 

After showers and tacos, we all hopped in the vans again and headed out for the fish market, T-shirt shopping, and a tour of the Bayou La Batre. At the fish market, we ate shrimp, fruit, and chatted with the owner, Rick. The T-shirt shop we visited offered custom-made shirts and hats, and we finished the evening off by watching the beautiful sunset on the Bayou. Then we headed back to the community center for club, family group time and birthday cake.

Day Two was very successful, and we're excited to switch kid's club and work project groups tomorrow morning! 

Monday... and serving!

Today, we started working in the community with both a kids club and a work projects. We joined our new friends from Wesley church in Canton, IL for painting, brush clean up, making new friends in the community and for kids club. 

Starting out with Devos..

Kid's club, for those who are unaware, is where many children from the community are invited to come for games and crafts and to learn about Jesus. Today we had over 30 kids which seemed like quite a bit more with some of them challenging everyone. There were some incidents, one of which involved vomit, but the amazing Audra Duffy stepped up to the plate to clean it up. Work sites today included painting the outside of a produce/fish market, plucking chickens, and lots of brush burning, which Rick thoroughly enjoyed. All in all, our morning and afternoon activities were successful.  

Kids club and work projects...

Afterwards, we hopped in the vans and drove down to Dauphin Island for a couple hours of beach time. The sand was hot and the water was warm, but it felt good to wash off all the dirt and paint from a hard days work. Back at the community center, much needed showers were followed by dinner; Jambalaya, green beans and corn muffins. 

and then the Beach...

We all feel very blessed to be a part of this amazing opportunity to help out this Alabama community. We're looking forward to the week ahead with open hearts and open minds!

At our Youth Works site!

We have arrived!  With temperatures at times of 104 degrees while traveling we have gotten to the Bayou!  Church this morning at Grace Lutheran was a great message on John the Baptist and Herod.  The Pastor did a great job of bringing Grace to a difficult story about Herodias.  The church provided great accomodations but did not have showers...  With lots of active athletic youth who have not showered in over 36 hours things are ripe...

We have met the staff and the other church that is with us at the site.  We have learned about the community and are excited to be the hands and feet of God in this community!  The stage is set for us to share our love for Christ.  Please keep us in your prayers that our God will lead and guide us as we make new relationships and strenthen existing ones.

In his service...

Made it to Tallahassee!

We are the guests of Grace Lutheran church and have consumed pizza and salad after which we went to see "Minions". 

Bed time is near and an early start for church and on to Bayou La Batre.  Prayers for the remainder of our journey! 

This summer, 49 youth and 9 adult mentors will travel to Bayou La Batre, AL to serve the local community.  In conjunction with an organization called YouthWorks, we will host a Kid's Club during the week (similar to VBS) and paint some houses around the area.  Please keep our group in your prayers as we travel, serve, learn and grow in our relationships with one another and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Watch for daily updates and photos starting on Saturday!

tired and ready to go

     Well there you have it.  The week is pretty much officially over.  We had a very relaxing morning with sleeping in and not eating breakfast until after 9am today!!!!!  For those that don't realize that means there was an average sleep in time of about 2hrs.  All the cabins pitched in again and got our pancake and sausage breakfast ready to go and enjoyed in our make shift dining area.

 We spent the day at Carowinds going on as many roller coasters and water slides as we possibly could despite the overcast and sometimes rainy sky.  For some they turned into little kids again with roller coasters and others just enjoyed a relaxing day in a lazy river or by the side of the water in a chair.


We made it back from the park and each cabin put together our pasta and salad dinner and we enjoyed it so much.  We finished off the night with some more craft time and a quick devo and song.  Now just winding down until bed time looking forward to getting back home to our own showers, beds and more quiet time than we have been getting for the last week.

For those that were not able to be here this week but have been reading along and praying for us l hope that you get a chance to ask these kids what they did this week.  They were asked some tough questions by people they encountered this week and answered those questions with confidence.  The adult leaders are so proud of these kids and what they have done.

Thank you for all the prayers and support that leading up to and during this week.  All prayers were answered this week and then some.  One last request would be for safe travels and good attitudes as we travel home tomorrow.  We'll be leaving at 730am and have a lot of miles to cover.  lt has been another fun week of writing to you all and l hope you have enjoyed reading as much as we have enjoyed writing.  l pray that we'll all be ready to go home and be the light upon the hill for those around us.

QOTD

"l was really looking forward to stuffing some sausage into tubing, Dang it"



POTD


All week long we had tons of fun
Going going going non stop
Getting to know new people
Ready to do Gods work
Everyone working together for one purpose
Sitting and listening to those around
Into a new beginning
Very impressive things were done
Earthly things we found were not as important
The staff took such care with every single person
How thankful we are for the experience
Random people became new friends
It can't be real that the week is over already
Little by little we realized it would happen
Lots of new bonds were made
Everyone is ready to take what they did back home with them
Ready to be the light upon the hill

l can't believe that it's over........but is it really????

So we haven't talked since wednesday night and we have a lot to share with you.  Starting on thursday morning with the morning run it was discovered that the weather was amazing again, thanks for the prayers for that to happen.  The work groups went out to most of the same places from wednesday except for 'Invasion' who went to an elementary school to help out with the summer work of moving furniture.  At the adult meeting in the evening there were so many stories of how great the kids did at work groups, vbs, and everywhere else we went to.  

Many funny stories were shared and we could have kept talking about how the kids really pulled it together and finished projects that didn't look like they could have been finished.  Thursday evening for dinner the community and church members were invited for a cookout and we all enjoyed hamburgers, hotdogs, pasta salad and chips along with the special treat of soda.  We also enjoyed a great game of ultimate frisbee for the second time of the week, which a couple of our adult leaders really really enjoyed. We ended frisbee and said our goodbyes to the people we had met throughout the week and that realization that this was the last night started sinking in as we headed into our evening club time. Club time was a little more emotional than usual with everyone starting to look toward the future and what would happen after we left Taylorsville.  We were realizing that our special time together was over and we would be leaving and going back to "real life" and that is usually a hard thing for so many kids and adults.  But I pray that instead of this being the end of our fun time together we can realize that our time is not over and instead our time is just beginning.  This is about to be the beginning of us going back to our lives and have our chance to share with everyone else who wasn't with us what kind of experience we had and why we went on the trip and our chance to share Christ with them.

After club time we were able to do a little stargazing outside and since these FL kids don't get to see that very often it was a nice treat.  Everyone got some much needed rest, maybe not enough, and we were up and ready to start our day at 6:30am on friday.

l guess that brings us to today.  Waking up at 6:30am and first thing was to pack our stuff into all of our vans and just hope that you packed everything you brought and find out later if you did.  The youthworks staff got us all together for a huge cleaning party, which was a hoot, and all the kids and adults cleaned our entire site in no time at all.  Then it was time to really say goodbye to the other church group and our incredibly amazing youthworks staff.  Some may wonder how it could be so hard to say goodbye after spending only 5 days with someone but when it is under these circumstances you can get to know someone very quickly.  Our youthworks staff took great care with all of our kids and knowing that they would take care of us made it easier as an adult for the week.  We give up a week of our year to be here and do this, but those staff members give up their whole summer to be doing this and that is an incredible sacrifice but l am so thankful for people like them so that we can have this sort of experience.
Anyways we took a very relaxing route to get to the Charlotte, SC area where we are staying for the next two nights.  We were able to stop at Starbucks AND Dunkin' Donuts and a little bagel cafe.  We arrived at Carowinds wilderness lodge camp ground area and got checked in a little early and spent the afternoon going out for lunch at various fast food venues and then relaxing/napping in our cabins.  Tonights dinner will consist of six different items and one item will be prepared by each cabin.  After dinner we'll have evening devotions and family group time and head off to bed to get ready for a fun day at Carowinds tomorrow.

Thank you for all the prayers and l can say that every single request was answered and we were very thankful for that.  l ask for continued prayers of safety and fun and to give the kids a chance to focus on what has happened in the past week and what going home will mean for them.


QOTD

"Rhonda we need to pull over cause our whole van is crying"


POTD

No one can ever guess what will happen out here
Only God knows what the plan is
The kids had their eyes opened in so many ways
Our Youthworks staff was absolutely amazing!!!!!!
Very much exhausted from the week, but still going
Every memory will be cherished
Ready, set, let's go spread the word

2-4-1 bonus blog.......

Tuesday

Everyone woke up to a waffle breakfast that was just what we needed to start our hard day of work. Individual morning devotions set the theme for the whole day "Step In". The workgroups set out afterwards at about 8:30 to their worksites. The work for today was mostly finishing up yesterdays jobs. The floor was finally finished at the habitat for humanities home, and the other group finished up splitting wood, digging a duck pond and also bushwhacking. After a much needed shower we came back to church to leave once to a backyard water park. Everyone had a great time together hanging out and bonding with the other church (Good Shepherd). For dinner was a delicious pizza party and some lovely brownies made by our youthworks cook. Club was awesome! We sang a whole bunch of our favorite songs and talked about how to "step in" like jesus stepped in for us.  We finished off the night with family group time and a special treat in the form of delicious brownies!!!

Wednesday

WOW, you could tell we have been doing some hard work when the wake ups started today.  Almost everyone was a little bit slower to get out of bed and walk around.  The weather was a wonderful surprise today!!!!  lt was much cooler today than the last couple days and we had a nice breeze all day long.  l think the weather helped make the change of jobs go a little smoother today.  Everyone was changing jobs today.....Avalon Farms workers slowed down their pace a little bit.....Kids club workers got a little busier.....Habitat workers, well to be honest l am not sure what happened to them but l am sure they still had a good day.

Finishing up our work time involved trips to Mcdonalds and apparently a stop with someone making some homemade ice cream.  We got all showered up and headed over to an apple orchard for a slight uphill walk that went up and up and up, but at the top it was so worth the trip.  You could tell when we were getting to the tip because you could here each person pause and give their gasp of awe at the scenery that was set before them.  We took several pictures of groups, all groups of people that could pair together.  Many of the kids started heading back down and a small group of about 20 kinda lingered around and had 30 sec of silence and all that was heard was the wind and trees and it was an even more beautiful sight.(l promise that pictures will get put up but it is taking some time with the downloading process and to get through them)

There was some good stargazing going on and everyone was sitting around talking outside and just enjoying the wonderful weather, which to some Floridians was sweatshirt weather!!!  Now with Wednesday done we are waking up to thursday tomorrow.  This is the last full day of our week to be together and will be our last day of work groups.  

Some prayer requests would be for us to have the energy to finish out the last full day strong and with more effort put forth than any other day; for the weather to be amazing again; for us to finish some projects; and also a prayer request for the kids to realize that our time is ending and to try to get the most out of every opportunity that presents itself.

QOTD

"So have l showed you the video of the gorilla war yet"

POTD

So here we are coming closer to the end

Kids are all over with excitement

Everyone was in awe looking out over the mountain 

The stars were out in full force

Closing down the night with some good talks

How could we ever think of leaving such an amazing event as this

Still we must realize that it will come to an end

Lots of preparation must be made for our return

I don't know what will happen

Definitely lots of prayers will be needed

Exhausted but still going

Work Day #1

The morning running crew had an early start this morning with their five mile run at 5:20 this morning. Everyone else started their day at about 6:30 for a lovely breakfast of cereal, hard-boiled eggs, fruit and toast. Individual devotions kick started this morning off with personal reflection time.  The work groups did a short orientation to learn about the things we were about to work on for the day.  We left St. Luke's church in our separate vans in route for our service projects.

One group went to Habitat for Humanities and helped take part in building a home for an elderly couple. The group worked on constructing the foundation.

 Another group worked at Avalon Farm, some people weeded while others split wood. The big project was digging a duck pond for the 6 ducks.  Some new skills were learned today at all sites.

The kids camp group started off with flying colors and they had an amazing time playing with the kids and spreading the word to the little ones. Then after nice cool showers we all headed over to a cowboy church, where a live band performed (with a banjo) and the Pastor spoke about being lost and found. The congregation was very welcoming and even fed the whole group hot dogs and watermelon.  We made it back to St Luke after cowboy church in time for some oreos and milk for snack time and then jumped straight into club and then family group time.  Then all of a sudden it was already time for lights out.  Tomorrow the groups will be going to the same jobs we had today and very excited for more stories.  

Some prayer requests from today would be for a breeze in the air for the groups working outdoors; For our two church groups to continue to bond and continued safety; for the days to slow down or for more hrs to be added into each day.

QOTD

"We should cook Emily"

(don't worry, we did not follow through with this)

POTD

We have got one day down

Hot Hot Hot it was

Exciting first day of work

Ready for a nap

Eric is awesome

Sunburn. . . .

Monday fun-day it was 

Youthworks is great

Jeannelle is awesome

On our way to cowboy church

Evening devotions are done so have a good night

Sunday night arrival

lt was an early morning wake up in Peachtree City so we could have our stuff packed up before 8am service.  The kids did a great job getting everything packed up and getting it all cleaned up.  l would say no one could even tell that we stayed there except that you would have noticed 48 extra people sitting around waiting for church to start and the fact that we more than doubled the attendance for the early service.  We were blessed to hear the very first sermon by their new pastor and it felt like they are in very good hands for the future.

We got on the road and stopped at a National Park in South Carolina for lunch where we made sandwiches and had a chance to relax with some beautiful scenery and explore a little bit of nature with the walking trails.

 After lunch we continued on into our destination state and found a nice warm welcome waiting for us at St Luke Lutheran Church in Taylorsville.  We spent the next several hours busy unpacking vans, setting up the sleeping quarters, playing on the swing set and meeting people from the other group.  Dinner was a wonderful spread of pulled pork, mac n cheese, baked beans and salad.  Finishing off the night with club time, which is like a large group praise/devo time and then split up into family/small group time.

 What a long couple days leading up to us getting here and we are glad to have arrived safely and are thankful for all the prayers so far and look forward the week.  For now we bid you goodnight as we need our rest and jump right into the week full swing at 7am tomorrow.

QOTD

"Why did we not bring any cheese balls"

POTD

Forty-eight went on a trip
Into the blue Ridge mountains
Ready to spread the word throughout
Everywhere we went
Forty-eight went on a trip
Loving the low humidity
Into NC we went
Enough excitement for one day
Sleep sleep sleep we all go now