SH Mission Trip Update!

I can't believe it's already Wednesday! We've been so busy the last few days, but I wanted to give you a brief update of all the fun we've been having!

Monday, we stopped and took a mini tour around the devastation in Joplin. Everything looked like big piles of trash, but we could sometimes pick out entire rooms of homes that had been untouched. It was crazy that on one street everything was intact, and the next, everything was chaos. I can't wait to go help, once they allow civilians to participate.

We stopped at a park and had a quick prayer service, as well as some quiet time to reflect on what we saw. 

Monday night, we made it to the church, went and had Joe's pizza for dinner, did a devotion and went to bed. Everyone was very tired, and had an early morning planned the next day!


So tired, in fact, that some of the kids slept on the way to The Bridge on Tuesday morning...

The first morning consisted of a tour around St. Louis to see the different agencies in which homeless people could get help, as well as an explanation of what a typical day as a homeless person would be like in St. Louis. We were guided by Patrick, who was formerly homeless himself. It was very eye opening. We made it back to the church and did some manual labor, and then headed downstairs to hang out with the guests for lunch that day. We met a lot of people, heard a lot of stories, and ate some (pretty bad) food. It was so eye opening and perspective-changing, though, to be humbled like we were. Some of the boys got whooped up on at chess, too :)

 After lunch, we worked on the gardens outside pulling weeds, cutting branches, and making the outside of the church look better. They also had us trim bushes around the church because some people were hiding their things in the bushes and then getting mad when others found and stole them.

 

We returned to the church Tuesday night to a wonderful meal, cooked by my grandparents and their friends. We all got dressed up in our "western wear" and ate with some of the kids from the youth group at Eureka UMC before worship and our party! 

We couldn't find the Mavs game streamed live on the internet, so one of my friends Skyped me, set his computer facing the tv, and we watched on a projector attached to my computer. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it to catch the end of the game!  Bed came soon after, and we all slept hard!

This morning, we got up and started working with the local Parks and Recreation department in Eureka. They have 6 public parks, all supposedly maintained by the same person. With the storms, the parks were overrun and needed our help! The kids worked hard, and we were all so hot by the end of the day! 

I had to catch a shot of Ron on his phone :)

Okay, two shots.

 The trash bags were big enough that Brian could easily fit inside! 

And that's all, so far! We're back at the church now, resting, and will be leaving for dinner around 7:00.

Check back in again later! 

-Jenna