Junior High Mission Trip - Day Two!

Hello from the end of day two! We've had a really great day, once again :)

All of the adults are SO proud of the work that the youth have been doing - today we broke into three "teams" and split up around Shreveport to do our work. 

The Yellow Team went and worked at a place called the "Common Ground".

It's a really incredible homeless ministry with a giant community garden and a big building all dedicated to helping those less fortunate: computer space, a library, food pantry, clothes pantry, a kitchen, washer and dryer, activity rooms, tutoring, etc. They started the day in the garden weeding, watering, working in the compost pile, and helping with overall maintenance.

  

After lunch, they switched to working inside the building, cleaning and reorganizing the classrooms and common spaces. Who would have thought that junior high kids enjoyed sweeping and especially mopping? 

Oh, did we mention we had a make-shift slip-n-slide, too?! We couldn't resist :)

The Green Team worked all day at Mr. Joe's house. They scraped and painted and scraped and painted and scraped and painted from the moment they got there until the end of the work day.

 Thank goodness the first half of the day was so cool! Okay, "cool" is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it was definitely not unbearable! They got so much done, and laid the groundwork for the other teams later this week. 

The Blue Team did work at the Shreveport Food Pantry, and also at a ministry called the "Lighthouse". The first half of the day at the pantry was spent making boxes of food for the elderly. They actually put together 120 of them; they finished about 10% of the month's quota! In the afternoon, they went to the Lighthouse, a ministry for latchkey kids, and did some manual labor erasing graffiti and other tasks to help the grounds look great. 

(Pictures to come - we need an adapter for the memory stick in the computer!)

After our work day, we had some fun free time, organized games, dinner (tacos!!!) and a reall great devotion. 

Today's theme was about "building blocks". We talked about what it meant to be a building block for someone else's faith and asked questions like "who builds you up?" and "who do you go to when you're feeling like you need some extra support?". We also talked about how each of us, no matter how cast aside we might feel, can find a safe and loving place in the church.  That is where our scripture for the day came in (1 Peter 2:4-5). We discussed what it meant to be a building stone for a sanctuary for Christ, and how we could live into the role of being a support to others on this trip and in the future. 

At this point, everyone (literally, everyone but I) is in bed and hopefully sleeping. In the midst of this quiet I'm struck with what a blessing this trip has been for me already and how thankful I am for the opportunity to serve with these youth and adults in Shreveport. I am overwhelmed with love from Christ, and my own love for those around me. My cup overflows!! 

With love.