Junior High Mission Trip - Day Four!

Hey everybody!


We had SO MUCH FUN today, but it's been a SUPER long day, and instead of staying up later (it's 2:00am already), I'll update as soon as there is a possible moment! 


I'll also be revamping the previous posts with more pictures once I get my hands on them. You can also check out our facebook page for all of the pictures that haven't made it to the blog yet!


See you all soon!


Jenna

Junior High Mission Trip - Day Three!

It seems like each day is better than the next.

We successfully survived "hump day". Everyone is exhausted, but we are all well-fed and well-worked by the end of the day. It's no surprise that all are in bed and almost sleeping already :)

Today, we all switched work sites and had a lot of success, once more.

The Yellow Team started of the day at the Food Pantry where the initial goal was to unload, clean and sort cans and dry goods onto the shelving units. They wound up going through LOTS of boxes of goods, paying close attention to the proper location of each good - but only after a rigorous inspection for dents, holes, and potential "yucky" things. 

The second part of their day was spent at the New Door ministry. There, they cut up over 100 tomatoes to be cooked and served for dinner to the homeless population that this ministry serves each night. They also sorted donations, cleaned the kitchen and dining space, prepared utensils for dinner, and cut huge pans of cornbread. 

The Green Team began their day at Common Ground. where they spent the morning cleaning and preparing the facility for guests. They did the shopping for our dinner, and worked at the Christian Service Hospitality House where they helped serve and prepare a meal! They worked SO hard, and we were all so proud!

The Blue Team worked at Mr. Joe's house, painting, all day. They worked so hard and quickly, though, that they got to come back a little earlier than everyone else to take first showers! They finished scraping the house, and finished painting three of its sides! The house looks so much better now!

(Pictures coming soon! Like, tomorrow! We are still in pursuit of the correct cables!)

After the work day, everyone came back for some fun free time. We had breakfast for dinner (especially loved the chocolate chip pancakes!) and had some very fun family group time. We played several group games, including Jenna's personal favorite (and family pasttime)...BLOWBALL! 

After some fun and games, we had ice cream sundaes and another great night of devotion and worship. 

Today, we talked about what the cornerstone of our lives would be. After watching another segment of "Big", we named the things that bring us joy, and started talking about what it meant to set a firm foundation for ourselves, and how we could ensure that our foundations didn't wear away or get cracked with the chaos of life. We referenced the story of the Prodigal Son, as well as Romans 8:28-31, and really got into what it meant to make choices that kept us from holding ourselves back. The big question of the night, though, was "what now?". If we are spending all of this time building a foundation, what do we do once we get home? How will we be changed?

After some really great time of contemplation and personal reflection, each youth was invited to some individual prayer time, or time with Christopher or Jenna to talk about what is going on in life and to pray together for those individuals. 

It was a powerful night, followed quickly by lights out and bed.

Personal side note from Jenna:

I am just in awe of the depth and maturity of these kids. While at  times they push my buttons and wear on my patience, it's nights like tonight that really take my breath, and my words, away. I personally had an incredibly moving evening of prayer, followed by some intense spiritual awakening. It's crazy that even in my role as spiritual leader, I am blessed enough to experience my own spiritual growth. I learn more from these kids than I do anyone else. 

To you parents, thank you for trusting your child with me, and with Christopher. They are all so valuable to me. As I tell them often, I love them so much I can hardly stand it! Tonight, I feel no differently. So thank you. 

With love.

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. 

JH Mission Trip - Day One!

Hey all!

It's already been such an exciting week!

This exciting, to be specific:

So exciting that Aiden slept through all of our singing and dancing! (He was very tired)

We made it to town successfully, and in great time! Dinner was waiting for us (thanks to Christopher's parents!) and the space is incredible! We had a little chaos with a set of keys locked in the car...cough cough...but after climbing onto the roof, jimmying a window open, and then realizing it was much easier to reach than we thought, the keys were rescued, dinner was eaten, and we all set up our "nests" for the week.

Had a great devotion tonight. We sang parts of songs as we were still preparing for worship (SO proud of Matt and Ally!) and had some fun doing it, too! We all watched the first part of "Big" with Tom Hanks and talked about what it felt like to be told that we weren't big enough, or good enough, or special enough to do something that we wanted to try. Part of the scripture we've chosen for the week (1 Peter 2:4-10) is talking about how even though people throw us aside and might decide we're not enough, God has chosen us to be central to the ministry of Christ! 

Each student was then given a chance to pick their own "living stone" as a reminder of the choice they are making in their faith every time they feel and see their stone. They wrote their own breath prayers to say when they came in contact with their stone, and prayed their prayers in some quiet time. We've asked them to carry them in their pockets each night as we work and play together as a constant reminder of the choices we make and God's love for us. 

We had some fun time for games, and finally, are in bed and resting for tomorrow's work (okay, most of us are resting). Looking forward to so much fun! We are SO thankful for the people here at Grace Community UMC who have been FABULOUS in taking care of us.

More pictures and information to come tomorrow! 

With love!

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

FIRSTPOST!FIRSTPOST!FIRSTPOST!

Hey y'all and welcome to our new youth group blog! I hope that it will be helpful to you in getting up-to-date information about everything that is going on from upcoming mission activities to sign-ups and trips and reminders about all of the above!

Yes, you will continue to get updates via email, but this will also be our "Trip Diary" for all of the activities and trips that we take as a group. Through this site, I will be keeping entries about what's going on each day that we're away from the church, posting pictures and stories to keep everyone in the loop.

We will also have links to other helpful sites - from the online registration and church website to places that I've found information that pertains to spiritual growth and direction.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I am so excited about how this part of our ministry will grow and continue to be influential in the way that we function on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to send me an email at the church!

jenna@graceavenue.org