Houston, Day Five

It's weird. About an hour ago, I asked some students if they felt like we had been gone a week. The general consensus was no, that time has flown by. I really miss my family and being home in my recliner, so it has been good that time has moved along quickly.

After blogging yesterday and eating lunch, I headed out to William Booth Gardens with Team Port, the only team I had not gone to a ministry site with yet. This is a nursing home and our job was to facilitate Bingo. If there was ever a job that some of these students were made for, it was this one. Particularly Molly Turner. She was absolutely in her element calling out the bingo numbers, while mixing in random jokes and statements. Here are some of her highlights:

• If you are wearing hat and you win, you have to wave your hat around while yelling, "Bingo!"
• Why did the orange stop running? It ran out of juice.
• (After calling N-40) 40 chickens in the hen house.
• If you win, you're not allowed to hit your neighbor.
• Two muffins are in the oven. One muffin says to the other, "Man, it's hot in here." The other muffin said, "EEK! A talking muffin!"

She was absolutely hilarious! A couple of the residents were pretty funny, too. And Tom was a trip trying to keep up with as many as eight cards. We had quite a bit of fun there.

We were running way ahead of schedule at this point, so our host took us to Canino's Marketplace. This is where Nate bought the ultra-hot peppers. There were all sorts of fruits and vegetables and spices in this partially open-air market. Many of the students dropped some money here, including on some more of the peppers. I opted for the dried pineapple, myself. We then went across the street to a Mexican bakery - more money spent. Then next door to a spice store. Man, did it smell good and strong in there. More money dropped. I'm not sure that everyone will have money for food on the way home. I hope their peppers and pastries will tide them over.

Not that we were hungry anymore, but we went to Shahnai - an Indian buffet - for dinner. The food has not disappointed on this trip, that's for sure. That was the first meal I've had this week that I walked away uncomfortable from due to the large quantities I consumed. The couple that is watching the Holman kids this week met us there. Chris decided that he was going to try to get Matthew to eat one of the peppers (despite the fact that many of told him that we would kill him if he did). In trying to convince him, Chris said, "They're not that bad. They're not any hotter than tobacco sauce." I think he meant Tabasco, but if not, I never want him to fix me food.

When we got back to the housing site, some of the students played a game that should be banned. They were spitting grapes through the air to the next person, and if you missed it when it came to you, you had to eat a hot pepper. I told them that if they experienced any physical problems from eating the peppers in the middle of the night, they were to not bother any of the SIMYs. They should simply go downstairs and die quietly. Hey, they brought it on themselves, right?

Last night, we had our first Team Captain meeting at which everyone was present. Everyone's schedule has been so different that it has been hard getting everyone together at the same time, so it was good to get these eight students in the room at the same time. Here are a couple of the things I heard from them:

• Team Astrodome made 762 sandwiches at Kid's Meals. These sandwiches are packed with a juice and piece of fruit and delivered to the needy children of the community. That's 762 kids that will get a free meal!
• Kara mentioned that Chase and Brett climbed a water wall at the park they debriefed at (not allowed, BTW). But after that, she had a good time just sitting by the water wall singing worship songs by herself.
• Several of them expressed that many of the students found the devotional that we did that morning to be very meaningful. We had them write their own psalms, which allowed them to connect in a way that a group discussion may not all the time.
• Nate mentioned that he felt the most sense of community on this trip compared to other mission trips he had been on. His group is getting along really well. They had a somewhat difficult relational day the day before, but he felt like yesterday was a recharge day. He said, "I really love these people!"
• Casey noted that she has seen God really working on Madison this week. She seems to be opening up to people in a way that she normally does not do, and she seems really happy.
• Rachel that it was cool to see how Whitney was really impacted by how she was able to impact the lives of others. The two of them greeted and handed out silverware to over 400 people coming to a shelter to eat. She noted that Whitney is great at drawing people into conversations and has been very comfortable praying out loud.

Bottom line, I know God is really working through the lives of our teenagers, and I believe that He is really working in their lives, too. And this is the point. This is why we do mission trips: so we can make a difference in the world and so we can provide an opening for God to mess up the lives of our youth.

This morning, I had the opportunity to go with Team NASA to Kid's Meals. We were lunch / sandwich-making machines. We packed several hundred lunches and made close to 1,200 sandwiches. We also were able to deliver many of these lunches. I made sure to remind all of us that each of these lunches / sandwiches represented a child who would have a meal that they normally may not have had.It's important to keep perspective.

Thank you for your prayers this week. I will try to blog one last time from Texarkana, but it will depend on the availability of wi-fi. If not, I will do one last summary when we get back. Don't forget to check our Flickr site, as there are even more pictures to view. Thanks again!