More Houston Testimonies

I went on the mission trip to serve and learn, and I did learn but not the things I thought I would. Instead of giving me some new insight about His heart for people or the world, God revealed things inside of me. I learned that I had been serving as a ‘favor’ to God, as if it was out of my own goodness that I was able to serve. Then it hit me that God doesn’t really need me at all. He could care for this world without me, but it is His delight to let me take part in His plans, to use my life and to use me. It is an honor to serve Him. It is through His goodness and His love that I am able to serve. I also found He showed Himself to me just as much, if not more, than I showed Him to others through serving. -Rachel Beise

Every mission trip stands out in my mind for a different reason, and each seems to carry a special theme in my life and relationship with God. Last year in Chicago, I was extremely moved in my faith and perseverance. This year in Houston, the theme for me was interaction and dedication. Interaction with the people in my team, the people that we volunteered with, the people we volunteered for, and interaction with God. Team Nasa--led by Jeffery (a.k.a. captain jeffery pants)--bonded extremely well, and we were able to utilize everyone's different personalities to achieve an extreme amount of connection and servitude to the people we were helping. My interaction with God was zeroed in on through devotions and prayer partners, and through seeing the many small miracles and moments that God blessed us with during our trip. Dedication came into play when I began feeling like we weren't needed in a few of our sites. I had to think through what i was doing and realize that I was still helping...even though I couldn't see the end result, there still was one. Even though sorting medical supplies was dull and confusing...I was helping save someone's life. And through the week I felt I became more dedicated to God, more open to sit down and spend time praying and staying focused on Him and His plan for me.

Through the joy on the kids' faces, writing our own Psalms, eating some amazing icecream, putting together hundreds of sandwiches, leaping over van seats to deliver lunches, working on fractions, dancing the macarina, huge water walls and God moments, amazing debriefs (with my group and with Dawn and Karen in a parking lot :) ), an intense case of hives, and some touching conversations, I found myself drawn even closer to the love and comfort of God. This week left me in awe of what He can offer to us if we just remain open to Him. -Kara Goodier

Another Testimony

This is a special story of mine
It's about my mission trip to Houston in 2009
I left home wondering how the week would go about
And i came back changed, there is no doubt
God has opened my eyes completely
This trip was amazing and was placed in my heart deeply
I met many people with completely different lives
Some young, some old, some with husbands, and some with wives
There is so much I didn't notice, sitting here at home
All people need is something simple, something like love or maybe even a comb
There was a lot of brokeness I noticed through people's eyes
I found it difficult meeting new people, and in the same day we were saying our final good-byes
God showed me something different every single day
I learned about many cultures and how they do things their own special way
This is just a glimpse of what I had seen throughout the week
I ended the trip with joy in my heart but also with tears streaming down my cheek.

-kelsey fellows

Some Houston Testimonies

Here are some testimonies from Houston, with more (hopefully) to follow:

"The best part of the mission trip for me was my group. I got to know the people that I served with a lot better. To be around people so full of joy and love for an entire week non-stop is awesome. They were a blessing to me. God wins!" - Drew Nall

"When I think about the week in Houston, the lyrics, "...our God is an awesome God," come to mind. Houston really proved those to be true. It opened my eyes to the homeless. It made me realize that they are people too. They are just like us. This trip brought to mind the fact that I could become homeless too. Most of them became homeless overnight. Going to Salvation Army was amazing. The guys that live there were so happy that we were there. They each greeted us & asked where we were from or how we were doing. My team, Shell, went to a place called Open Door. We talked to a man who had only been there a month, but you could tell he was on fire for God & turning his life around. That was a great thing to see. A few days later we went to a place called Ujima, the kids that lived there were so full of life and loved playing. Our group decided to play water games, since it was so hot. I got soaked & got a bad sunburn, but I realized I got that sunburn for God, while showing his love and serving him. That day was the best day of the week for me. Houston was hot, sticky, humid, & full of bugs, but most importantly it was a place full of hope, impact, & love." - Hillary Caldwell

"Houston was a lot of things. 1. Hot. 2. Long Drive. 3. A blessing. But what stood out the most was the appreciation of people's faces and knowing that helping out for just a couple of hours lasted a lifetime. There is nothing more than the feeling of being fully satisfied by working in several ways for Christ. But even if I was satisfied enough, there is always the want & need to do more. Houston was awesome, I can't wait for next year. GO TEAM NASA!" - Sydney Ozbun

"I think the image that will stick in my mind for a long time is when we were at the Operation Hydration. It was me, Casey, Dawn, Taylor and a few other people. We couldn't really find any homeless people that didn't already have water. So we were just walking around. and we see this man sitting on the ground. We go over and Dawn asks is he wants some water and he says yes. We give him some water and then Dawn asks him a couple more questions. She then asked him if we could pray over him. He says sure and Casey starts praying over him. I start by only putting one finger over him and then I eventually put my hand over him after I realize that even though he's a homeless person and he's dirty and kind of smells, he's still human. He's not some kind of disease. He's not a fungus. And he's not some rag someone threw out in the street. He's a person and he has thoughts and feelings just like the rest of us. So I got over my personal feelings and just let the Holy Spirit come in me and pray for this guy who has made mistakes in his life and who has sinned just like the rest of us. That image of him crying as we prayed for him and just told God to help him out will remind me that homeless people are just people who are homeless and have made mistakes that we could make ourselves in the future. That image made me realize that nobody is better than anybody and we are all equal." - Megan Stone

"Houston was my first mission trip. I was really scared because I didn't know what to expect. I had an amazing time & I'm so glad I got to come. One image that is in my mind is a guy at the Open Door Mission. He was graduating from the nine-month program. As I was talking to him, it was just like talking to my best friend. I had an amazing time. Toward the end of our conversation he told me, "Never give up. God is always going to be there." He just went on and on about it. This guy impacted my life more than I probably helped him. He taught me that they just don't need prayer, we also need prayer. I really enjoyed this week & God has taught me so much! I can't wait to see what other things he has in store for me! God is awesome & incredible!" - Whitney Bramlett

"This mission trip was very impactful for me and I learned a lot about myself. I appreciate all that CSM and all the SIMYs did for me. They helped make this trip worthwhile. I thought filled me with so much wisdom throughout the whole trip. My group had a lot of fun. We had a lot of leaders instead of followers on my team and it made my job a whole bunch easier. I really connected with God on this trip and I felt I opened up to God a lot and let him come back into my life. I hope to make this trip meaningful and be able to to bring it back to Cape. Thanks again!" - Myles Edwards

God was at work this past week. Pray that God continues to work in and through the lives of our students.

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!

B'ham Update - Homeward Bound

Angel texted me this morning to tell me that they got on the road at 9:15am...and promptly got a flat tire at 9:17am. So while Danny and Steve took care of the flat, the rest of them took the students to McDonald's. Their current ETA, according to their GPS - which does not factor in lots of potty break for small bladders - is 4:30pm. So they will probably be in around 6:00pm or so...

A Story from Sydney

I forgot to include this in my earlier post, so here is an experience from Operation Hydration that Sydney (far right) thought was cool (in her words):

"Me (Sydney), Karen the Brave, Tyler, and Nick walked up of course with water in hand, to a bunch of (3) guys. That quickly narrowed to two. Steven and Syneca. Steven was born in Oregon and made his way to Houston because of a bad marriage, and he lost his job. He was thankful for the water and Karen the Brave prayed for him. Next me, Hillary, Tyler, and Nick started to talk to Syneca. Syneca was very open to anything and was more concerned about what our dreams and goals are for the rest of our adulthood than himself. So we proceed to tell him. We told him how we took a test that would determine what job would be best for us and when we told him, he cut us off mid-sentence and told us not to listen or care about what a test tells us but what we dream of doing and what we want to do. He was very thankful that a group of kids would just take the time to hand out water and talk to him. He is/was impressed and proud of our church group. And so are we."

Houston, Day Four

We have passed the midway mark of our mission trip, and so far, so good. It has been a great week thus far. Granted, it has not been without its hiccups along the way: minor injuries and illnesses, relational dynamics, and the oppressive heat (have I mentioned that it is HOT?!). But all in all, it has been a great week. And this is not just me saying this. I have heard from a number of SIMYs and students saying the same thing. So if you are a parent reading this, know that your son or daughter is serving well, learning lots, and having a great time while doing it.

After I finished blogging yesterday, I headed out to Yildizlar to have a Middle Eastern dinner with two of our groups, Team Shell and Team Port. Most of the students opted for the chicken, but we SIMYs who know better got the lamb. It was so yummy! The chicken came with some kind of garlic dipping sauce. I have never had anything that garlicky strong in my life. Tyler ended up eating a whole forkful of of because someone offered him a dollar to do it. (I won't mention what he ate later for a little more money. You'll have to ask him about that.) Next door was a TCBY, so Windall - The Silver Fox - bought a cone for his entire team. It was $.99 waffle cone day so we came on the right night. That $.99 included up to three scoops! If we had a TCBY in Cape with that kind of deal every week, I would be a much fatter man. We got back early and were able to shower and chill for a while before the other groups returned. That was nice after the late night the night before.

When the other two groups returned, Nate came in to the common room with a plastic bag with something in it. He called everyone around him and produced these tiny peppers called chile patins (apparently about 10x hotter than jalapenos). He passed them around telling everyone that they were really hot. Several of the students - and none of the SIMYs - tried them...and were not happy that they had. There was lots of screaming and running to get milk, water, ketchup, or anything that would make the burning stop (the picture of Molly above is from this incident). Nate explained to me that they had an immersion experience at a Hispanic market where they had to look around and sample foods. One of the Mexican men gave these peppers to him and told him that they were 'muy caliente' (very hot). Nate looked at me and said, "It's the hottest thing I've had in my life. You want one?" Who in their right mind would say yes to that? Then Will came in and said, "I ate three of those little green things. I cried a little bit." I was on the floor from laughing so hard! I can tell you this much - if I end up at that same immersion experience, I will NOT be sucked in to trying those peppers. More hanging out after that, followed by an impromptu concert in our stairwell, then off to bed.

Team Shell had a cool experience yesterday at the Urban Plunge. After talking with a homeless man, they prayed for him. When they were done, a woman walked up to them and said that she wanted them to pray for her, too, and she bowed her head and waited. So they gathered around her and prayed for her, too. What a great thing for them to experience! They also got to get soaked at their afternoon site - Ujima - playing water games with kids. It started out as dodge sponge, but ended up as people throwing buckets of water on each other. And Tyler was proud about the fact that he got to show a kid how to punt the football.

Team Port also had fun playing with kids yesterday at a different Ujima site. They are a little banged up, though. As mentioned yesterday, Shelby is working off of a sprained ankle. That meant that Myles carried her for a good part of the Urban Plunge. That, combined with the fact that Myles fell off a skateboard trying to show a kid some tricks, means that he has a sore back today. A couple of people in their groups were impressed by what one of the singers at the Harbor Light had to say to encourage them. He told them to be "cunning as serpents and gentle as doves." I'm not sure that they recognize that quote is from the Bible, but I'm glad that it made an impact on them. The other quote that Molly heard a few times that she really liked when she asked the homeless people how they were, they would say, "I'm blessed by the best and praying for the rest." Cool.

Team NASA has the opportunity to meet a need for a man yesterday. They saw him holding a sign that said that he needed diapers and formula for his baby. They talked with him and found out that he recently got laid off from his job as a roofer. So they went to the store and picked him up some diapers and formula to meet his need. He was very grateful and humble about their generosity.

Team Astrodome shared with me that they had the opportunity to cut up some wild boar. They described it as a sinkful of bloody meat...with eyelashes. I'm grossed out, so I'm moving on. They also shared that their debrief times have been very good, with people really sharing about what has been going on. Rachel also pointed out that people are really coming out of their shell and are willing to pray out loud which they weren't willing to do at the beginning of the week. That is exciting to hear!

Kara (Team NASA) mentioned last night that she feels like God is really speaking to them this week and showing them what their lives could be. That was really evident at the Salvation Army. Here were men who had to turn to Jesus to literally save their lives. He was truly their Saviour. And it could totally be seen in the joy that they expressed. This is so cool for our students to see! Sometimes I feel like teenagers are impervious to the kind of stuff they witness, but they are just a few bad choices away from being right where these men are. I hope they realize how much they need Jesus to help them to not only save their souls, but their whole lives as well.

That's all for today. More pictures have been uploaded at our Flickr site - check them out! And keep praying for our students as they make a difference in Houston...

B'ham Update

I just got a text from Angel in Birmingham. She hasn't been able to get to anywhere with wifi since Monday to blog or to update photos. She has had to lead a team, which she was not anticipating doing. She will try to get out of an evening activity soon to got y'all some updates. As far as I know, everything is going OK. We apologize for the radio silence...

Houston, Day Three

As I was driving with Team Shell today to do our Urban Plunge (details to come), I was listening to the radio. The weather report came on and I thought how boring it must be to be a weather forecaster in Houston: "Today, hot. Tomorrow, hot. Friday, heading into the weekend, hot. Your 10-forecast calls for hot. And now, here's Ted with the sports." Seriously, it doesn't change here. It's just hot! It's a good thing it's known as the most air-conditioned place on earth.

After blogging yesterday, I caught up with Team NASA at the READ Commission, which provides literacy tutoring for adults. However, they are taking a two-week hiatus from the tutoring, so our students are helping out in the computer lab, which is not attended very well. So they had a less than fulfilling morning as they didn't do much more than goofed around on the computers and played hot hands. After we went back to the housing site for lunch, we went to the Holt House Boys & Girls Club. What a cool place! They had a game room, library, craft room, computer lab, and gymnasium. There were a ton of kids there playing and having a great time, and our students did a fantastic job interacting with them: playing Connect Four, pool, basketball, and doing crafts. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the kids so you will have to use your imagination. While I was getting schooled in pool, Nate was playing Monopoly, and Clint was playing basketball, just to name a few. It was a much better experience than the morning. I'm not sure if the kids that were there were really poor or hurting - many of them had cell phones and video games - but all kids need to be loved on, and that's what our students did.

From there we went to Operation Hydration James Butte. James Butte is a park under one of the highways in Houston where many homeless men spend their days. Our task was to give them water bottles in an attempt to strike up a conversation. Some were open to talking while others were simply thankful for the water. I was with Morgan and Meredith and we had a good conversation with a man who is/was a truck driver who knew exactly where Cape Girardeau is since he passed it on the highway. There were other good conversations that happened. I have asked a couple of students to write down their experiences and as soon as I receive them, I will post them.

On my way there I received a call saying that Shelby had sprained her ankle. She still wanted to eat dinner, so Tom and Kim were going to keep an eye on it. I caught up with them at our dinner destination (This Is It Soul Food). Karen was there and looked at it and suggested that we not go to the hospital since it was just a sprain. Shelby was OK with that - as was her mom - so she toughed it out, and continues to do so. We had a great dinner of soul food: pork chops, BBQ chicken, corn, green beans, mac & cheese, and sweet potatoes. As delicious as it was, it was probably my least favorite so far on this trip as the Jamaican and Salvadoran food we had was amazing!

After dinner we went to the Harbor Light Salvation Army for a concert by their men's choir (photo above). Honestly, going in I was less than thrilled to be there. It stretched out our night and I wasn't expecting much. Man, were we blown away! It wasn't the best choir I've ever heard, but it was maybe one of the funnest and most interactive I had been to. They kept pulling people up 'on stage' to sing and dance with them, as you will be able to tell from the pictures. What a blast! We all had such a great time!

I did have to leave the concert early as Cori wanted to go to see a doctor. She has had a sore throat since before she came on the trip, and it got really bad yesterday. So we took off to take her to the hospital. We had a difficult time getting out of the building as many of the doors were now locked. We found an exit door that was unlocked, but it put us out behind the building in a completely fenced-in area. We were trapped. After checking out our situation, I found a gap in the gate that Cori was barely able to squeeze through. Needless to say, it was much more difficult for me to squeeze through the same space. Last year it was Derek's pants, this year, the gate. I need to lose weight.

We got to the hospital and got checked in. Fortunately there weren't many people there. Cori got tested for strep and influenza, and then we waited. The waiting room really filled up at that point. We came at a good time because if we had come a half-hour or an hour later, we would have waited a much longer time. We finally got called back for the results and they put us in an examining room which made me nervous, like they were going to admit her. They didn't. They told us that her tests came back negative. The doctor had to come talk to us, so more waiting. He checked her over too, gave her some prescriptions, and said that he was going to get her out of there. More waiting. Then the nurse told us that he had to go get us some stickers and then we could leave. We weren't sure what that meant, but we envisioned him coming back with a page of Spongebob Squarepants stickers for Cori. We got a good laugh out of that. It didn't hurt that it was past midnight and we were slap-happy. We finally got to leave, and as we were leaving the examining room area, there was a button to open the doors. I pressed it. We didn't figure that they would open towards us, but one of them did, crashing into Cori. She was OK, but again we got a good laugh. As we walked back to the van, I told Cori that I never expected to be walking down the streets of Houston after midnight with one of my students. She said, "I like to walk the streets late at night." I pointed out that that didn't sound really good. More laughs. After a stop at the pharmacy - and sadly, no donuts - we got back to the housing and got to bed at around 1:30am. Needless to say, we are quite tired today. She is doing better today. Not great, but better.

This morning we all took part in what is called the Urban Plunge. Basically what it is is a scavenger hunt in the city. We broke up into smaller groups and each team was given a set of instructions about what they were supposed to do and accomplish. This included such things as making note of churches that offer services to the homeless; asking various people (homeless, business person, police officer) about Houston and the problems and causes of poverty; getting a view of the city from a skyscraper and noting how different that experience is from interacting with the people on the ground; and finding out the costs of various things (a phone call to El Salvador, to cash a payroll check, get a money order - things that a homeless person or immigrant might have to deal with). It was good for the students to get this information and view of the city. It sort of puts them in the shoes of the people we are working with to understand their situation a little better.

After eating lunch in a park, I broke with the team so I could head back to get some blogging and photo uploading done, which is where I am now. I know I have more stories and anecdotes to share, but I haven't been writing them down as faithfully as I should. I will try to do better. I will leave you with these two, though (don't forget to check out the updated collection of pictures):

• At Cori's site, the man in charge was giving Cori some instructions on what to do. She didn't understand, but she had no voice so she couldn't ask. So she just looked kind of confused. The man looked at Tom and asked, "Can she hear?" LOL!
• While eating dinner at the Jamaican restaurant, we somehow got on the subject of monkeys. Ken expressed not liking monkeys. He said, "Monkeys tend to fling poo," to which Whitney replied, "That is so cool!" I don't know if she didn't realize what Ken had just said, or if she really thinks that flinging poo is cool. Who cares why she said it - it was hilarious!

Houston, Day Two

Just to clarify, some of the things you read here will not be events and statements from Day Two, since that is today. Most will be from Day One. But in reality, today is Day Four if you count travel time. Unless you are David or Rachel, then you are still in the first 24-hour time period. This sort of discussion is exactly why you read this blog, right?

Day One finished up well. Shortly after blogging yesterday I got a call from Kristy telling me that Ken was not feeling well at all. He threw up a couple of times yesterday and had "other stomach issues" as well. She wasn't sure if he would be able to eat dinner, so I left to meet them at the Jamaican restaurant - the Reggae Hut - to possibly take Ken back to our housing site. Ken said he felt fine, that ethnic food just messes with him. So what did he do next? Eat his whole meal of jerk chicken! He said it was the hottest thing he has eaten. Not wise. So he was messed up. The food was amazing! We had a choice of jerk chicken, curry chicken, or brown stew chicken and an assortment of Jamaican sodas and juices. Delish! My stomach was not doing the best either, so Ken and I opted out of the prayer tour - major bummer! - and headed back to the housing. It turned out to be a wise choice. Some of the groups got to see more of the city than was planned for their prayer tour as the city hosts got turned around somewhat. But everyone got back safe and sound.

The other two groups had dinner at Thelma's BBQ, which was described by Tom as 'slap your momma good.' They ate enormous quantities of food and Thelma herself delivered it to their tables. They had a great time, too!

As mentioned earlier, they did a prayer tour of the city. I haven't yet gotten a report of how it went, but I know it was impactful for the students last year in Chicago as they really got to know the city. Actually, Nate described it just that way this year: impactful. I hope to get more reports today.

Tom and Kim's team - Team Port - helped tutor adults in computer literacy and with their GED prep. This is a new experience for our students. They have done plenty of reading with and tutoring children, but never with adults. They helped men and women operate computer programs and helped them learn more about them. Shelby was in her element as she helped a man upload photos on the internet and learn MS Publisher. Myles also helped someone learn Publisher. Molly was teacher extraordinaire with an ESL student who was learning computer basics. She also helped a man in his 20's (maybe the same man) his alphabet. How cool is that? And according to Cori, "I had to use my brain power to help a lady with math." I guess she wasn't planning on using it this summer. :-) Some of the team members were discouraged by the few people that showed up at this site, but I know the ones who were helped were very appreciative.

Kara's team worked at Beacon yesterday. This is a very nice homeless resource center that provides meals, showers, and laundry for over 650 people a week (I think a week). They helped with assorted tasks.

A few anecdotes for your reading pleasure, some funny, some serious:

• Morgan was lauded by her team captain as being really good at connecting with people. I have noticed this about her ever since she started coming on mission trips. She is still the Peach Queen, as far as I'm concerned.
• Cori got attacked by a giant cockroach as they were sorting through some rotten food.
• Team NASA got into some serious street ball at one of their sites. Some of the guys who played with our students were impressed by Clint's skills. There was a guy there who wanted to develop a team and coach them to keep them out of trouble, but he had no money to do it and really nowhere to play. They played in the street yesterday. Myles said that we should build them a basketball court. I'm going to keep pushing him on that.
• While Team Astrodome was lost, they stopped into a Starbucks to settle themselves. They were approached by a woman with a baby who told them that she got out of an abusive relationship in Dallas and needed a special formula for her baby. So they went to a store to get the formula for her, but they didn't have what she needed. Unable to meet that immediate need, they were still able to pray with her. It made me think about the story of Peter and John in Acts 3. They weren't able to give the beggar any money, but they did heal him. Team Astrodome couldn't give this woman formula, but they gave her Jesus.
• As Team Shell drove past a gas station, there was tank out front. It was clearly an air tank. A man was there filling up his tires, and Nick asked, "Why is that guy putting gas in his bike?"
• Team Shell was working in a kitchen at one place. Casey dumped a bunch of stuff into this huge garbage disposal and turned it on to grind everything up. She didn't realize that you needed to put something over the opening and food shot everywhere like Mount St. Helens. Well done.

All in all, I think our students are having a good experience here in Houston...BTW, did I mention that it is REALLY HOT?! Yesterday was 95 degrees, and the rest of the week is supposed to be in the mid-90's. Thank God for the AC in our housing!

Check out the new pics on our Flickr site. More stuff later...

Houston, Day One, Part Two

I've been lost before, but never like I was today. I'll never know how Lewis and Clark made it across the country without a GPS. I guess it was easier since there were no roads. But that story will come in a bit...

Our trip down was largely successful. We got into Texarkana to FBC Texarkana after 9:00pm, unloaded, settled down, and were in bed by 10:30pm. It was weird - when we turned off the lights in the guys' room (the gym), they were instantly quiet. That never happens. I found out the next morning that a couple of the guys stayed up all night...but they at least were quiet. We had a rude awakening a the janitors turned the lights on in the girls' room at 4:00am and the guys' room at 6:00am. That was neat! I thought it was our guys doing it and was ready to lay down the law, until I found out it was the janitor. Oopsie! That being said, we were on the road nice and early on Sunday morning. As a result, we were able to stop and worship at a tiny Assemblies of God church. We quintupled their attendance. It was fun! And it was cool for the students to experience a different worship setting. We got into Houston at around 5:15pm on Sunday. We are staying at the Servants of Christ Parish.

After a leader's meeting, we departed for two different dinner destinations (because our group is too big to go to one). Two teams went to Dona Chela, a Mexican tacqueria, while the rest of us went to an El Salvadoran restaurant, El Patate. Can I just say, "YUM!"? One of the cool things about a CSM trip is that the students get to experience other cultures, including some of their foods. And not only was the food great - we also got to do the Macarena...twice! Fun times! After dinner, we had our orientation, grabbed showers, and headed to bed. Our accommodations are pretty cramped, and I'm pretty sure many of us guys are sleeping on box springs instead of mattresses, but it's all good. I didn't hear anyone complain about a bad night's sleep.

This morning, everyone got up at various times for breakfast and to pack lunches, had their team devotions and headed out to ministry sites. At this time, I can't give you a great summary of what everyone did today. It was a little scattered for me as I was trying to get out the door to blog and upload pictures...which didn't happen so much. After a stop at Best Buy to get a cord for my GPS unit, I discovered that the lighter in the car I was borrowing didn't work. Lovely. So I went to get David and Rachel from the airport. We decided to run to Wal-Mart or Target to pick up some supplies, which turned into a major ordeal. The roads and highways around here are a bit confusing, so we did a lot of driving and not much finding of the Wal-Mart. We finally did and got our supplies, grabbed some lunch, and I left to take Rachel to her site (David's group was at our housing site when we got there, so he went with them). That involved more getting lost. We finally showed up and Rachel and the other students in her team facilitated water games with the kids in the apartment community. It was HOT! But the kids had a great time with our students, while getting soaked. I was proud of how their whole team interacted with the little kids. I had to bail early as Izzie was feeling sick but was there long enough to be really happy about what was going on. Ken was also not feeling well, but he stuck it out. Now here I am at Starbucks...

A couple of anecdotes:

• We have decided that Brett is no longer allowed to be in charge of keys. When we were heading to our vans after our church service, Brett unlocked his van with the remote, and subsequently lost them. All of the SIMYs were out of the vans looking for them in the grass. Then Brett remembered that he put them in his backpack. Then when we arrived in Houston, he managed to lock them in the van. Thank God for AAA!
• Brett is also not allowed to be in charge of signage. I made signs for the vans. Brett got some tape to tape the sign on the inside of the window...only he put the tape on the wrong side of the paper. Fortunately I made two signs, so he had another chance...only he did the exact same thing again! I'm glad Brett is here, and not only for the comic relief.
• Houston had what he said was a great experience today. His team went to site at which they made lunches to deliver to children and families. They then went out to the neighborhoods and delivered the food out of the front window. He was sitting up front so he got the joy of actually giving the food to the people. I sense that it really made an impact on him.

I will be touching base with the SIMYs and team captains tonight and every night, so check back for more blog-worthy content. Tonight we will be taking a prayer tour of the city, which I know was very impactful for our students last year in Chicago. I expect the same this year.

Don't forget to check out the pictures we have so far on our Flickr site. Thanks, and keep praying for us, please...

Houston, Day One

It doesn't feel like Day One. I guess two days of travel will do that to you. But we are doing OK. I only have a few minutes until I have to leave to pick up a replacement cord for my GPS unit and get to the airport to pick up David and Rachel. It will be good to have the whole team here!...Just checked the time - I have to leave already and the photos are not even done being uploaded yet. Crud! I guess I'll be checking in later today. You can check out whatever photos have been uploaded at flickr.com/theporchlacroix. Write to you soon!

Houston trip is underway...Day One

I have received word that the Houston team has made it safe and sound to Texarcana - their stopping point for tonight. They will leave in the a.m. for the 2nd leg of the trip. Pray for more safe and fun travels tomorrow.
They are staying in a location where Fitz does not have wi-fi, so hopefully tomorrow he'll be able to share more.
I will be leaving with our Jr High students in the morning for Birmingham...think I'd better get some rest...it may be the most sleep I get for the next week:-)
Good night!
Angel

Mission Trip Summary

I know - this should have posted weeks ago. I have a couple of family vacations in the mix, along with a couple of hectic weeks playing catch-up at the office, so I apologize for the delay. I do want to take just a minute to give you my final thoughts about the mission trips.

Our Chicago mission trip was probably the best mission trip I have taken students on. Their level of contact with really hurting individuals, and the fact that they were put into the shoes of some of them (to an extent) really made the trip hit home. I feel like CSM did such a great job of educating our students about the city we were in so they knew a lot more about the hurting and the problems of the people in the city. The experiential elements to the trip were fantastic! I feel like the students were really taken out of their comfort zone, which is an important thing to do with teenagers. The thing that really makes me feel like this was a great trip is that so many students are bringing it home. Some students are planning a VBS for south Cape in a week and a half. Other students want to get involved into discipleship so that they don't lose their God-high. And that's what it's all about - being the hands and feet of Jesus, and allowing the experience to transform your own life.

Our Cincinnati trip was excellent as well. YouthWorks does a great job of providing students with a first mission trip experience, and this week was no different. Our students worked their tails off without complaining once. And they were able to do so much good for the community. On the last day of the trip, the guys at the food distribution center separated 26,000 pounds of food. WOW! And the other groups worked just as hard. The things that made this trip feel special was the number of setbacks that we had - schedule changes, dislocated thumbs, sickness, etc. There were too many things going wrong for it just to be a coincidence. I think other forces - evil ones - were at play because they were worried that we were doing so much good for the people of Cincinnati. But those forces didn't win! Jesus did!

Thank you for your support in prayer and for reading our updates!

Cinci Day Four

Tanda gave this to me this morning. I thought it was worthy of posting:

Answers to Prayers

Monday night I prayed that God would show me and the girls connections between weeding gardens and serving Him and I also requested to meet new people. Tuesday as I/we spoke to the women at the garden Dorothy made a wonderful statement to us. She needs two knee replacements and can no longer work the garden. She told us what a blessing it was to have us there to pull weeds and help. She said that many times the weeds and work become too much and discourage growth and the desire to continue. As we did the weeding it allowed them to focus on growth and hope. I saw the weeds as a variety of things in our lives that discourage us or keep us from growing to our potential. At times when we were weeding we did not know what was a weed or what was a wanted plant. This showed me that we need fellowship with Christians to help us point out the weeds in our life that keep us from growing to our potential in Christ.

______________________

There have been moments in my week when I have had these same questions: Why are they weeding? What difference is this really making. Praise God for giving our girls the answer!

Riddle: What do you call two adults and two really fun girls, mixed with lots of laughs, meeting new people, getting lost, and very yummy food? A trip to the ER, that's what you call it. After I made my way to work with Tammy's group yesterday, I got a call from Kristy. She told me that Alyssa may have broken her thumb playing extreme dodgeball (she fell on it). I told her to put some ice on it to see if it responded. It didn't get any better, so I met them at the YMCA so we could get showered, then after a brief stop back at the church, I took Alyssa to the ER at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Kelsey went along for the ride, and Nikki - being the site director - came too. I never thought a trip to the ER could be that much fun. We were there for a few hours, and we laughed most of the time. Alyssa too, even though her pain level was a 9 on a scale from 1 to 10 (but you never would have known it by looking at her or talking to her). 

It all started as we were checking in. Mario was the guy at the check-in desk. He asked the standard check-in questions, then he asked to take a look at her thumb. She held up her hand, which looked far from normal. Mario's response: "Whoa! Oh, my! We're going to take you back right now." with a clear sense of urgency on his face. We cracked up at how bad he freaked out at the sight of her thumb. I told him that he'd never make it as a doctor with those kinds of reactions. He informed us that he had, in fact, just applied to medical school. I told him that 'how to respond to injuries' would be covered in one of his classes, for sure. We saw a few more people before being taken to an examining room. We had a sign that hung outside our door that said "Quiet Zone." We were anything but quiet! We laughed and laughed very loudly. I wished I had had my notebook with me so I could write down everything that was said and done for posterity's sake. 

One of the highlights was when I offered Kelsey a nickel to go ask someone what time the ER closed. We could hear when she asked the first person. We were all gathered at the door peeking around the corner. We couldn't see her, but we heard as she tried to ask, but she absolutely busted up midway through her sentence. We lost it! I haven't laughed that hard in a while. She did it again, this time asking one of her doctor's down the hall. When the doctor came back and found out that we had put her up to it, she said, "When she asked, I told her, 'Never,' but I was wondering, because she seemed like such a smart girl."

Alyssa's had two doctors. The first doctor met with her, then later another doctor came to show her the X-ray. As she looked at it with us, she didn't see a break or dislocation, so she took Alyssa's hand and really started to work on her thumb hard. Alyssa was in a lot of pain. Then we went back to the room and waited. Doctor #1 came back and said, "You have a dislocation. The other doctor, the pregnant one, wanted me to tell you that she's really sorry." Well, yeah! We got a laugh out of that, too. Apparently, they were all looking at the wrong joint. Hmmmm...

At one point, Doctor #2, the pregnant one, came back and was working on Alyssa's thumb again, this time trying to put it back in place. I said to her, "So I hear you're pregnant." She didn't respond right away. Then she realized that I was talking to her, and she said, "Oh, I thought you were talking to her [Alyssa]." I said, "NOOO!!!" She mentioned that if that were the case that I must not be that great of a youth pastor.

As we waited to be checked out, the door suddenly opened and a doctor rushed in and said, "Sorry. I have an urgent need for a SpongeBob video." Again, more laughs.

After all of the frivolity, I decided to take the girls out to a nice dinner, since we missed our dinner and evening activity. We ate at Max & Erma's and then, after a short visit to the pharmacy after a long drive to find it, we headed back to the church just in time for bed. I never thought that my personal 'fun' highlight of a mission trip would be a visit to the hospital, but it sure was. At least so far. Please be praying for Alyssa as she is still in quite a bit of pain today.

I didn't have much interaction with the work teams or leaders as a result of the aforementioned adventure. I did get to hang out with Tammy's group for a little while, though. They moved to a new site, Over the Rhine Community Housing. This is a group that provides low-income individuals with affordable, quality housing. They own 95 buildings with 220 units total. The girls were going to work outside, but since it was raining, they were taken to a warehouse/garage to clean and organize. When I got there, it seemed like they didn't have very much direction, as they couldn't really tell me what to do to help. I didn't like that. But none of them seemed bothered by it. They cleaned and moved stuff around with joy. They are much better at serving with a sense of joy than I am.

Another change has been with Lexi and Julia. Yesterday they stayed at the church to help paint. While that and the weeding has been OK, Tanda has sensed that maybe they would like some more interaction with some of the other students. I though at the beginning of the week that just having two students in the one group wasn't the best set-up, but we went with it. But today, with Alyssa staying back and one other student from another church going to a different site, we had the freedom to send Lexi and Julia out to City Cure to play with kids with Kristy's group. They seemed pretty excited about it.

For last night's evening activity, our group visited Tabernacle Baptist Church, then came back for club and church group time. I'm not sure what happened, if God was working on some students or if there was something else going on or what, but there were a few of our students crying. When they were approached and asked what was wrong, they didn't say anything. So please be praying for our students with this situation in mind. I don't know how to ask you to pray, because none of us adult leaders know really what is going on, but God does. So lift them up. I will keep their names confidential to protect them, in case they don't want it known that they were crying in front of everyone.

I'm going to go now to see how Tanda is doing back at the church (she stayed back to paint) and then will eat lunch and head out to City Cure to play with kids again. Darn. :-) We look forward to seeing you all soon. Don't forget to check out the pics...

Cinci Day Three

We are officially past the halfway mark, and it's starting to show. The students that were so gung-ho the first day were a little less so yesterday. As Tanda said, "These kids are working so hard. I know my daughter (Lexi) has never worked THIS hard before." But as tired as they are, they continued to work hard with a very positive attitude. That's what we like to see. But this morning I definitely noticed the fatigue setting in on some of their faces. That's to be expected.

There's not a whole lot new to report today. Many of the reports were very similar to the reports from the first day: we pulled weeds, we separated cans of food, we played  with kids, we cut down honeysuckle. Not a whole lot of new information from the work sites. There are new pictures from City Cure - Kristy's site - which is where I ended up yesterday. I got to play basketball with Devon and get shot by Super Soakers by VonVon. It was so rough! :-) There was also a Mike Mike at the site, so Kristy started calling me Fitz Fitz. The girls there are doing such a great job being totally interactive with the kids and focusing on them instead of on themselves. I did get to meet Gordon, the youth pastor from the church that does this program. What a trip! He is this hip, street, late 40's white guy who pours his life into these little kids. He blew in to give a short talk about repentance and then took off to another site. But during his talk, he looked at me and said, "You're God!" It was a little shocking. Basically he 

was asking me to pose as God for an interactive demonstration of repentance. I've never had someone call me god before. It was unnerving.

We broke early from our work sites yesterday because our evening activity actually took place in the afternoon. We went to the Freedom Center, which celebrates the Underground Railroad in America. The layout of the museum wasn't nearly as user-friendly as the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham, but there was a lot of good information, interesting displays, and informative movies. The two things that stood out to me were:

• A box that a slave enclosed himself in to ship himself to Philadelphia - free territory. The box was only 2'8" x 2'8" x 3'0", and the man was 5'9" and 200 lbs. I thought about how terrible his situation must have been to put himself through that to be free.
  
• 
• A piece of artwork that showed various aspects of the slave trade. One of the images showed a black baby being sold at auction and being taken away from his mother. Now that I am a dad of small children, that image hit home even more forcefully than it may have otherwise.

After dinner we had some extended free time, so I took our crew to experience Graeter's Ice Cream, my personal favorite. I don't think it disappointed at all. There is definitely much ice cream being consumed on this trip!

We had our normal club experience, which reminds me of a great comment by Rachel. Someone was complaining a little bit about club, that's is not as big and flashy as they may be used to with The Porch. Rachel said, "They put a lot of work into it, so I think we should be grateful." I gave her a high-five and praised her for her attitude in front of several other students. But then after club, we had a powerful church group time. We covered our work days, which got the normal kind of comments, but then when we started talking about the Freedom Center, things changed a bit. The air got a little heavier as we experienced something pretty serious and sobering. Several kids mentioned feeling very sad as a result. There were tears shed by students and SIMYs alike. I then took the opportunity to encourage them to not simply be sad about what they saw but to get angry. I pointed out that a lot of times, we get sad when we see something like that, but in a day or two, we're not sad anymore. But when we get mad, it tends to burn in our belly until we do something about it. I want our students to get mad about issues of injustice and slavery and poverty, so much so that they are determined to make a difference. God is working to make things right in the world, and he wants to use us. So let's let Him. Will we rid the world of slavery or poverty or racism? No. But can we do our part to make a dent. That is what I hope our students will do.

**Apology alert: Before you hear it from your students, I wanted to let you know that I used some strong language during our discussion in church group time. I used two phrases in particular that may offend. One, I told them that I wanted them to get 'pissed off' about the things in the world that aren't right. Two, I quoted the movie Network in saying that I wanted them to have the attitude of saying, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" If this offends you - or if it offended your child - I am truly sorry. My goal was not to offend, but to emphasize how bad these situations are and how badly God wants to work through them to make a change. I hope you understand.**

I think that's about all for today. Don't forget to check out the pictures as there are new ones. And I bought a new camera yesterday, so after today the pictures should be much better. I will close with two funny comments:

• Someone used the word 'esophagus.' Alyssa asked if that was a vegetable.
• This morning before devo time, Ellie asked me, "Can you say 'tutti-frutti' when you hiccup?" I told her that I honestly have never tried. She said, "Its really hard." And I truly think she knows from experience.

Cinci Day Two

Well, it's the beginning of day two, which means this will be a report on day one. I know, it's confusing. But try to keep up. :-)

Yesterday was our first day at our work sites. Suffice it to say that our students worked hard - sometimes at jobs that they didn't really know why they were doing it - accomplished much and all with a great attitude. You parents have done a good job of raising your kids with a good work ethic and great attitudes, even if the circumstances are not the best. Mad props to you!

After I finished blogging and uploading pictures yesterday to our Flickr site (BTW, there are new pictures today from yesterday), I ran to the store to pick up a few items for various people - toothbrush, air mattress, etc. - and headed over to the FreeStore Food Bank. I got there just as the work team (Ryan's) was finishing up lunch and was getting ready to watch a movie about the ministry that FreeStore provides. So I ate my lunch and watched with them. This is a ministry that not only distributes donated food to food pantries all over the area, but also helps people process their food stamps, provides hot meals for kids, and teaches people to be chefs so they have a marketable trade, among other things. The team had a great time there separating barrels of non-perishable  food into various categories: corn from beans from tomatoes from sauces from fruit, etc. By the end of the day they had separated 18,000 pounds of food. That is not a typo. Nine tons of food they separated! WOW! What a great job! And they had a lot of fun doing it, too. I think they are feeling it today. They will be there again today, then off to a different site. And just a side note, he guys in Ryan's team now refer to him as 'Dad.' (and me as the evil stepdad)

Tammy's group went to Eden Park yesterday. She said the park was beautiful, but they went into the woods and helped tear down some honeysuckle and other plants that would be damaging to the other plants around them. It would have been natural for the students to whine and complain for not being able to do something that may seem more mission trippy. But Tammy said that their attitude was great, that she heard not one grumble. And many of the students came back feeling pretty good about themselves about the work they were able to accomplish. And they said that there were no bugs and they were in the shade. Must have been a God thing. And also, apparently our friend Sergei has a good singing voice as he serenaded the group from the pavilion. He is definitely the kids that everyone will be talking about when we get home!

Tanda's group helped weed a couple of neighborhood gardens. The first one was for kids to help them learn about stewardship, but they only encountered one kid that day, Cameron. Then they helped weed another garden, the food from which was distributed to senior citizens. Tanda had a great time, but I think Lexi struggled a bit since it seemed like they weren't really interacting with anyone. She didn't complain about it; just a sense I get.

Kristy's team went to City Cure, which puts on a day camp for kids. They were greeted by a crazy white youth pastor in his late 40's who rapped for them. An interesting greeting, to say the least. The kids absolutely loved this guy (Gordon)! And they loved on the kids in a big way! Kristy had some expectations for how our students would do, and she said they far exceeded them. Gordon had set the groundwork by telling them that they were not to be talking with each other, but instead to be interacting with the kids that came, and our students jumped into that task with both feet. They had a ball! Kristy said that Mikayla probably had more fun than even the kids that came to the camp. She also said that it was neat to see some of the quiet kids come out of their shell, and the clique-y kids be not so much.

During our team leader meeting each day, we go around and report how our day went. When it got to be Ken from Michigan's turn, he had a stern look on his face as he said, "I had a terrible day." We were on the edge of our seats to hear what went wrong. He went on to say, "I had to play laser tag all day. It was awful!" We absolutely cracked up! He totally set us up. But he went to go on to say that there was a kid that came that was in a wheelchair who had never played laser tag before, so Ken pushed him around the course while he worked the gun. They both had a fantastic time, and they came in the top 10. Fun stuff!

Also in the leader's meeting, Nikki told us how important youth leaders were in her life and spiritual development. It's always good for volunteers to hear that, so I'm glad she shared her heart.

Last night for our evening activity we walked across the Purple People Bridge. We started on the Kentucky side, walked across to Cinci, and then back again. Before venturing into Newport on the Levee for ice cream, we stopped to pray for the Cincinnati. This was cool, but it's also a little discouraging for me - the youth leader - to see how hesitant our kids are to pray out loud. I'm not sure yet if there's something I need to do differently, but it is something I have noticed. After praying, we went into Newport and the kids got hopped up on sugar: ice cream, sno cones, candy. It's a very nice little shopping and eating area. The kids don't know it yet, but we will be returning there on Friday for our fun activity: The Newport Aquarium.

Club last night was a mix of the silly and the serious. It started with a fashion show. Youth Enterprise is a ministry connected to YouthWorks that makes and sells t-shirts and pours the money back into the ministries. The YW staff pushes the shirts all week, so last night we had a fashion show, of which Ryan, Tammy and I were a part. It was very silly! You can see the shirts we modeled on Flickr. Later during club, Alicia shared from her heart and life, a life of alcohol and drug consumption from the time she was in 6th grade. She continued this lifestyle until last spring ('07) when she lost three close friend to death. This helped to serve as a wake-up call that she needed to get right with God, which she did. I hope and pray that the kids were listening and that this story will come to mind when the face similar temptations as they pass through these teen years.

I asked everyone where they saw God in their days. We had many various responses. I then told them that I saw God in how they served and with their attitudes. It is exciting for me to see so many of our students allow themselves to be used by God to be a part, an instrument for what He is trying to do in the world to make everything right again. In closing, I read the lyrics from Remedy by the David Crowder* Band. I will leave you with those lyrics, and also remind you that we will be going to the Freedom Center today. Please pray that the students take this time seriously and allow it to open their eyes to injustice still in the world today. Thanks, and here are those lyrics I promised.

David Crowder* Band - Remedy

Here we are

Here we are

The broken and used

Mistreated, abused

Here we are

Here You are

Here You are

The beautiful one

Who came like a Son

Here You are

So we lift up our voices

We open our hands

To cling to the love

That we can't comprehend

Oh, lift up your voices

And lift up your heads

To sing of the love

That has freed us from sin

He is the one

Who has saved us

He is the one

Who embraced us

He is the one who has come

And is coming again

He's the remedy

Here we are

Here we are

Bandaged and bruised

Awaiting a cure

Here we are

Here You are

Here You are

Our beautiful King

Bringing relief

Here You are with us

So we lift up our voices

And open our hands

Let go of the things

That have kept us from Him

He is the one

Who has saved us

He is the one

Who forgave us

He is thee one who has come

And is coming again

He's the remedy

Oh, I can't comprehend

I can't take it all in

Never understand

Such perfect love come

For the broken and beat

For the wounded and weak

Oh, come fall at his feet

He's the remedy

He's the remedy

So sing, sing

You are the one

Who has saved us

You are the one

Who forgave us

You are the one who has come

And is coming again

To make it alright

Oh, to make it alright

You're the remedy

Oh, in us

You're the remedy

Let us be the remedy

Let us bring the remedy

It's Cincinnati's Turn!

We made it safely to Cincinnati in about the amount of time we had expected. We would have been there quite early, but then the post-lunch potty breaks started kicking in. We still got in with about an hour to spare - plenty of time to claim our space, set up our beds, and relax. The trip was fairly uneventful, and only one student - Alyssa - got a little car sick. Nothing serious, just a little queasy.

Dinner last night featured Sloppy Joes (which prompted our students to sing the Sloppy Joes song from Xtreme Camp), mac and Cheese, and watermelon - much different than the ethnic cuisine on the senior high trip. Taylor did get a little extra treat - a small piece of cake to celebrate her 13th birthday.

After dinner we had our orientations so we knew what the rules were, what the ministry sites were, and how the week would play out. We have some good YouthWorks staff this week: Nikki, our site director, is from Atlanta, and loves teens and missions; Alicia, our urban staff, is from South Bend, IN; Kyle, our other urban staff, is from Cincinnati; and Mary, our club staff, is getting ready to graduate from Princeton Seminary (smarty-pants).

After orientation we had our first club. Think mini-Porch, and you have a general idea what that looks like: we sing some songs, they do a skit or two, and we hear a short message. The theme for the week is 'Jump', as in, there are some things that God will call you to do that require more than taking a step of faith, they require more like a jump of faith. Last night we focused on Mary's jump of faith as she said yes to God who told her that she would give birth to Jesus. Judging from the conversation we had after that during church group time, many of our students are taking a jump this week as they expressed nervousness about this week. I asked them all to come up with three word to describe how they were feeling about this week. Here were their responses:

• Cory: Very, very nervous.
• Casey: Ecstatic. Happy. Thankful.
• Riley: Nervous. Confused. Excited.
• Kristen: I am excited.
• Meredith: I am unsure. (and yeah)
• Candace: I am excited.
• Taylor: Ready, but nervous.
• Kelsey: Nervous and Excited.
• Ellie: Excited. Disoriented. Prepared?
• Mikayla: Nervous. Excited. Thankful.
• Alyssa: Excited and nervous.
• Tammy: Thankful. Way excited!
• Ryan W.: Nervous. Excited. Expectations.
• Ryan L.: Anxious. Excited. Flexible.
• Houston: I don't know.
• Tyler: Super, uber-excited!
• Tanda: Unsure. Grateful. Ready.
• Lexi: Anxious and tiresome.
• Julia: I'm extremely excited!
• Fitz: Uncertain. Sad. Jazzed.
• Kristy: Grateful. Hope. Distractions.
• Morghan: Straight up ready.
• Rachel: Excited. Expecting. Uncomfortable.
• Larissa: Excited. Scared. Nervous.

I will let you follow up with your own child to find out why they picked the words they did.

This morning, the students learned what work groups they would be in and who they would be with and what they would be doing. Here is what they learned:

Kristy's Group (each team has a creative name, but I forgot to write them down)

Job: City Cure (working with kids at a day camp in the Over the Rhone community, where 95% of the families live below the poverty line)

• Kristen
• Morghan
• Kelsey
• Alyssa
• Candace
• Mikayla
• Taylor
• Larissa
• and students from other churches

Ryan's Group

Job: FreeStore Food Bank (sorting food for a food distributor that distributes 10 million pounds of food donations each year)

• Houston
• Tyler
• Cory
• Ryan
• and students from other churches

Tammy's Group

Job: Eden Park (helping park managers to clear out some overgrown plants)

• Meredith
• Rachel
• Riley
• Ellie
• Casey
• and students from other churches

Tanda's Group

Job: Neighborhood Gardens (help maintain some gardens owned by a not-for-profit organization that uses the gardens to help teach stewardship and finances to at-risk teens)

• Julia
• Lexi
• and students from other churches

Speaking of other churches, we are spending the week with teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Buffalo, and Michigan. I don;t feel so bad about the length of our drive after hearing some of their stories.

Tonight our evening activity will be to walk over the Purple People Bridge into Newport, KY. It is the longest pedestrian-only bridge in the U.S. connecting two states. But the evening activity I'm really excited about is going to the Freedom Center tomorrow. It celebrates the underground railroad. Knowing how moving the Civil Rights Museum was for our students in Birmingham, I expect much of the same from this.

A couple of random notes:

• We now know the kid that everyone will be talking about after the trip is over: Sergei. He is an extremely extroverted 6th grader from Wisconsin who was adopted from Russia when he was two. He is a trip!
• Ellie got to sleep with Pinky last night, a stuffed pig. Not sure why.
• When we did 'Yea God's last night (an opportunity to praise God for what he's doing), Kyle introduced the 'Yea God Orb.' Someone said, "Orb?" He said, "Yeah. It's spherical." OK, it's not funny in print, but it was quite funny live.
• When we were getting a tour of the church, I saw a stained-glass window that featured Jesus with a turtle at his feet. I pointed this out to Ryan as being odd to me. He said that maybe Jesus was slow. I said, "Jesus wasn't swift of foot." Again, probably not funny in print, and I normally don't brag on my funny comments, but Tammy made me include this.
• Cory was bragging about how he put his lunch on top of the ice pack in the cooler so he would have a cool lunch. Tyler said, "I told you. That's a first-aid kit. It won't keep your lunch cool." Funny!

I am off now. I will upload some pictures to our Flickr site. Please forgive the quality as our camera doesn't do well indoors. And then it's off to Wal-Mart to pick up some stuff and then to the FreeStore Food Bank. Thanks for reading and for allowing your child to come on this trip with us.

Chicago Testimonies, Part 5: Eddy, Zach, Drew, Curtis, Morgan, Sydney

Thanks, Thanks, Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this team and shared this incredible week with everybody. My prayer and hope is that we use what we learn here in Chicago back in our city and try to be a blessing to those in need back home. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen out here but I learned that I have to learn the Bible and really try to put God first in everything I do. I enjoyed getting to know Danny and the kids in my group. They showed me a lot. Thanks again and I hope that I can be a part of this ministry back home. I wish I would have gotten to know you a bit more.
-Eddy Casasola

This week has given me a lot, most of which I didn’t expect. From coming on a trip to getting out of the house for a week to not really wanting to go and it maybe would have been easier to stay home and sit in my undies til 2pm (honest) to sticking it out without my normalnality (cell phone, iPod, Sportscenter, MySpace) to being touched by people in need, kids that I would never have met before and they helped me realize that I was the one in need.
-Zach Moyers

I’ve read this verse every day for months and I think I ought to share it: Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. – 1 Cor. 13:4-8 This sums it up for me.
-Drew Nall

I learned a lot about myself during the mission trip. I learned that I need to have more patience. I also learned that even if nobody notices something good that you do, God notices.
-Curtis Mathson

During my stay in Chicago this week I experienced many mixed emotions. Sometimes I felt happy to be there, which was most of the time, because I knew we were doing such great things. Another part of me felt so thankful for everything I have, which is so much more than the children we worked with had. Normally, I’m always wanting more, the more expensive name brands I owned the better. Since my time serving in Chicago my relationship with God has grown to the moon and back. I’ve always had a strong relationship with Him, but it is always growing.
-Morgan Bean

This week while walking around Chicago, I learned that on the streets, seeing every person walk by, are made different but all by the same God. If they’re homeless, poor, rich, you should not put them into your mind as a person of a lower standard than yourself. I learned not to be scared if I am approached, because most times, all anyone wants is to talk to someone or simply say hi. Never once put your head down and walk on or ignore someone by looks. Just think, would that be how you would want to be treated?
-Sydney Ozbun

Chicago Testimonies, Part 4: Miranda, Matt, Jacob, Cori, Hillary

I’ve had a great week. I’ve met so many people that are so great. Everyone has made this week so easy for me. At first I thought I would have a hard time getting to know everyone but it was the total opposite. Not only did I meet all those people from the church but being able to spend my week with those precious children was life-changing. Something as simple as colors made them so happy. It made me realize I wish I still had that mindset. To be so happy about such a simple thing, and to see the smile on their faces was one of the best feelings in the world…I think today the older people get the more visual we become, and when it comes to God I can’t be that way. I need to have the simplicity and faith that those kids have to become closer to God. I think the kids helped me with this. The funny thing is I came on this trip expecting to help these kids and to help make their life a little better. What I wasn’t expecting happened. I started talking more, I prayed out loud, I became closer to God. What happened was that these kids changed my life for the good. I thank all of them for teaching me what is important in life. This trip has changed me and guided me on the direction that I believe God wants me to be on…P.S. I just want to thank everyone that made this trip possible. The leaders and CSM staff were awesome and I enjoyed spending the week with them. Without them this mission wouldn’t have been possible. So THANKS! I love you all!
-Miranda Middleton

I had an amazing time this week! Working with the kids showed me that they didn’t have a very good home life and they really attach onto anyone that shows them love and compassion. They changed my life on this trip and I want to take that to Cape and work with kids and making their lives a little better. I know that there are the same things in Cape that I saw in Chicago. I never noticed any homeless or needy people in Cape, but God has shown me how bad it is all over America and how we can help.
-Matt Griffith

This week has been awesome. It has helped me with many things like:
• Working with little kids
• Approaching new people
• Talking to people
• Speaking publicly
And it has also helped me spiritually. Some things I wished we would have done would be having worship (singing) and just talking more about God. This trip is definitely going to have an effect on my life in the future, not just this week.
-Jacob Gentry

This week at Chicago has definitely changed me. Last year I said I wanted to do something after but I didn’t have my heart in it. But this year I really mean it. When I get back I’m gonna get involved in anything I can. Right before the mission trip the dedication for Pastor Thomas’ house went on. It was great for me to have that experience right before the trip. It got me really excited and ready. I’ve realized that kids that don’t have a good home life are definitely what I want to help and work with. I’ve become so close with all the people in my group and with everyone that came. I hope we continue to do stuff as a group and stay close. This trip was really eye-opening and showed me how hard life would be if I was homeless. I’m very thankful for my family and for everything I have. I’ve noticed that I take a lot of things for granted. I hope I can change for the better and live my life for God.
-Cori Shockley

This trip has changed the way I view everyday life. After meeting the kids at Casa Central, I am more appreciative of what I have. Since a lot of the kids come from brokenness I’m thankful my parents are still together and love me. Meeting the people on the streets and the people at the soup kitchen was pretty cool. We might have been an answer to someone’s prayers. I was very nervous about this trip, but it was a lot of fun. I plan to go on more trips in the future. It has given me a way to help out. It has also helped get more connected with the youth group. It let me see a different Chicago.
-Hillary Caldwell