Friday, July 6, 2007 - 12:51 PM
So, alot of you know that I went on a mission trip well, about two weeks ago. (I've had family visitng since then, so it's been hard for me to update.) It was a really great experience. It was my first time, and we went to South Dakota. In case you were wondering, it was with Youthworks, and the leaders from Youthworks were amazing. Mark (he was really funny...), Jess, Travis, and Amanda. Our days looked something like this:7:00-wakeup7:15- breakfast(in between this and devo time, the breakfast crew would clean up and the cleaning crew would clean bathrooms etc...)8:15- devo time- this was my absolute FAVORITE part of the day! It was really great to have the time set apart to just read my Bible, pray, and do the devotional booklet questions that they gave us. We had until 8:55 to do this.9:00- go get shower stuff and load up the vans9:15- leave for worksites unless you were on Kid's club crew... then you'd stay at the church and plan out your craft, skit, or game... depending on what you worked on.whenever you got to your work site you would work there for 6 hours, with a break for lunch (minus kid's club people, they left after lunch)My crew's work project was painting a lady named Rose's house. She was the sweetest lady! She made us food one day, and her daughter the next day.(Rose was sleeping because she had worked the night shift at the nursing home) She had the cutest grandkids too! one was named Chris, and whenever he'd put on a pair of our work goggles, we'd be like, "where'd Chris go?" or "I think Chris jsut disappeared! Where are you, Chris" and he'd shout things like, "on the roof!" or "in the tree" What a cutie. he was four. his brother, Andre, was 2 or 3, I don't really know. He never smiled (that I saw) but just sat on the sidewalk, cranking out bubble with his bubble machine, ALL DAY LONG. he was really cute too, but the cutest grandkid BY FAR was the 5 month old. Now, if you know me at all, you will know my odsession for babies. He was a CUTIE! He had like a tuft of black hair on his head, and when he smiled... oh! HEARTBREAKER!!! I got to hold him, and it was kind of chilly outside, so his mom went and got a blanket for him, so I wraopped it around hima dn he lke cuddled against me... oh! I miss him! anyways, back to what we did!The first day working there, we scraped the paint off her house... It was peeling pretty badly. The paint wouldn't stick unless we did that, so we scraped... and scraped... It was fun, because I got to work with my friends, but it was long. ( Rose's husband was going to paint the house he had jsut put an addition on) but then he got in a car accident and died, so Rose's neighbor told her about Youthworks and how they'd paint it for her) Teh second day, we all got on ladders (or held them) and painted. We got one side finished, and another most of the way finished... The next crew finished it for us. 3:30- SHOWER!!!!!!! They were always cold, but it was a blessing to take them, especially on the painting day, because we had paint EVERYWHERE! We took them at the Tiospa Zina Tribal School, in the locker rooms. alot of the guys didn't take showers every day, but most of the girls did.5:00- back at the church where we stayed, the dinner crew would make dinner, and teh rest of us would wait for it. They had good food, and it was planned out well too. I dond't know when I have been so hungry! After dinner we would go on a group outing (we saw buffalo, went to the beach hiked in Sica Hollow (pronounced "seecha", means 'bad'. The indians named it that because there was a moss on the trees that glowed in the dark, and there was iron int he river that made it turn red and look like blood.)that was pretty much all the thing we did) :) 8:45- or whenever we got back (we got lost a couple of times, so we had club at like 9:30) we would have club. This was our worship time, and we'd have 'Pound-it's and 'yay God's Pound its were where if you had seen someone do something good that day, you would say "Pound it to _____ for doing _________" and then every body would pound it with their neighbor. Yay Gods were where we'd say what we'd seen God do. Most people got this confused with Pound its and we didn't have alot of real yay Gods,but we would snap our fingers and say "yay, God!" Then Travis would talk to us about what we'd learned in out devo times, and we would get in our church groups, talk about our days, then lights out was at 11:15...we only made it one night. We got about 6 1/2 hours of sleep per night, which considering what they wanted us to do, it wasn't very much. on Wed and Thurs, I was at kid's club. Those kid's were so cute, and just plain happy to be there. It was sad to know that alot of them came from abusive homes, poverty-sticken homes, or homes where they weren't loved. But when they were at kid's club, they could be a kid again. Tehy played their little hearts out. I was on craft, so I got to plan crafts and help the kids with them. My little buddy, Savannah had sprained her ankle the first day, so she stayed with me at craft the whole time. I noticed that she put alot of 'God' and 'Jesus' on her crafts, so I asked her if she believed in God. instantly she said, "yeah, He's the Lord of Lords". And then I really understood what the term "faith like a child" means. What she said touched me. Her dad was a policeman, and I don't think she lived with him. She gave me her grandma's address, and I think she lives with her. If you think about it, please pray for her and her friends and family. Pray that she will keep loving the Lord, and look to Him for strength. The second day in the morning we went to a nursing home, and sang with the residents there. I didn't know half the songs, so I rambled along on my own tune most of the time... trying desperately to get the right one. Thank goodness they had booklets with the words in them otherwise I would've been totally lost. After we sang, we ate donuts and drank lemonade and talked with the residents. Both of the ladies at my table were really hard of hearing. THe other girl from the group was there, and I didn't know her, but we tried to keep a conversation going. I felt like I was yelling at them, I had to talk to loud, and repeat everything at least once. But it was worth it. Every scream. One of the ladies, Rosetta was in a wheelchair, and she had hurt her side somehow. She would randomly start buzzing her lips (which I tried in vain, but couldn't do) or sing 'lalalala'. She was really sweet. She had a poem for everything we talked about too. We were talking about the birds at the birdfeeder, and she had a poem for that... and everything else too! She'd forget she'd said them, and repeat them later on, but that was okay, we pretended that we hadn't heard it before. The other lady, Verda, hadn't been there very long, a couple of years, but she was sweet. Not very talkative though. :)When we were about to leave, Rosetta asked me where I lived. I told her, and she said, "i wish it wasn't so far" It was good for me to hear, because then I realized that I had made a difference. Just by singing with her and eating a donut. Being a friend. My favorite part of the week by far was on Thursday (our last day) night. our church leaders washed our feet. I was not expecting it to be so meaningful. Robyn washed my feet, and Teresa prayed for me. What really got the tears to roll was the things she said. It was the sweetest thing anyone has done for me. Ii was not the only one needing the tissue box. Almost every girl was bawling... hugging, and bawling. Some people came up to me and said the nicest things... all throught their tears. one of the girls was sitting on her own. She was the only one who hadn't had her feet washed. I had been praying for her, because I felt that she needed it... I didn't know why or how... but I knew. I went over to her and sat by her and told her that I had been praying for her, not to have her say 'Oh, THANK you', but to encourage her. I told her taht I didn't know anything specific, but that I knew that a everyone needed a little prayer. She never said word, but I went back to me spot and sat down. I'd like to think that it might have made a difference in her life, though I don't know if I'll ever know. she's another one you could pray for. She's got some difficult things going on with her life i think. But God can do anything, AMEN??? Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support! I know we wouldn't have made it without them.
Labels: devo time, fun stuff, great experience, mission trip, Savannah, tiredness, working
posted by chocogirl39 @ 5:18 PM
Comments: 2
