I had the privilege to take my youth group on some mission trips recently. We took two groups over a two week period of time. I first took my junior high group to Saint Louis. This was my first trip with my new youth group and I was very excited to go. Five students went and I had two adults volunteer to join me. Our whole group, which consisted of five churches, was going to be helping out some elderly people in the community with work around their properties that they could not complete themselves. While we were there we were presented with the task of painting the inside of a house and doing some work outside. Before we left our first morning I told the kids we needed to work hard but it was also important for us to spend some time with the couple who lived in the house. We are here to do work but we cannot miss the point of this ministry, to connect with those we serve. The first day we scraped and painted some railing outside of the house in the front yard. It took us much longer than I was hoping and it was not fun at all. It got hot and was boring work. I could tell the kids did not love this task. But we got it done and they did a great job. Unfortunately we barely had time to talk to the couple.
The couple we were helping was Don and Yolanda Robinson. They had lived in that house for a very long time and it showed. The second day I reminded to kids to do their best to spend some time with them. We were painting a few rooms inside the house and I was pleased to see the kids doing a really good job working, but not only that they were talking to Don and Yolanda whenever they took water breaks or were just waiting for something to happen so they could continue working.
By the end of our time there we had spent three days working at their house and the kids got to know this couple that we were blessed to help. We also had a good time working. We had a few paint mishaps and some frustration with working in a tight area but the kids handled it very well. On our last day we were cleaning everything up and putting the house back together. I asked the kids what they enjoyed about the trip and they all told me they were proud of the work they did. They liked that we got to help a couple that needed work done on their house. The Robinson’s were very happy with our work and were very surprised that kids would volunteer to spend a week away from home during their vacation to do work for someone they just met.
A few hours after we got the junior high home we loaded up and left with the senior high. This time we were bound for Colorado Springs. While we were there we spent time on the mountain planting trees and helping to maintain some areas that will help control flooding. Ten years ago there was a huge fire that burned thousands of acres of trees in the mountains above Colorado Springs. So our main task was to help recover from that fire. We spent two days on the mountain planting trees and doing other tasks that would help in the recovery. We also got to spend two days doing work in Colorado Springs. We spent a morning working at a food bank organizing food and separating spoiled or damaged food. The second day in town we worked at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. It wasn’t the most fun work. We took pallets of tile and worked it out to the sales floor. Making space and organizing it by size and color. We got a lot done in a short amount of time and more importantly I got to see our guys working together to complete a task.
During this trip I was able to take our group up to my aunt and uncle’s ranch. They live a little ways outside of Colorado Springs. It was good for me just to see them since it had been awhile but it was good for the guys to see why we were in Colorado in the first place. My aunt and uncle’s ranch had been severely damaged during the fire ten years ago. While we were there we went to the top of a hill where we could see for miles. This showed our guys the damage the fire did. While we were on the mountain earlier that week we couldn’t see very far. The damage was not impressive. But from our hill top we could see the burned trees that still stood for miles and the true impact of this fire on the surrounding area.
I am very proud with the way our groups worked. They were awesome. They worked hard and did unpleasant work with almost no complaint. I truly feel that they were the hands and feet of Jesus while on these trips. They didn’t treat these trips like vacations, they went to work and they did a great job. We got to do a lot of fun things on these trips as well. There was a lot I couldn’t mention in a blog post including a crazy night at a talent show, one of the best slips and falls I’ve ever seen, some crazy conversation at meals, some fun new games, my first hospital visit on a youth trip not for me, and so much more.
I want to thank my parent volunteers who took time off work to hang out with me and a group of teens. We could not have done these trips without you. I would also like to thank our church for letting go on these trips. Your support, financially and through prayer were essential. These trips had some ups and downs but mostly it was kids living like Christ. Doing something to give back, living out the call of Christ. Not bad for my first trips with my new youth group.
