Required Reading for ANYONE Going on a Mission Trip

If you are going on a mission trip anytime soon you must have your team read the posts in this article that can be accessed by clicking HERE.  Jamie "the very worst missionary" give a perspective from one who IS a missionary and what she observes when the short-term mission teams come racing into her community to throw their faith grenades at everyone and then head back home patting themselves on the backs for what they perceive as a job well done when that may not necessarily be the case from the people they "ministered" to.  You must have your team wrestle with the truth in each one of the posts Jamie has written.  It is really good stuff to consider so that you mission trip can have the best possible outcome for your team AND those you are there to minister to.

Blog Post #1: Junior High Mission Trip to Chicago 2011

Sunday, July 24

It was a bit hard to just run home wash my closes and head back up to the church on Sunday morning to get ready to head off for the final trip.  I actually used the Junior High class to help me out with getting the last-minute stuff ready after we had a time of prayer.  I also asked those who were not going on the trip to please keep us all in prayer throughout the week. 

We eventually piled into the vans and headed north this time!  We had a really good start as the Junior Highers seemed to display better bladder control than the Senior Highers.  I was mildly impressed.  I drove one of the 15 passenger vans this time.  I had Max riding shotgun.  Most of those in our van were boys.  Max took it upon himself to give this young bucks an education in country music just about the whole way up.  At one point, he found a polka station!  This was delightful!  The Junior High boys were squirming but they would not dare challenge Max.  They might whine a little but that was all.  Once the desire for perogies, polish sausage and a pint of beer became too unbearable for me, I had Max change it back to his country music.

After navigating through the traffic of Chicago, even on a Sunday afternoon, we made it to the campus of North Park University.  This college is affiliated with the Covenant Church.  Once we parked we met our host leaders for the week, Lauren and Rachel.  They told us that the group will need to be split into two separate groups for the week.  So I had all of the kids link up with one friend in a single file line.  Then I went down the line sending each pair to the left then the next one to the right.  So to be fair I let them have their one friend they really wanted to be with but the reality was that we all knew each other pretty well so they had friends on their team as well as the one they personally picked out. 

We also settled into our room situation.  It actually was a pretty sweet deal as these were apartments that would house 4-5 college students.  So the boys all slept in the living room area or the dining room area while this guy here got himself a room with a bed!  My room was right in the middle of the apartment so I was able to monitor the noise levels if needed but overall I was very happy!

Once we figured that all out we headed out for our first cultural experience eating dinner at a Columbian restaurant!  They would bring out large family style plates of food.  We were hungry enough that we would devour the first plate, and then another plate of something else would come out!  This happened several times until we were all stuffed.

After dinner, we did a driving prayer tour all throughout Chicago.  We spent 2 hours going to many different locations.  At each location we would stop the van, our host would explain many of the social, economic and spiritual issues that this particular area was struggling with and then one of the teens would take the time to pray for that area. It was great at first how our teens all had that blank stare when our host would ask someone to prayer.  They started to learn really quick that they need to get over this fear because we are all going to take turns praying all throughout the week!  On the prayer tour we learned a lot about the economic contrasts between the wealthy and the poor.  We were also pretty surprised to learn how real the issue of racism still is in Chicago.

Unfortunately we were unable to take showers this evening.  Very gross when you consider how much I sweat.  But I also had the extra issue that poison ivy was starting to get out of control on both of my legs.  So I waited until the boys were all asleep and then I snuck in a very hot bath to kill the itching.  There was only one bath in the apartment so the deal was that in the evening we would all go take showers in the locker rooms.  If we used the apartment shower we would have to wait for each person to shower one at a time it would take forever. 

Monday, July 25

We woke up and were ready to head off to our first day of ministry!  Both groups would spend each morning throughout the week going to a local YMCA and serving kids that were there for day care.  Then the afternoons consisted of a variety of ministry sites and opportunities.  My group went to our YMCA location and broke the ice with the kids.  It wasn’t very hard as some of the kids even ran to the teens and hugged them when they entered the room.  We had a good day playing in the gym kicking soccer balls around and playing “Duck, Duck, Goose”.  This particular YMCA was very, very nice.  The program and structure that the kids had throughout the day was really nice.  All the children seemed to enjoy their experience there.  

We left close to noon and ate our lunch out by our van.  This is always the time I take to shot 1,000 questions at our CSM leader.  I am always fascinated by these 20-somethings that give up their whole Summer for a very low-paying but very active and spiritually rewarding experience whether it is CSM or Mountain T.O.P. or serving in Africa.  Rachelle was the leader of this team.  She is from California.  She attended a CSM trip to Los Angeles as a teen.  Now she is serving in Chicago and loves it.  She has one more year of college to go and then the sky seems to be the limit to what she is open to doing.  She has traveled a ridiculous amount around the world going on mission trips and just traveling so we had a lot of questions about those experiences. 

Our afternoon was spent going to 2 different Senior Living Centers to spend time with them and lead bingo games.  We stopped at a CVS and got a bunch of random prizes.  Many of it was toiletries stuff.  I think we tossed in a slinky just for fun.  Little did we know that we were about to enter into the most dangerous and volatile area in all of Chicago.  Our first stop was actually pretty nice.  There were a lot of elderly Asian people who came out and played well.  The only issue was that our teens were not loud enough.  If you have been around me at all, you know I do not struggle in the area of volume.  In fact my very first girl friend in Junior High tried to teach me how to not talk so loud.  She failed.  So I went to the front of the room and used my big, booming voice to holler out the letter and the numbers.  Every once in a while I would yell out something that didn’t make sense like: “OH . . . Henry!” or “Bee – Have!”.  I would get some confused looks and some smiles.  Some caught on, others didn’t.  Many of our teens sat in with the people and played with them.  Of course we would never take a prize and they knew that. 

After a fairly positive experience we headed off to our next Senior Living Center.  What we were unaware of was that we have now just crossed into the territory of Mordor and the eye of Sauron was looking at those prizes we were carrying!  You could almost hear that deep, diabolical voice saying, “I see them!”   We entered into the meeting room and everything seemed to be very similar to that last place we were just at.  I helped to pass out bingo cards and I was also looking for any extra ones so I could also play.  Unfortunately, one of the elderly women picked up on my intentions and started pointing at me while saying, “YOU CAN’T PLAY!”.  She said this over and over again until I realized that she was being quite serious and I better just go sit down and shut up. 

I went to the back of the room and decided to observe things as I checked my emails on my phone.  The first sign that something was not all good here was when I looked up and noticed that one of the women who seemed upset about how the game was going, grabbed a bingo card from someone claiming to win and chucked it at my teens who were running the bingo game up front.  I was fully engaged in watching what was going on now in that my own daughter was one of the ones standing up their trying to lead the game.  The look on her and Morgan’s face was awesome!  Their eyes were about as wide as they could get them as they tried to continue on calling numbers. 

Within minutes, apparently one woman felt that she had won and another who was strategically sitting up front facing the aisle, believed strongly that this woman was a liar.  So as the winning woman was trying to get a prize, the woman who disagreed decided to reach out and grab this woman by the back of her belt.  She pulled with enough force that the woman started to lose her balance and fall backwards.  This was one of those “slow-motion” moments where you can’t believe that you are seeing what you are seeing and your eyes and mouth are about as wide open as they can get.  As she fell backwards, she landed right in the lap of the lady pulling her.  She jumped off her lap, turned around and the foreign languages began to fly as they turned red in the face. I thought for a moment we were going to have a full on fight.  What was I doing? I was staying right where I was at in the back of the room far, far away from this whole thing!  My luck, if I had tried to intervene, would have been not good.  If it was a kid fight, or a teen fight, or even an adult fight that would have been different, but 2 elderly people? No way.  Besides it was way to awesome to watch my daughter react in the middle of it all.  This is a story she will remember forever!

After our exciting times with Bingo madness, we met up with the other team on the beach of Lake Michigan to debrief how the day went.  It was an interesting debrief as our leaders had the teens act out 3 scenes of how their day went.  Of course, my team acted out the whole Bingo death match.  The memorable scene from the other group was that Nile, our straight-faced, monotone-voiced super jock, apparently was reading books to the kids they were with.  His team seemed to really enjoy seeing him do this.

For dinner that night we went to a Thai restaurant.  I ended up sitting next to Rachel Mellett.  If there were ever 2 people who had completely different views on food it would be me and Rachel.  I ate anything and everything brought out to the table and I couldn’t get enough.  Rachel on the other had would look at something on the table and make comments of great dis-like as to what the plate of food reminds her of, its putrid smell, and when she would try just a little bit you would have thought she tasted a cockroach.  I gave her a hard time.    

When we arrived back at our rooms, we were finally allowed to take our first showers.  We all showered in the athletic locker rooms.  This was a nice place to shower as everyone was able to be showered quickly and the facility was very nice.  It was also air-conditioned so you weren’t sweating again once you came out of the shower. 

When we got back from showers we were blessed with the arrival of our other intern Hannah and our Senior Pastor Doug!  Doug’s first initial observation of our sleeping quarters was not positive.  He was a big overwhelmed by the heat and humidity.  He wasn’t sure that he could get any sleep in these conditions.  But whenever any officer has his general come to visit him in battle, it is wise for that officer to make sure the general is well taken care of .  So I got him set up in a bed room that was just for him and we got some windows open and fans going to make it somewhat comfortable. 

Once Doug got settled in, I took the teens to the corner McDonald’s for a snack.  We hung out until about 10:30PM and then headed back for lights out.

Post #3: Tennessee Mission Trip – July 21-23

July 21: Well it is time to get caught up here before I forget everything. On the morning of Thursday, July 21^st I happened to plop myself down for breakfast and I happened to be right next to Zach (without his buds). So we were able to check in with each other and see how things are going. He expressed to me that this has been the best mission trip ever and he wants to come back every Summer! I was very happy to hear that he was having such a positive experience. I told him that I like to offer different trips from Summer to Summer but I could see us coming back in 2 or 3 years. In fact I saw a lot of positive growth in our teens adapting and adjusting to this style and discovering new things about themselves. I too was a little nervous about taking on a group of teens of which I only personally knew one from Epiphany! But this week helped me to learn how to get to know teens who are complete strangers and work together for a common goal. I have been getting a lot from this trip too.

As this heat wave continues on it just gets more brutal. I only brought one pair of jeans that I felt comfortable enough for painting. My other jeans can get dirty but no paint. I needed them to still wash up and be okay for normal life. So with that in mind, I put my paint jeans on on day 2, but our job got changed so we weed wacked a yard instead; a yard that on later inspection was infested with poison ivy and got all over those jeans at that point. Then I wore them again the next day because we were actually painting. As the next day of painting approached I looked at those jeans I have completely sweat through twice now and just knew, I could not put those back on. So I took them in the shower with me and hand washed them. Unfortunately I did not realize just how much poison ivy I got myself into and I would be paying for it slowly but surely over the next week here! But the jeans washed up well and I was able to tolerate using them for one more day of sweat-soaked painting.

My group was heading back to the same site we had yesterday. Before we arrived though we needed to stop at the local tool and corner store for some supplies. Just as I was beginning to wonder if this part of Tennessee knew what Starbucks was I finally found what I was looking for! The Double Shot Espresso Starbucks Energy Drink! It is the only energy drink I can tolerate and it has the most amazing effects on me for these types of trips! Sure enough, despite all the heat and humidity, I caught my second wind (heavily influenced by an extreme caffeine rush but hey, it works!). We were off and running at the ministry sight. I did notice that our team was beginning to loosen up, have some fun and let our personalities out a little more than at the beginning of the week. We did our best to complete the whole job but some rain came in and started to drizzle enough that we had to stop. I was bummed because I like to finish the job we started and finish it well. But we couldn't. In fact, some of the overhanging piece of aluminum in the back of her trailer detached while painting and I spent time in the rain getting that re-secured so that there would be no water damage done to the inside of her home.

We stayed extra late finishing that up and cleaning up. We had to rush but Nancy came out to say her goodbyes to us. As the teens got into the van ready to book it back so we would make it in time for dinner, I took a quick moment to ask Nancy if there was anything we could pray for while we were heading back. She told me she had some chronic pain issues that she was seeing a doctor for the next day, but then it was the next thing that really got to me. She told me almost word for word, “You know what though? The thing that is really just killing me is the loneliness. I just wish I had a friend to spend time with. I am not talking about getting married again or “that”. I just want someone to talk to; someone to go to a movie or church with; someone who would like to go out for lunch every once in a while.” I was floored with that statement. The quick fix in my mind wanted to introduce her to Facebook at least, but I knew that would not be the answer either. She just wanted someone to do life with that could relate to her at her stage of life. My heart was broke for her. We did pray for her as we headed back.

We got back just in time for dinner and as just about every meal has been on this trip, the food was really good! Afterwards we broke up into our big groups for worship that night. Each one of the small groups within the large group had to create a worship station. Then we explained our stations, dimmed the lights and allowed everyone to experience any of the tables that they wanted to visit. This was a really cool night as I saw a lot of creativity and imagination in the themes that ran with.

July 22: On our final morning of work projects, we were able to go back to our first site and complete the porch that we were trying to put the stairs and railing on all around the structure that was previously built by another group. We only had to work half a day and then we were allowed to take our small group out to do something fun to celebrate the week that we had together. To our surprise, our host announced to us that we were going to have a steak, potato and salad lunch! We were excited! We right away got going on the completion of the porch. I was quite shocked and amazed at how well it was all coming together. There were a few minor mistakes but overall it was very solid and sturdy when we were finished. Even the nails seemed to go in so much easier this time!

We didn't get much time to go do something fun afterwards but we all thought that it was more rewarding to stay at the house and finish the job well and spend time with the family since they cooked us such a nice meal. I stopped at the local corner store and bought my team ice cream and popsicles.

When we arrived back at the Mountain TOP camp I took some time to clean out the vans then collect and load up all the tools into the cargo van. After dinner we had a campfire. It was not what you normally think of as a mission trip campfire. It was still light outside and feeling the heat of a big campfire mixed in with the heat and humidity didn’t totally make sense to me. But the entertainment during the campfire was outstanding. The teens were encouraged to pull together some people and present a talent show of sorts at the camp fire. There were some teens from a church that has been coming to this mission trip for a long time now so they knew what to prepare for. And boy did they do a great job! They were hysterical! IT was one of those moments where you wish you would have gotten to know these teens at the beginning of the week because they were so funny. Some of our teens even performed, and performed well! Zach’s group did a silly skit. Kyle did the shortest skit ever. And then Jen got up and sang a beautiful song all by herself for memory and just brought the house down. I was very proud of our teens.

The final program of the night consisted of the closing program. It was at their outdoor chapel. I do have to say that the staff at Mountain TOP did a great job in bringing everything to a spiritual crescendo that night. Ryan volunteered to read scripture for this program. The teens reflected on what God taught them throughout the week. They talked about what they are taking home with them. Many of our Epiphany teens were standing up and sharing their thoughts on whatever the question was given to them. Even on young teen from another church cracked me up when he said that this week made him want to go home and teach people about the wonders of science. I am not sure how he got that out of this week but that comment made me chuckle for quite a while. At the end of the program we all had communion together and then everyone received a pin that was a symbol of a fish hook. This was the time were the teens and adults could now spend some time thanking each other, give little gifts to each other and just love on each other. Some of our teens got quite emotional. I was very proud to see how they were reacting to each other and to the friends that they made from other churches, both teens and adults.

As things wound down for the evening and we had some time to relax before lights out, I took the time to connect with some of the adults from the other churches to see how our teens did on their teams. I heard so much positive, affirming, kind, loving, passionate, powerful comments about our teens and how they conducted themselves on their teams. It was a great feeling to hear this from adults who have just only spent the past 6 days with our teens. No scary stories. No disrespect. No laziness. It was all 100% positive.

July 23: The final day came! We packed up our vans and headed off to clean up our assigned areas of the camp. As I was deep in conversation with Kristin about many important things, all of a sudden someone whipped my hat off and I received a lemon meringue pie right in the face from a teen who was with another church group. I must say it was a very tasty pie! They all had a good laugh but I got him back as he jumped into his church van to head back home I followed behind him and dumped a cup of water in his lap just as he sat down. No time for paybacks now! We were even.

We all gathered as one large group, then each church was called out. This was symbolic of the fact that now the work teams were being dismantled and you were being put back together with your church youth group to continue the work that God is doing in your life. The teens were empowered to take all this home with them and apply it to the rest of their lives. Pictures were taken. Hugs were given. Phone numbers were traded. And then we finally were able to shove off and head home for an uneventful and quiet trip home. In fact, I got stuck with the cargo van again because with all of the completely soaked and saturated sweaty clothes from 21 people it was somewhat stinky. And anyone who has worked with me for some time knows that for whatever reason, I cannot smell bad smells. Seriously. Skunks, bodily functions, BO, outhouses, decomposing and rotting things have no effect on my nasal passages. It’s kind of like color blindness but with the nose. So I drove with peace a quiet and Mitch sleeping in the passenger seat once he got used to the smell.

To be home that night was a delight. It went way to quick though and was doing my laundry as fast as I could so I could turn around and do it again with the Junior High on the next day.

Some random thoughts on Mountain TOP:

1. Absolutely beautiful camp setting.

2. One of the most well organized and managed staffs I have ever worked with.

3. The feel of camp and the work of a mission trip were nice! In typical urban settings you are confined to a building and not ever allowed out!

4. The food was outstanding.

5. The structure of splitting the teens up was not my favorite idea but it worked for just about the whole team. They caught a picture that the body of Christ is much bigger than just our youth group and our church back in Loveland, Ohio. Also, they can make the initiative to build up the body of Christ in a new context with new people with a vision and goal to accomplish together all in a week’s time.

6. As far as the rural mission trip goes, this was the best one I have been on. They have a long standing positive relationship with their community as they have been serving there for 35 years now.

7. Many of the teens wanted to go back again. I am not inclined to do the same mission trip 2 years in a row but I am open to putting Mountain TOP on the rotation list. I believe that it is good for them to get a well rounded approach to missions by participating in a wide variety of experiences: local, national, international, urban, suburban and rural.

8. Rural poverty is still a shocker in contrast to urban poverty.

9. Mountain TOP actually would be the perfect type of mission trip if I ever needed to take both the Junior High and Senior High together. And you can bring adult teams too.

10. They also plan on having many of their own tools so that gradually you will not have to bring any tools, just the teens and the vehicles.

Kudos to Mountain TOP for a great experience for us to build on for a new school year!

Post #2: Tennessee Mission Trip – July 19-20

The next day started out with the sun making things warmer and more humid. We all ate a great breakfast of pancakes and bacon. The food has been really good here as far as mission trip food goes. Not a very high bar to achieve excellence there. Is it edible? Is there no mold on it? Does it taste like it was actually made or just heated up in a microwave? One of these mornings we sang happy birthday to Austin Lutz. I yelled out at the end of our song “Sweet 16 and never been kissed!” I thought I was funny but apparently this have given me the status of meanest youth pastor ever with some of the girls from the other churches. Our girls are quite amused that they are hearing negative chatter about me. I ask if they stick up for me and tell them how cool I am. They just stare back at me with a grin. I am beginning to wonder if it might very well have been a bad idea to have them intermingle with other youth groups. Now they are getting outsider perspective on just how weird I am. They are rethinking everything they ever thought about me! Oh well, I can deal with that! Austin took my jab well and the boys have not thought twice about it.

We all headed off to our work sites with the hopes that they begin to adapt better to this new set up and learn to adjust and lead within their group. My group went to a property where about a fourth of their land was overtaken by very tall weeds and small trees. Our job was to go in there and level everything except the big trees. We seemed to debate what each one of us thought was poison ivy to the point that all of us doubted ourselves in the end and just attacked the weeds. In the end, it did turn out that we were in a lot of poison ivy. Hopefully, with me and Henry, neither of us have broken out. I think that we are sweating so profusely that there is no way for anything to stick to us and absorb into the skin. At least that’s what I keep telling myself because I am terrified of breaking out all over. As we went about our job our female adult leader, Blaire, met a copperhead snake. Now this is what every person who we have served this week has said to us after our initial greetings: “Be real careful of them there copperheads. There’s lots of them out there.” This is not a comforting statement to start you day off with. This rates up there with “If you see an elephant, run like a jackal.” But I would rather deal with an elephant than a copperhead. I can see an elephant coming a mile away. A copperhead can just wait in the grass until my arm or leg is right in front of it and then it bites me before I can react. So now our first confrontation begins. Me with many sharp tools with long handles vs. a serpent of death. It was kind of like “Man vs. Wild” but this story ended in death. In case you are wondering, I am still alive. The entire day was soooooo hot.

I am literally sweating right through my clothes and even through my belt. It is just nasty. This might rival the brutality of what was known as our Adventures In Missions trip to New Orleans. But in New Orleans we had a scary guy names Sharky yelling at us, “Sooooo you want air conditioning do ya? WELL JESUS DIDN’T HAVE AIR CONDITIONING!”; and the AIM college-age leaders who would work us to death to the point where our sweaty clothes were also covered in insulation and drywall crud AND THEN they would say “Let’s canvas the neighborhood so we can invite people to our picnic on Thursday! Come on! It will be great!” So Mountain TOP scores really big in the staffing area while AIM continues to live in infamy with some of us. The leaders here are great. Very good kids.

We finished a little early because of the heat and we went and did an ice cream run. After that, our veteran leader, Blaire, took us to this pottery place. It was really cool. It was an older couple that you could just tell were very much still in love. The couple had built their own kiln that gets over 2,000 degrees when fired up. He sat us down as he created a piece of pottery on a pottery wheel. His wife told us that she had a brain aneurism and a stroke that she has fully recovered from. She had to teach herself how to talk and read all over again. They had many different types of pottery all made out of porcelain from beads to make necklaces with and also the big ticket items like vases, plates, coffee mugs, etc.

When we got back to the campsite, I heard many stories from our teens about how their day went well. Some did roofing, some built a whole deck in one day, some suffered while the person they were serving continued to make homemade food and feed their whole team. In fact that would Mitchell who landed that team. He bragged that their host said she really doesn’t care much about the work the kids are there to do, she just likes the company and the chance to feed them. Mitch let me know that tomorrow is lasagna! This is not right. His parents need to make him dig a big hole for a day when he gets home.

In the evening our large groups got together for a goofy game. We played “Airplane, Elephant, Mosquito, Baa Baa Bippity Boo”. I think I have that right. It was a great game that we will be introducing to the youth group when we start small groups back up again in September. We then had a time of worship where they focused on the passage of Jesus confronting the two possessed guys and commanding the demons to leave them and go into the pigs. The kids were challenged to let go of the things that might “possess” them and keep them from having a relationship with Christ. There were many creative worship stations that they were given the chance to go to and interact with each of the areas which raised an issue that can pull us away from God.

The day finished up with free time and bed. The nice thing about this area is that no matter how hot it gets during the day, it cools off nice in the evening! Everyone has been sleeping well.

On Wednesday we got up, went off to breakfast, had our devotions, team meetings, and tool and lunch pick up and off we went to our two day project. Just before we pulled out though, I got to talking with the adult leader who had Zach in his group. I asked the leader how Zach was doing. I got the report that would make any dad proud. He was working hard, helping everyone on the team and was just great to work with. I was very happy. Our project was a little ways away but the truly beautiful thing about the distance is that we traveled into Verizon territory! I was able to connect with Doug, Shelly, the Center for Student Missions, and my mom!

Once we arrived at the site we met our person we were serving for the next two days. Her mane is Nancy. She is an elderly lady living by herself in a trailer that needed to be painted from top to bottom. I had 3 of the teens start with the clear coat on the roof. This was a very tar-like substance that helped to deflect the heat and keep the inside of the trailer cool. The rest of us began to paint the trim and shutters. I took it upon myself to do hedging all around the trailer as whoever mows the grass did not ever come up close to the trailer making for excellent conditions for snakes and critters. Once again the heat was so oppressive that I sweat through everything and I felt like I was slowly checking out upstairs. After so much time, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I told the teens I was going to get some drinks and I would be right back. As I was about to turn on the main road I decided to go the opposite direction from where we came. I wasn’t sure what I would find but I at least could see a traffic light off in the distance – a sign of civilization. I headed toward the light, went up and over a bridge and then I saw it! A sign that brought tears to my eyes, but since I was dehydrated it was dry tears. I saw the sign for . . . WALMART! I ran in and got peaches, cherries, Gatorades, gummy fruit, water, cookies, popsicles and ice. I was so excited to make it back to the worksite that I took a wrong turn on the road and somehow ended up on a highway. I got my handy dandy GPS fired up and found my way back. We scarfed down the popsicles and drank many drinks and ate delicious fruit. After some more painting we called it a day at mid-afternoon and went back. We made a stop or two at any store that had the word “Dutch” in it. Much to my delight there were pastries and cold water in these types of stores!

When we got back I heard good things from all my other teens. All are adapting, fitting in, and working hard. In fact, some are actually thriving in this new context. It is good to see them adjusting to this new format and making the best of it. In the evening we had a worship time that focused on the theme of healing. One of the Mountain TOP leaders told her story of being at college at Tuscaloosa when the giant tornado ripped though. It was an amazingly terrifying story. I spent more time with her afterwards just asking her more questions about going through that experience. The service ended with a time for anyone to come forward and receive prayer and anointing for healing. It was a good night. We had some free time and hit the sack. Although it does cool off in the evenings, it was still very humid on this particular evening and you just could not stop sweating.

Post #1: Tennessee Mission Trip 2011

Well I know that there are most likely some of you who have been waiting to hear from us! We are on our second full day of our trip here at Mountain T.O.P. and all is going well. Very, very hot, but well.

To begin we had a fun adventure coming down. We made a stop off in Nashville for dinner. We headed right to the downtown district and headed for Broadway Street to go to my favorite restaurant in Nashville: Jack’s Bar-B-Que! Yuuuuuummmm. This would be my 3^rd Epiphany mission trip that included this very restaurant!

After a tasty dinner and enjoying the sights and sounds of the strip, we booked it to our hotel. I did not originally set up a hotel stay. I thought that would be one of our “adventures”. But one of my mom’s caught wind of this and took it upon herself to make arrangements for us as soon as she got home from dropping off her teen at the church. I could not praise a mom more on this day. I was tired, it was dark, and we were way down in the South way past the Ohio River. I would not have been in the mood to begin looking for a hotel. I was tired and I just wanted to get to some place with a pool and a bed. So as we were looking for this hotel, it began to get a little scary as we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. I was recalling the beginning of “Psycho” as the girl was also tired and just needed a place off of the main road to crash. I was nervously praying that we did not find Bate’s Motel. But then as we turned a corner a wonderful “Best Western” sign popped up. We have arrived!

We got everyone into the rooms. Strange enough, all the boys decided to pile into two rooms which left me alone in the third room. I did not complain. I am starting to realize that sometimes rejection can be a wonderful thing. So most of us all ran to the pool since it was closing in 30 minutes and we swam and hot tubbed as much as we could. Then everyone headed to their rooms and slept well.

The next day we got up, loaded up, gassed up and made our way to the Cumberland Pines site of the Mountain T.O.P. mission. The first day was interesting as the entire day was pretty much devoted to orientation. The teens got their team assignments and cabin assignments. There are about 180 participants this week. All the churches are split up into large groups of about 28. That is your large group for the week. Then that large group is broken down into 4 small groups. The teens are given the challenge to split up the large group into small groups trying to equally split them up according to the sexes, the churches represented, and experience in service project type mission trips. This means that each large group will have about 5-7 people from our church. But then when you break them down into their small groups you may only have 1 or 2 from Epiphany. Some of the teens were not happy with this but I challenged them to try it out and see this as a new and different experience from our previous trips. There is a lot of comfort in being in your small group of friends only. But the reality is that when they go off to college those friends will not go with them. And according to statistics, many teens fall away from their faith in college. SOOO if they can learn to adapt and take leadership in this context where they need to interact with a variety of teens from different backgrounds, churches and experiences and learn to work together as a team, then they will be better prepared when they go to college. They will know that they have the leadership skills to make and create spiritual opportunities with complete strangers instead of waiting for a spiritual group to come and find them.

Our first day started out with us heading out in many different directions. So it will be hard for me to tell you what we did “as a group”. Many of us Epiphany people eat breakfast together and spend the afternoon and evenings together. But the worksites are different for many of us. Henry is on my team. On the first day we helped to install some stairs for the back deck of a lady’s trailer. We also have two boys and two girls as well as a female adult leader from another church group. We had a good time trying to install these stairs. I have never done anything like this so I was not sure what we were supposed to do. But there were enough instructions that we slowly began to figure it out.

During the time that we were working, the lady came out in the front and seemed really upset. I asked her if anything was wrong. She told us her car was being repossessed. So I told her we would pray for her. We braked for our lunch and we did what we told her we would do. During our lunch she came out to talk to us with the news that her brother is taking it upon himself to just pay off the car in total for her. So she was very happy. It was awesome to see God use our prayers to help out the situation.

Once we were done for the day, we had some of our veterans to this mission trip introduce us to the ice cream shack that is very much frequented by Mountain TOP teens. Ice cream is soooooo good on a hot day working outside.

When we got back to the camp we had dinner, played group games, had a time of worship and free time before bed. So far, I think the food has been outstanding. Also the facilities have been great. The area we are staying at looks and feels like a Summer Camp ground. Of course it would be complete with a swimming pool but there is none. It is very beautiful here. A lot of pines just like the name of the camp says.

Also we are being introduced to many great goofy games. Monday nights worship experience was really cool as the theme focused on strength through the storms. They had the teens dip one of their hands in paint and make a hand print on a big sheet. Then they lifted of some tape that was on it, and lifted up the sheet with lights behind it. The sheet said “Strength” with a tapestry of hand prints in a variety of colors. It was a very cool way to artistically create a collective experience centered around the theme of the day.

This concludes our first two full days here!

Also, for your information, Verizon Wireless is not available where we are at. So you cannot get a hold of us through many of our cell phones. Maggie’s phone seems to be working as she has Sprint. So if you need to call us you can try to reach us at this number: 348-7135. Don’t forget the area code. Also, if you have left a voice mail on my phone I cannot access it right now. I can still pick up wireless internet so you can communicate to me through emails (scottruss86@gmail.com). I am checking that regularly. So please don’t leave voice mails or text messages because I cannot respond that way. If I need to get a hold of you in an emergency then I will use Maggie’s phone when I see her in the morning or afternoons). Thanks for your prayers! Now enjoy your time without your teen! They are all doing great! And you deserve a break.

Epidemic AIDS

This video represents the area of Africa where our church supports a village of 56 orphaned children who have had their lives turned upside down from the HIV/AIDS pandemic. As you can tell by this video, this very area of Namibia has been one of the hardest hit areas of the continent. I have spent time at this village back in the Summer of 2009. I took several teenagers with me. You can see a video diary of the trip on YouTube. Just look for my YouTube profile under "ssurttocs". You can also see a lot of pictures from that trip on my Facebook profile. I consider these African teens as an extension of my youth group. I love them dearly and think about them just about everyday. I am excited to let you all know that I am taking a new team over there this Summer. Our team will consist of 5 teens from our church who attend Loveland High School, a University of Cincinnati medical student, a couple from another church and another pastor from the church I serve at along with her grandson. These teens have all done several mission trips with me locally and nationally. They are ready to experience missions in Africa. I believe strongly that this experience could have a life impacting change on my team. I also believe that they will make a huge spiritual difference in the lives of the kids and teens that they will quickly become friends with at the Children of Zion Village. The reason I am telling you all this is two-fold.

First of all, I am asking you to please begin praying for us as we prepare to go into one of the darkest areas of Africa in connection with the devastation of AIDS. This trip can really have a life changing impact on my teenagers. Pray for their safety but that God will also open their eyes to his mission. That they would experience God in a way that is profound and life-changing.

Secondly, I would like to offer the opportunity for you to help support my team. Each one of my teens needs to raise approximately $3,500.00. This is a daunting task for anyone. But for a High School Sophomore or Junior this can seem like an impossible task. And they know it. They, like Peter, are attempting to step out of the boat in faith because Jesus is calling them to go. They are trusting that through hard work and prayer, that God will supply their needs to be able to go. I am asking you, my friends outside of the church I serve, if you would be willing to financially support our team. It would be a tremendous blessing if they found out that adults who have preceded them in going on mission trips with their church when they were teenagers would now be willing to share the experience by giving a gift that will help the team achieve their financial goal as a team. If you would like to help support please send it to:

Epiphany UMC
Attn: Pastor Scott Russ/COZV Gift
6635 Loveland-Miamiville Road
Loveland, OH 45140

Thank you for your time and consideration of this very important experience in the lives of teens I am currently discipling. There are a lot of you out there that I have had the privilege of serving you as your youth pastor. Please consider this as an opportunity to "pass it forward" with what you learned from going on retreats and mission trips as you went through high school! There are many of you who are friends of mine from the past or we have become internet/Facebook friends over the years. This invitation is open to anyone who feels lead to respond! Thanks again and please begin praying for us as we have begun the task of studying, reading and working out all of the details to make this trip happen.

Also, if you made it this far into this post, I will share with you that the pictures taken on this YouTube video were in the villages that many of our kids come from who are now in the Children of Zion Village. If you want to check out more about the ministry itself you click here.

Scott Russ