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Mission Trips 2011 Slideshow

Mission Trips 2011 Testimonials

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.

Ruff Notes on Chicago Trip: Blogs are coming

Okay, it has been busy and I just have gotten behind on the blogs. I know! But I have been taking notes, of which, I will be sure to eventually flesh out into stories. So for those parents who are texting and emailing me about how all their kids are doing I will at least give you the notes for now. Check back later and I hope to get this updated more soon.

WARNING!!!: ALSO DO NOT CALL YOUR TEEN WHEN I PUT THEM TO BED AND PROCEED TO TELL THEM THEY ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A TORNADO WARNING!!! You do that again and you will have your house TP'ed by me. I promise. There were no warnings. Only a watch. Even in a real tornado we would have been just fine where we were at and we were keeping our eye on the weather. I have personally been through tornadoes and I know what to do. Panicked junior high girls make it all the worse to maintain control! A pile of girls freaked out and in my room was NOT what needed to happen which was caused by texts from parents at home!  I will ban cell phones next time if you stir this pot of prepubescent energy after lights out! And I will tell them it's their parents fault, not theirs!  Cut your kid off for the week and enjoy the peace and quiet! For real!

My rant is over now. Deep breath . . . . proceed . . . 

Ruff draft of the week so far:

July 24 

Up and off to church

Junior High Class: prayers for our trip and help with sorting out tools!

Getting ready to leave for Chicago

Much better bladder control than the Senior Highers!

Arrive at North Park University(Evangelical Covenant Church Affiliation)

Meet our Host leaders: Lauren and Rachel

Split up our team into two groups

Dinner at a Colombian restaurant: nonstop family style dishes

Prayer tour all throughout Chicago: learned about economic contrasts and impact of racism

Bed

July 25

YMCA’s

Bingo with the elderly: anger, tension, the will of a bingo ninja warrior, and the fight scene!

Nile apparently reading to a group of kids!

Prayer walk

Dinner at Thai restaurant

Debrief

First Showers

Arrival of Doug and Hannah

Slip out to McDonalds with kids for last night snack

Lights out

July 26

YMCA’s in the morning: kids having fun on a water slide

Team #1: Ethnic Plunge in Albany Park

Team #2: Uptown Prayer Walk

Meet-A-Need

Serve Dinner at Cornerstone Community Outreach

Dinner at Vietnam Restaurant

The gun shots

Team #1: Serve Dinner at Ravenswood Community Services

Dinner at Mediterranean Restaurant

Showers

Head injury

Debrief

Max reading the scripture to the boys for tomorrow

The joy of seeing ministry reproduction in our kids

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!