IMPACT 2012

Greetings,

Reflecting on my missions trip week, I've noticed some things about myself. I feel like a completely turned around person. I think things through. I pray more. "There is no one like our God.....greater things are still to be done in this city..." God of this City, by Chris Tomlin.

This spring break, I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a missions trip right here at home. We lived at school, and throughout the day, divided into our assigned groups and went out and helped out in our community however we could. Whether it was loading and unloading things, helping build a house, sort clothes, clean, paint, putting awareness fliers in the city, serving the homeless, we did it and it was the best experience I have ever had in my entire life, and that's not something I'm going to say lightly because it was most definitely true.

Although it wasn't just work - it was some fun too! We bonded at meals, we worshiped God, had devotions, played games, or just talked with each other and got to know each other better.

My most memorable moments were during City Sync and Night Strike, our second to last day. My job at night strike was hostess, which meant that I walked around and talked to people. I'm not really good at just walking up to someone I don't know and starting a conversation, so that was a major stretch for me in my own personal comfort zone. I remember distinctively one woman my friends and I talked to. She was the sweetest person I had ever met, and she was still positive despite the fact that she was homeless. She had a smile on her face the whole time she was talking with us. The man we met next was also nice - he spoke mostly Spanish and I am never going to forget the conversation we had about soccer with him. I will say that we did come in contact with a few people who were addicted to drugs and that was the hardest part of the night. We wanted to love and reach out to everybody, and that was our main goal in doing this. I personally found it very hard to talk to these people. The guy my friend and I talked to looked so lifeless and wouldn't really talk or make eye contact with us. He'd mumble answers to our questions - what's your name, how long have you been living here, those kind of questions.

This week was very fulfilling and I feel like I gained a lot from going. I didn't think that I'd be going like, sixty feet up in the air and doing a swing at a ropes course, playing worship music on the MAX (if you were there, that was us with the buckets, binders, ukulele, tambourine, and kazoo), running around the city in the rain putting up awareness posters, building a house, talking with homeless people and doing a whole bunch of other things. It was amazing. :)

So that was my week, summed up in a nutshell. :D